2026-08-24 · #40
React Native Weekly #40 Reanimated 4.6 Released, Expo CLI New Project Cuts Bundle Time 2–3x, Expo Desktop v1 Progress and more
React Native Reanimated 4.6 Released#
Reanimated 4.6 is out with support for React Native 0.87.
CSS animation and transition callbacks now fire on both iOS and Android, and a new contrastColor() worklet — ported from CSS’s contrast-color() — has been added.
We've just released Reanimated 4.6 🎉 ✅ React Native 0.87 ✅ CSS animation & transition callbacks now fire on iOS and Android ✅ new contrastColor() worklet, a port of CSS contrast-color() 🧪 experimental platform-driven CSS opacity transitions on Android, behind a feature flag
Check out the full release notes below 👇 swmansion.com/changelog/reanim…
Expo CLI’s New Project “noxcturnal” Achieves 2–3x Faster Bundle Times#
A new Expo CLI project called “noxcturnal” is in development, and cold bundle times on their largest test app have been shown to be 2–3x faster. This is noted as an early-stage share.
maybe too early to share, but this is project "noxcturnal" for the expo cli and what it does to our largest testing app's cold bundling times 🚀 (2-3x speedup)
Expo Desktop v1 Progress: Templates Published to npm#
As part of the push toward an Expo Desktop v1 release, two templates — blank-typescript and bare-minimum — have been published to npm.
Logic has also been implemented to prefer local copies over downloading, consistent with how Expo CLI works.
Expo Desktop v1 is getting closer! Today I've published blank-typescript and bare-minimum templates to npm, and have implemented the logic for the CLI to find those templates when creating/prebuilding an app. Just like Expo CLI, it'll look for a local copy to avoid a download.
Expo Observe: A New Product for App Performance Measurement#
A new Expo product called “Expo Observe” is set to be introduced at the React Alicante conference. It’s described as a tool to help measure performance in production apps and identify bottlenecks.
Expo Observe is a new @expo product that helps you measure app performance and identify bottlenecks in your app. In this talk, @__ubax__ will show how to use it to find and fix performance problems in production apps, spot common issues, understand performance data, and make
Meta React Team Member Joins Expo#
Rob Hogan, who spent five years on the React team at Meta, has joined Expo and says he’ll be 100% focused on building products for developers.
Today was my last day at Meta - 5 years with the React team has been incredible. Tomorrow is my first day at @expo - so excited to be putting 100% into building for the builders. Onward! 🚀
React Navigation 8: Support for Matching Multiple Path Segments#
React Navigation 8 will support matching multiple path segments against a single link. Details are available in the official documentation.
React Navigation 8 will support matching multiple path segments for links. Check out the docs: reactnavigation.org/docs/8.x/c…
Expo Introduces Automated SDK PR Review via agent-device#
Expo has introduced a system that uses agent-device to automatically validate Expo SDK pull requests with real screenshots from iOS and Android devices. Screenshots are now automatically attached to PR reviews.
Love this 🔥 @expo is leading the way on agentic review. Using agent-device to automatically verify Expo SDK PRs with real iOS + Android screenshots. This is what the future of mobile PR reviews looks like.
agent-device Benchmark Results: ~4x Better Cost Efficiency#
Benchmarking agent-device against Swmansion’s AppControlBench showed it can complete approximately 4x more tasks per dollar using GPT-5.4-mini and Haiku 4.5. Task completion rates ranged from 94.2% to 98.3%, with GPT-5.4-mini running 2% faster than alternatives.
agent-device delivers more finished work for every dollar. Benchmarked on @swmansion’s AppControlBench with GPT-5.4-mini and Haiku 4.5: → ~4× more completed tasks/$ → 94.2–98.3% task completion → 2% faster with GPT-5.4-mini; 26% slower with Haiku 4.5 than alternative twitter.com/swmansion/status/2…
Argent Adds Shake Support for Simulators and Emulators#
Argent, a React Native developer tool, now supports shaking the simulator and emulator to open the debug menu or undo text input. Human-readable documentation has also been newly published.
Argent can now shake simulator and emulator to open hidden debug menus, undo text inputs or launch quick shortcuts. 📳
Argent has human friendly documentation now! (I work hard so you don't need to read it tho) docs.swmansion.com/argent/docs…
HeroUI Native Pro 1.0.0-beta.10 Released#
HeroUI Native Pro 1.0.0-beta.10 adds four new components: a Table with selection and sorting support, a Carousel with snap paging and thumbnails, a MorphButton featuring a spring animation for expand/collapse, and a PhoneNumberField with E.164 format support.
HeroUI Native Pro 1.0.0-beta.10 is out ✨ ✓ Table → selectable / sortable rows ✓ Carousel → snap pager + thumbnails ✓ MorphButton → collapsed-to-expanded spring ✓ PhoneNumberField → as-you-type + E.164 Full release notes 👇
Uniwind Pro 1.6.0 Released#
Uniwind Pro 1.6.0 is out, adding scoped variables, iOS blur filters, and full support for React Native 0.87.
I've just released Uniwind Pro 1.6.0! - scoped variables 🔥 - iOS blur filters 🫨 - full support for React Native 0.87 🚀 - and much more! docs.uniwind.dev/pro/changelog
One More Thing#
The 2–3x faster bundle times from Expo CLI’s new “noxcturnal” project really stuck with me this week. It’s still early days, but shorter cold bundle waits hit you every single day, so this one is worth keeping an eye on!