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How do i create a standalone app for iOS (*.ipa) so that i can distribute it to friends / testers?

Is there a way to do this without paying 99$/annum to Apple?

I tried the solution where you have to create a directory called "Payload", archive it and then rename it to *.ipa. But, this did not work.

Kasturi
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2 Answers2

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Expo has created a great solution to this problem. It's also great for development. They have a huge community on their slack channel. Download the expo app, and you can test on your own device, and send your app to your friends.

https://expo.io/

whs.bsmith
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  • i tried that. this is the error i got [exp] Making sure project is set up correctly... |[exp] Invalid project directory. See above logs for information. Error: Invalid project directory. See above logs for information. at Command._callee2$ (/Users/adam/code/universe/dev/exp/src/exp.js:199:15) at tryCatch (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/exp/node_modules/regenerator-runtime/runtime.js:65:40) at Generator.invoke [as _invoke] (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/exp/node_modules/regenerator- – Kasturi Jun 17 '17 at 23:43
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You could ask your friends to install the Expo App to test it

If you ask your friends to install the Expo app and you keep your Expo XDE open with your host selected as tunnel it should work. But if you switch of you xde the app will not work anymore. This is the only way.

The android apk can still be circulated to your friends without the license but for ios you will need to get the developers certificate and upload your app/get approval and only then can you ask people to test it out.

Varun Nath
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