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I have recently published my app both in IOS and Android. I am using expo. Everything went well. Whenever I made a change in the code I built the app for IOS and Android using expo build:ios/android in order to upload the ipa file to Apple App Store and aab to Google Play Store.

I suddenly realize that, when I publish my currently working code to expo using expo publish (so that I can test code in expo client with others) then I found out that the standalone apps were also updated. I have read the expo publishing update documentation page which makes me somewhat confused. So here I ask the following questions,

  1. If I publish my code without changing the app.json file should the standalone apps (both ios/android) be updated? Seems yes to me.
  2. If so, it can be very good (which will save my time by avoiding ios/android review process) but at the same time how can I test code in expo client with others without hampering my production apps?
  3. The expo publishing update documentation page says, changes to app.json will require re-building the binaries to take effect in the iOS or Android standalone app. Does that also mean that, if I just build using expo build:ios/android, I don't have to upload those binaries (ipa, aab) to Apple or Google once more? I don't think so. But the documentation is not explicit about it, so I ask this question.
Progman
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hafij
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1 Answers1

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While using expo build, you can use --no-publish flag to prevent publishing your app to the production.

If you would like to build app and not to change code on production, you can alternatively use release channels which will have your app in different environments.

Edited: If you do make minor changes, expo can get the updates by over-the-air (OTA) updates. You can get more information about them by using the link: docs.expo.io/guides/configuring-ota-updates

Nothingbutageek
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  • Thanks! Do you have the answer for my third question? – hafij Jul 24 '21 at 12:37
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    If you do make minor changes, expo can get the updates by over-the-air (OTA) updates. You can get more information about them by using the link: https://docs.expo.io/guides/configuring-ota-updates/ – Nothingbutageek Jul 24 '21 at 14:05
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    The documentation is surprisingly weak on this. It's great that we can deploy OTA but it sure would be nice to know that build also means publish. There should be warnings all over the place for this effect. – Stephane Dec 10 '21 at 15:48