Create a development build

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Learn how to create development builds for a project.

When you create a new Expo app with npx create-expo-app, you start off with a project where you update the JavaScript code on your local machine and view the changes in the Expo Go app. A development build is essentially your own version of Expo Go where you are free to use any native libraries and change any native config. In this guide, you will learn how to convert your project that runs on Expo Go into a development build, which will make the native side of your app fully customizable.

How to create a development build

Prerequisites

The instructions assume you already have an existing Expo project that runs on Expo Go.

The requirements for building the native app depend on which platform you are using, which platform you are building for, and whether you want to build on EAS or on your local machine.

Build on EAS

This is the easiest way to build your native app, as it requires no native build tools on your side. The builds happen on the EAS servers, which makes it possible to trigger iOS builds from non-macOS platforms.

	Android	iOS Simulator	iPhone device
macOS			(*)
Windows			(*)
Linux			(*)

(*) All builds that run on an iPhone device require a paid Apple Developer account for build signing.

Build locally using the EAS CLI

Any EAS CLI command can be built on your local machine with the --local flag. This requires your local development environment to be set up with native build tools. Read more about local app development.

	Android	iPhone device
macOS		(*)
Windows	(**)
Linux

(*) All builds that run on an iPhone device require a paid Apple Developer account for build signing.

(**) No first-class support, but possible with WSL.

Build locally without EAS

To build locally without EAS requires your local development environment to be set up with native build tools. This is the only way to test your iOS build on an iPhone device without a paid Apple Developer Account (only possible on macOS). Read more about local app compilation.

	Android	iOS Simulator	iPhone device
macOS
Windows
Linux

Get started

For detailed, step-by-step instructions, see our EAS Tutorial. Available also as a tutorial series on YouTube.

Install expo-dev-client

Terminal

- npx expo install expo-dev-client

Are you using this library in a existing (bare) React Native apps?

Apps that don't use Continuous Native Generation or are created with npx react-native, require further configuration after installing this library. See steps 1 and 2 from Install expo-dev-client in an existing React Native app.

Build the native app (Android)

Prerequisites

3 requirements

Expo account

EAS CLI

The EAS CLI installed and logged in.

Terminal

- npm install -g eas-cli && eas login

An Android Emulator (optional)

An Android Emulator is optional if you want to test your app on an emulator.

Terminal

- eas build --platform android --profile development

Build the native app (iOS Simulator)

Prerequisites

3 requirements

Expo account

EAS CLI

The EAS CLI installed and logged in.

Terminal

- npm install -g eas-cli && eas login

macOS with iOS Simulator installed

iOS Simulators are available only on macOS. Make sure you have the iOS Simulator installed.

Edit development profile in eas.json and set the simulator option to true (you have to create a separate profile for simulator builds if you also want to create iOS device builds for this project).

eas.json

{
  "build": {
    "development": {
      "ios": {
        "simulator": true
      }
    }
  }
}

Terminal

- eas build --platform ios --profile development

iOS Simulator builds can only be installed on simulators and not on real devices.

Read more about iOS Simulator builds on EAS.

Prerequisites

2 requirements

macOS

iOS Simulators are available only on macOS.

Development environment set up

Set up your local development environment.

Terminal

- npx expo run:ios

Build the native app (iOS device)

Prerequisites

3 requirements

Expo account

EAS CLI

The EAS CLI installed and logged in.

Terminal

- npm install -g eas-cli && eas login

Apple Developer account

A paid Apple Developer account for creating signing credentials so the app could be installed on an iOS device.

Terminal

- eas build --platform ios --profile development

iOS device builds can only be installed on iPhone devices and not on iOS Simulators.

Read more about iOS device builds on EAS.

Prerequisites

2 requirements

macOS

macOS is required to compile the native app for iOS devices.

Development environment set up

Set up your local development environment.

Terminal

- npx expo run:ios --device

Install the app

You'll need to install the native app on your device, emulator, or simulator.

When building on EAS

If you create your development build on EAS, the CLI will prompt you to install the app after the build is finished. You can also install previous builds from the expo.dev dashboard or using Expo Orbit.

When building locally using EAS CLI

When building locally the output of the build will be an archive. You may drag and drop this on your Android Emulator/iOS Simulator to install it, or use Expo Orbit to install a build from your local machine.

When building locally without EAS CLI

Local builds will get installed automatically once the build finishes.

Start the bundler

The development client built in step 2 is the native side of your app (basically your own version of Expo Go). To continue developing, you'll also want to start the JavaScript bundler.

Depending on how you built the app, this may already be running, but if you close the process for any reason, there is no need to rebuild your development client. Simply restart the JavaScript bundler with:

Terminal

- npx expo start

This is the same command you would have used with Expo Go. It detects whether your project has expo-dev-client installed, in which case it will default to targeting your development build instead of Expo Go.

Video walkthroughs

"EAS Tutorial Series"

A course on YouTube: learn how to speed up your development with Expo Application Services.

"Async Office Hours: How to make a development build with EAS Build"

Learn how to make a development build with EAS Build in this video tutorial hosted by Developer Success Engineer: Keith Kurak.