Expo EAS and 100 Snakes with Jon Samp | Rocket Ship 038

In this episode, Jon Samp, head of product at Expo, shares his background in herpetology research and how he transitioned into programming. He discusses his experience developing the Codecademy app with Expo and the challenges he faced. John also talks about his other apps, including the Single Origin coffee timer and WordCheck for Scrabble. He emphasizes the ease of creating hobby apps with React Native and the importance of using native elements for good design. The conversation concludes with a discussion on EAS and how teams can work better together. Jon highlights the improvements being made to the onboarding experience and the Expo dashboard, and the focus on workflow improvements and release management. He also shares future plans for EAS, including enhancing team coordination and communication and improving device management and notifications.

Learn React Native - https://galaxies.dev

Jon Samp
Jon Twitter:   / jonsamp  
Jon Website: https://jonsamp.dev

Links
Expo EAS: https://expo.dev/eas

Takeaways
- React Native and Expo make it easy to develop hobby apps without a large team or production process.
- Using native elements and animations in React Native apps can enhance the user experience and make the app feel more polished.
- EAS (Expo Application Services) simplifies the development and deployment process for React Native apps.
- EAS allows for side-loading apps on iOS and Android, making it easy to distribute apps for development purposes.
- The easiest way to distribute iOS apps is to use EAS device calling create, which generates a QR code that can be scanned to install a provisioning profile.
- EAS supports updates and over-the-air updates, allowing for easy distribution of app updates to users.
- EAS provides a faster and more convenient way to build and distribute private applications compared to using Xcode and Android Studio.
- Future plans for EAS include improving the onboarding experience, enhancing team coordination and communication, and adding features for release management and workflow improvements.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background
02:04 Working at Expo and Codecademy App
05:20 Getting into React Native
06:12 Developing the Codecademy App
09:03 Podcast and Challenges of App Development
12:34 Transition to Expo
13:44 Creating the Single Origin Coffee Timer App
20:20 Creating Apps with Good Design
23:12 Gaps between Native and React Native
23:56 EAS and Side Loading
24:22 Side loading apps on iOS and Android
25:10 Easiest way to distribute iOS apps
26:02 Sending IPA files to others
26:33 Using updates and over-the-air updates
26:43 Using EAS for private applications
27:17 Setting up EAS build and App Store submission
27:53 EAS build configuration and build times
28:19 EAS build pricing and plans
29:26 Local builds with EAS
30:26 Improving the onboarding experience
31:12 Using updates for previewing PRs
32:30 The coolest thing about EAS: Previewing PRs
33:21 Improving the Expo dashboard and device management
34:41 Workflow improvements and release management
36:30 Automating release workflows with EAS
37:07 Future plans for EAS
40:14 Balancing different requirements for EAS
41:14 Improving team coordination and communication
42:20 Enhancing device management and notifications
44:04 App growth hacking tip: Make an app paid, then make it free