What does it actually take to build production React Native apps in 2026, and where does Expo fit in?

In this episode of Señors at Scale, Dan sits down with Kadi Kraman, software developer at Expo, who has spent over six years in the React Native ecosystem, wearing every hat from IC to director. Kadi shares the story of how she went from writing C++ in a maths degree to becoming one of the early React Native engineers at Formidable, and eventually joining Expo to work on the platform itself.

We dig into what makes React Native genuinely competitive with native iOS and Android development today, why Expo Go is now just for prototyping, how EAS workflows and fingerprint-based repacks dramatically speed up CI, the real story on OTA updates (and where the legal gray area sits), and what's still missing from the ecosystem. Kadi also gives a rare look at the new Expo agent for vibe-coding mobile apps, the case for React Native brownfield, and her honest take on Lynx as competition.

Key Topics:

- Why React Native + Expo is faster than native Xcode/Android Studio workflows

- The mental shift from web to native (display points, gestures, pixel density)

- Expo Go vs development builds, and why the recommendation has changed

- EAS workflows, repack jobs, and project fingerprints

- React Native performance, list rendering, and the React Compiler

- OTA updates: when to use them, when not to, and what the stores actually allow

- Debugging strategies (expo-doctor, native logs, AI-assisted log analysis)

- Brownfield React Native and embedding RN screens into existing native apps

- Lynx, competition, and the future of cross-platform mobile

- Career advice on imposter syndrome, applying anyway, and finding talk topics

GUEST: Kadi Kraman, Software Developer at Expo

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kadikraman/

🐦 Twitter/X: https://x.com/kadikraman

🐙 GitHub: https://github.com/kadikraman

🌐 Website: https://kadikraman.com/

FOLLOW & SUBSCRIBE

🎙️ Podcast: https://neciudan.dev/senors-at-scale

📩 Newsletter: https://neciudan.dev/subscribe

💼 LinkedIn (Show): https://www.linkedin.com/company/senors-scale/

💼 LinkedIn (Dan): https://www.linkedin.com/in/neciudan

📸 Instagram (Show): https://www.instagram.com/senorsatscale/

📸 Instagram (Dan): https://www.instagram.com/neciudev

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

- Expo: https://expo.dev/

- Kadi's "From Web to Native with React" blog post: https://expo.dev/blog

- EAS Workflows: https://docs.expo.dev/eas-workflows/get-started/

- Expo Doctor: https://docs.expo.dev/more/expo-cli/#expo-doctor

- Expo Fetch (streaming support): https://docs.expo.dev/versions/latest/sdk/expo/

#ReactNative #Expo #MobileDevelopment #JavaScript #iOS #Android #EAS #ExpoRouter #SoftwareEngineering #SeñorsAtScale

💬 What's your biggest pain point building React Native apps today, and have EAS workflows changed your CI setup?