Community
02:18:57
8/21/2025

Live Dev Session: Expo SDK 54 Beta Is Here, Next.js 15.5, RNEF Renamed Rock

Featuring
Łukasz Chludziński
Engineering Manager
@
Callstack
Kewin Wereszczyński
Software Engineer
@
Callstack

This week on the stream, we got our hands on Expo SDK 54 Beta, and it’s easily one of the most exciting updates from the Expo team in a while.

Here’s a breakdown of what’s new, what we tested live, and why this release matters.

Expo 54 Beta: What’s new?

Released August 19, 2025, Expo SDK 54 brings some major upgrades:

  • React Native 0.81 and React 19.1
  • Precompiled XCFrameworks for iOS (dramatically faster iOS build times)
  • Edge-to-edge layouts on Android by default
  • Predictive Back Gesture support (Android 14+)
  • Liquid Glass icons & UI support for iOS 26
  • Updated Expo UI Kit and Icon Composer

Check out the full changelog here

Liquid Glass: It’s real, and it’s easier to use than ever

One of the most visually striking additions in SDK 54 is the new Liquid Glass icon and UI support: shiny, fluid, and native to iOS 26. We demoed it live and it works great (if you set things up correctly):

  • Xcode 15 beta
  • iOS 26 simulator
  • Expo SDK 54
  • Use a development build (Expo Go won’t support this yet)

Faster iOS builds with precompiled XCFrameworks

For iOS devs, this might be the biggest time-saver: precompiled frameworks cut clean build times by up to 10x (based on internal tests using RNTester + M4 Max).

No config needed; just install the beta and build as usual.

Other news we covered

Next.js 15.5

  • TypeScript support for App Routes
  • Middleware can now run in Node.js, not just Edge
  • TurboPack improvements (still beta)

Full release blog post available here.

RNEF is now Rock

The React Native Enterprise Framework got a new name: Rock.

Still built by Callstack, still focused on teams building at scale.

  • npm create rock gets you started quickly
  • Used by teams like Expensify, Rainbow and Uniswap

Read more on our blog.

Bonus: SVGs finally make sense

If you’ve ever struggled with <path> and d attributes in SVGs, this is for you:

Final thoughts

Expo 54 Beta is a solid step forward, especially for dev experience.

Faster builds, shinier UIs, smoother Android gestures; it’s the kind of polish that makes a difference.

We’ll be testing it more in upcoming streams, so if you haven’t tried it yet, now’s a great time to spin up a development build and play around.

And if you missed the livestream, don’t worry. The recap’s live on socials, and we’ll see you next Thursday at 5PM CEST.

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