2026-01-21 · #17
React Native Weekly #17 React Navigation 8 Alpha, Hermes v1 Default, Expo SDK 55 Beta and more
React Navigation 8 Alpha Released#
The alpha version of React Navigation 8, the next major release, is now available. Starting with this version, Native BottomTabs become the default, and improvements have been made to deep linking and accessing/modifying Screen state.
New versions of React Navigation 8 alpha are out! 🎉 - Automatic deep links out of the box - Support for Material Symbols on Android in Native Tabs - Support SFSymbols on iOS + Material Symbols on Android for JS Tabs - Reworked preloading screens to remove restrictions
React Navigation 8.0 Alpha | React NavigationWe're excited to announce the first alpha release of React Navigation 8.0.reactnavigation.org
Expo Skills for AI Agents Released#
Official Expo Skills compatible with Claude Code and similar AI agents have been released. Using these, you can easily handle app development, builds, store uploads, and even Expo upgrades — similar to how Next.js handles upgrades.
Try the new @Expo Claude Code skills today! 🚀 → /plugin marketplace add expo/skills /plugin install expo-app-design /plugin install expo-deployment /plugin install upgrading-expo — Use with any agent: ~ / bunx add-skill expo/skills twitter.com/Baconbrix/status/2…
React Native Skills from Callstack#
Callstack has also released their own Skills, packed with React Native best practices. These are focused primarily on performance-related skills for React Native.
Just released 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚌𝚝-𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚎-𝚋𝚎𝚜𝚝-𝚙𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚎𝚜, a set of skills for coding agents. The knowledge from @callstackio Ultimate Guide to React Native Optimization collected in a single repository. www.callstack.com/blog/announc…
Announcing: React Native Best Practices for AI AgentsWe're turning React Native optimization knowledge into agent-ready skills (JS, native, bundling) mapped to FPS and TTI, built from real-world production workwww.callstack.com
Hermes v1 Becomes Default in React Native 0.84#
Hermes V1 will be enabled by default in the upcoming React Native 0.84. This brings improvements to startup time, runtime performance, and bundle compilation speed.
Hermes V1 will ship as the default in React Native 0.84 for both iOS and Android. This means: • 2-8% faster startup time • 40%+ faster runtime • faster Metro compilation (less Babel transforms) Just landed in 0.84.0-rc.1
Color Utilities Added in Expo Router v7#
It looks like user appearance customizations such as Android’s Material You will also be supported in Expo Router’s navigation.
🚀 Expo Router v7 is getting a Color utility You’ll soon be able to access native platform colors directly, no more guessing hex values or recreating system styles. On top of that, the next version of expo-symbols adds Material Icons support 🤯 👉 No more hunting down custom
Expo SDK 55 Beta Dropping January 27th?#
The Expo SDK 55 beta appears to be just around the corner. Since they mentioned “Monday,” it looks like it will drop next Monday US time — which would be around the 27th in Japan. It also sounds like upgrading via expo/skills will be much smoother starting with this release.
With SDK 55 coming soon (beta on Monday) it’s a good time to install our skills. We have an “upgrade” skill that will expedite your adoption of the new SDK. All skills are here: github.com/expo/skills twitter.com/betomoedano/status…
expo-icloud-storage Released#
A new library has been released that allows React Native apps to access iCloud. This makes it easy to read and write data you want to persist in iCloud directly from React Native.
Introducing expo-icloud-storage ☁️ It's React Native wrapper for iCloud's `NSUbiquitousKeyValueStore` exposing a local storage like API for iCloud 📦 I've used this in few of my apps shipped to App Store and decided to open source. Here is a demo ⬇️
react-native-header-motion Released for Easy Header Animations#
react-native-header-motion has been released, making it easy to add header animations on list scroll using Reanimated.
Animate your headers, exactly the way you imagine them! ✨ React Native Header Motion is my new library for building custom header animations driven by scroll – from single lists to multi-tab collapsible layouts where header animations stay in sync with your scroll views. 👇
React Native Meetup #24 @AWS Loft on February 12th#
React Native Japan is hosting React Native Meetup #24 on February 12th. This time, AWS will also be providing an online stream.
React Native Meetup #24 @AWS Loft (2026/02/12 19:00〜)# React Native Meetup #24 @AWS Loft ## イベントの概要 / Overview React Native に関する知見を共有するLT会の第24回を開催します！ 今回は Amazon 様と合同で開催する Meetup になっています。 発表は日本語で行われます。 * * * ## LT登壇者を募集します！ / Calling for LP Speakers! * 内容はReact Nativeに関することならなんでもOKです * LT時間は約10分の予定 * ご都合のよい時刻（LTの順番）も調整可能です * * * * An...connpass
One More Thing#
Hermes V1 is shaping up to land sooner than expected!
The static_h branch has also become the default in the Hermes repository, so I get the feeling that Static Hermes — which promises even better performance — could be making its appearance this year too!