Hey notJust Developers,

Last week's most exciting news is that Expo SDK 53 is finally been released after the beta version. It includes React Native 0.79 and React 19. Let’s take a look at today’s highlights!

1. SDK 53 unboxing 🔥
2. Expo Router v5 💯
3. React Native AI, first public release🚀

SDK 53 unboxing 🚀

​Expo SDK 53 has officially been released, bringing a lot of new features and improvements to streamline your development experience. If you haven't had a chance to dive into the lengthy changelog, no worries - Simon Grimm has covered it with a comprehensive unboxing video.

🔍 Key Highlights:

1. Expo CLI & EAS Improvements.
2. Expo UI: Native Components (Alpha).
3. Expo Router Enhancements.
4. Deprecations to Note.

Expo CLI & EAS Improvements.

1. Frozen lockfiles by default: Builds use strict installs (npm ci/yarn install --frozen-lockfile) so everyone gets the same dependencies.
2. Remote build cache & comparisons: New eas upload/build:download commands share artifacts by URL, and the EAS dashboard shows build and fingerprint diffs for easy troubleshooting.

Expo UI: Native Components (Alpha)

1. SwiftUI & Jetpack Compose primitives: Try out early versions of Button, DateTimePicker, BottomSheet, and more - all rendered natively under the hood.
2. Zero eject: Use these in your managed Expo app - no need to leave the managed workflow.

Expo Router Enhancements

1. Route Guards: Run code before showing a page - for example, check if a user is logged in.
2. Prefetch & Redirect: Automatically load data or bundles for linked pages, and define redirects right in your file-based routes.

Deprecations to Note

1. Background tasks: expo-background-fetch is now deprecated in favour of the new expo-background-task module, which uses up-to-date OS APIs for better power use.
2. Package exports in Metro: The package.json exports field is enabled by default (opt out with unstable_enablePackageExports: false if needed).

Expo Router v5🔥

Recently, Evan Bacon wrote a fantastic blog post describing all the great new things in Expo Router v5. It’s full of handy tips and clear examples to help you build beautiful full-stack native apps. Here are a few of the top highlights:

1. Improved Errors and Logging.
2. API Routes in Production.
3. React Server Functions (Beta).

Improved Errors and Logging

Expo Router v5 gives you clearer error messages with full stack traces and links to the exact file and line where things went wrong, so you can spot and fix bugs faster. The enhanced logging also shows detailed runtime info in both development and production, helping you understand app behaviour at every step.

API Routes in Production

With v5, you can create API routes by adding files ending in +api.ts to your app/ directory, and have those endpoints run in production via EAS Hosting.

This lets you securely handle server-side logic, like form submissions or database queries, without setting up a separate back end.

React Server Functions

The new React Server Functions beta lets you write server-only functions next to your pages and call them directly from client code—no manual fetch setup required. These functions run on the server by default, keeping sensitive data safe and reducing the amount of JavaScript sent to users.

Read the full details in the blog post by Evan Bacon: https://expo.dev/blog/expo-router-v5​

React Native AI, first public release 💯

A few days ago, Callstack Incubator published react-native-ai v0.1.0, the project’s first public release. This library brings on-device LLM (large language model) execution into React Native apps, while staying fully compatible with the Vercel AI SDK’s familiar API. Let's explore this.

What It Does

1. Run LLMs on Device: Instead of calling out to cloud endpoints, models compile down into mlc-llm binaries that run right on your user’s phone or tablet.
2. Vercel AI SDK Compatibility: You can pass the LanguageModelV1 instance returned by getModel() straight into streamText() or generateText() from the Vercel AI SDK, with no extra glue code.

Core API in a Nutshell

1. getModels() Instead of calling out to cloud endpoints, models compile down into mlc-llm binaries that run right on your user’s phone or tablet.
2. downloadModel(modelId, callbacks): Fetches the model files with progress callbacks for onStart, onProgress, onComplete, and onError.
3. prepareModel(modelId): Loads the model into memory—use this after downloadModel to speed up inference.
4. getModel(modelId): Returns a LanguageModelV1 instance you can feed into Vercel AI SDK functions.

That’s it 🙌

Theo just wrapped up a poll asking “Which IDE do you use most?” and 45k of us chimed in! What’s your go-to IDE when you code, and why do you love it?

🔴 Join me live

This Friday, we will announce the winners of notJust Hack! So set a reminder and don't miss the Demo Day 👇

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🔁 In case you missed it

🔴 Build a Full-Stack Threads Clone with React Native & Supabase We’ll cover everything from building a modern social UI with Expo and NativeWind, to creating a powerful backend with Supabase and PostgreSQL. This is a step-by-step tutorial where you can follow along and learn all the essentials of full-stack app development. Watch now

🔴 Deploy NodeJS API to AWS (Full Step-by-Step Guide) You’ll learn how to deploy a NodeJS REST API to AWS ECS Fargate using Docker, AWS CLI, ECR, Load Balancer, and Route 53. This guide is perfect for developers new to AWS, helping you build real-world deployment skills and set up a fully scalable, production-ready backend in the cloud. Watch Now

🔥 Press worthy

1️⃣ Try Bright Data today and simplify your data collection process.

2️⃣ Radon IDE 1.6 now works with React Native 0.79, Expo SDK 53, and Expo Router v5.

3️⃣ Cursor is free for students - just sign up with a “.edu” email to unlock AI-powered coding tools at no cost.

4️⃣ Unistyles 3.0.0 adds support for React Native 0.79 and Expo SDK 53, keeping your styles consistent after upgrading.

5️⃣ You can now accept payments with @stripe outside of your app, with no iOS app store commissions.

6️⃣Node.js 24 is live with V8 v13.6, npm 11, an improved permission model, and more performance boosts.
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The newsletter was written by Anis and edited by Vadim Savin.

Vadim Savin Helping you become a better developer together with the notJust.dev team