2025-09-15 · #2
React Native Weekly #2 Expo SDK 54, Expo Router v6, HeroUI Native and more
Expo SDK 54#
Expo SDK 54 is here!
Expo SDK 54 - Expo ChangelogCheck out new updates and improvements to Expo and EAS from the Expo team.Expo
Here are the highlights of this update:
- React Native 0.81 introduced faster builds via precompiled XCFrameworks for iOS
- Support for iOS 26 and Liquid Glass
- Android Target API bumped to 36
Expo SDK 54 will also be the last version to support the legacy architecture.
Documentation Published for Building SwiftUI Apps with Expo UI#
Documentation for integrating SwiftUI into React Native using Expo UI has been published.
It covers how to use SwiftUI components with Expo UI, including a walkthrough of building a settings screen as a practical example.
Expo Router v6#
Alongside the release of Expo SDK 54, Expo Router v6 has also arrived. This release brings destination previews for iOS transitions, menus, native tab components with Liquid Glass tab support, and improvements to modals on the web.
🚀 Introducing Expo Router v6 - @Baconbrix and his team focused on delivering the same delightful experiences users expect from native iOS apps, now in your React code. ◆ Native-feeling navigation with <Link.Preview> & <Link.Menu> ◆ Server features for advanced
Expo Router v6: A new era of native feel for React developersExpo Router v6 brings native iOS link previews, menus, liquid glass tabs, improved modals, and server middleware for next-level apps.Expo Blog
HeroUI Native alpha 12#
HeroUI Native v1.0.0-alpha12, a new UI library for React Native, has been released. This update adds Expo SDK 54 support, migrates to Reanimated v4, and introduces a new Skeleton component.
HeroUI Native alpha 12 is here 🚀 What’s new: ⚡️ Support for Expo SDK 54 🌀 Migrated to Reanimated v4 🦴 New components: Skeleton & SkeletonGroup 🎨 New showcase: Hero Paywall
React Native Enriched#
Software Mansion has released a new rich text editor library for React Native.
Most existing open-source rich text editors for React Native have been WebView-based, but React Native Enriched uses a native Input instead, which is promising from a performance standpoint.
Expo Color Space Plugin#
Expo Color Space Plugin has been released, enabling P3 color support in React Native. It works as an Expo Config Plugin and is currently available for iOS only.
I’ve just published a tiny Expo plugin that lets you enable P3 color space on iOS, so your React Native app can look a bit more vibrant. expo-color-space-plugin: github.com/enzomanuelmangano/e… 🧵
React Native Directory Now Shows Dependency Count and Unpacked Package Size#
React Native Directory, the go-to site for discovering React Native libraries, now displays the number of dependencies and the unpacked package size for each library.
📦️ The React Native Directory just got an another update: each library entry now includes direct dependencies count and unpacked package size. Make smarter, and more educated decisions, when choosing packages for you next project! 🧑💻 🌐 reactnative.directory/
react-native-svg-decoder#
A new library called react-native-svg-decoder has been released, bringing iOS’s CoreSVG to React Native.
The library is still in development and currently supports iOS only.
Note that CoreSVG.framework is a private API, so use it with caution.
Few days ago I released react-native-svg-decoder which brings CoreSVG support to React Native on iOS. 🚧 This package is still in the experimentation phase, as I'm trying to add Android support. You can take a look if you are interested: github.com/okwasniewski/react-…
One More Thing#
Expo SDK 54 is out! Starting from the next version, New Architecture will be required — so if you haven’t migrated yet, you’ll probably want to get that sorted out sometime this year. (My project is a relatively new app so I already had it enabled, but I can imagine the migration being quite a pain for long-running projects…)
HeroUI Native was new to me, but it looks like it also uses NativeWind under the hood. NativeWind really seems to be picking up momentum as the go-to styling solution lately.