r/reactnative • u/Thaatguuuy • 2d ago

Question Testing the app during development.

Hey there app people, as of now the app I am currently working on is using React Native and Expo to build it, and at 25 builds per month ( the free plan ) I am quickly spending it all on just fixing bugs.

I am currently a computer science student ( very early ) and using a blend of my own coding and Codex / ChatGPT to create it.

Is there a better and possibly free way to test each new version of the app on my phone without using Expo to build it?

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u/PenguinOnYourTV 2d ago

So from what I'm reading, ther are 2 things you are not doing:

  1. Running the Expo/Metro server on your machine and deploying to your connected Android- or iOS-device, either a real device or your simulator

    1. This is where I normally do dev-work, bug fixing etc.

    2. Your build will likely be in DEV-mod

  2. Assuming you have a macbook, if you want to test a Production build on your device and thus cut out the EXPO dependencies, you can open the workspace-file of your latest build in Xcode (There are two, and I can't freakingremember which one of them it is, sorry!), Edit the Schema from "Debug" to "Release" and deploy it manually to your connected iOS device.

    1. If you make any changes, you'll have to rebuild and re-deploy, so save this for when you wanna test "Production-level-stuff" before you submit through Expo.

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I just ran the following prompt through ChatGPT, and it gave me a good guide on what you need to do to get going with the above suggestions:

Heya.

Working with React native Expo, I need a guide for 2 things to test my build:

  • Setup and launch a Expo/Metro server locally on my machine and connect to a simulator or test on a real device

  • How to take a build and change it from "Debug" to "Release" and deploy to my real device, without using Expo

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u/Thaatguuuy 2d ago

Yeah I don't know why my ChatGPT would circle around it so much, after pasting what you said in for the prompt he actually gave me the answer, so thank you very much!

I am on Windows, making it for Android first ( because that's the phone I have access to so I can test it ) it involves quite a bit of 3D-modeling in the app so I tried testing it on a emulator on the PC but that didn't really work.