This stretch has been one of the busiest periods the React Native ecosystem has seen in years. The important changes are not limited to framework releases. They also affect build pipelines, performance tooling, Expo workflows, and the platform requirements that determine whether your app can ship at all.

If you are building or maintaining a production app, these are the updates worth tracking first.

Continuous Integration for React Native Apps with Fastlane and GitHub Actions

Building a React Native app is fun, but manually testing, building, and deploying every change can slow you down. Continuous integration (CI) automates these tasks, letting you focus on creating awesome features. In this beginner-friendly guide, we’ll set up a CI pipeline for your React Native app using Fastlane, GitHub Actions, and Expo Application Services (EAS) with Expo SDK 51 and React Native 0.75.4. We’ll automate builds for iOS (Xcode 16+, iOS 18 SDK) and Android (SDK 35), run tests, and deploy OTA updates and store releases. No CI experience is needed, and we’ll explain key terms along the way. For prebuilt CI setups, check out templates at Instamobile or Dopebase.