April 7, 2026·10 min read
Onboarding: small wins before you ask for everything
Time-to-value, real skips, funnel analytics, and the hard questions to ask about every onboarding screen you add.
Blog
Posts go deeper than the doc pages—messy folder growth, that helper file nobody wants to touch, the kind of stuff you’d explain over coffee. Each one stands alone, but they’re nicer next to the structure and utilities guides.
32 posts · newest first
Latest
April 2026
April 6, 2026·10 min read
Hermes vs JavaScriptCore in real apps
What Hermes buys you, debugging parity, when JSC is a policy or compatibility escape—and how to compare engines without bike-shedding.
April 5, 2026·10 min read
Upgrading Expo SDK without the weekend meltdown
Before, during, after—and a short triage path when something still breaks: bisect, clean builds, lockfiles, and issue search.
April 4, 2026·10 min read
AppState and background: what actually keeps running
AppState transitions, honest background limits, and patterns for resume, uploads, and auth that survive a locked screen.
April 3, 2026·10 min read
WebViews and postMessage: treat the page as untrusted
Validate bridges like an API, minimize injection, block bad navigation, and know when system-browser auth beats WebView cookies.
April 2, 2026·10 min read
Maps: static previews vs live MapView
Quotas, scroll conflicts, offline fallbacks, and a one-sentence rule for static previews vs interactive maps.
April 1, 2026·10 min read
In-app purchases: the mental model mobile devs need
Sandboxes, restore, edge cases, and syncing engineering with product and legal so paywalls match reality and support has answers.
March 2026
March 31, 2026·10 min read
Push notification permission: earn the tap
Earn the permission with context, tune Android channels, handle payloads and tokens—and copy that builds trust instead of spam.
March 30, 2026·10 min read
Styling approaches: pick one your team will ship
Tokens, semantic dark mode, avoiding three styling systems—and how to evaluate a new tool before it owns your navigation.
March 29, 2026·11 min read
List performance myths in React Native
When ScrollView is correct, when FlatList is, code-review red flags, and measuring before you cargo-cult either API.
March 28, 2026·10 min read
When you actually need custom native code
Config plugins first, who owns upgrades, team skills—and the meeting questions before you commit to Swift or Kotlin.
March 27, 2026·10 min read
Monorepos with Expo: Metro, workspaces, and shared packages
One React version, Metro watchFolders, package boundaries, and first-day workspace setup that prevents hooks meltdowns.
March 26, 2026·10 min read
Analytics events: useful data, not creepy data
Schema discipline, PII guardrails, consent that blocks network calls, and a one-page spec so event names stay queryable.
March 25, 2026·10 min read
Accessibility labels that help instead of annoy
Action-first labels, focus and live regions, and baking a11y into the design system so regressions do not ship quietly.
March 24, 2026·10 min read
i18n: plurals, RTL, and the strings you forgot
Plurals and ICU messages, RTL beyond flexbox, locale formatting—and what to hand translators before strings come back twice.
March 23, 2026·10 min read
Token refresh on mobile without random logouts
Single-flight refresh, rotation pitfalls, secure storage, and user-visible rules for logout vs retry when the app wakes up confused.
March 22, 2026·10 min read
Reanimated: when the dependency is worth it
Native upgrade cost, worklet mental model, accessibility—and green flags for when Reanimated is the right tool, not fashion.
March 21, 2026·10 min read
Images: caching and placeholders that feel intentional
Decode size vs display size, placeholders, list concurrency, and cheap wins you can ship before profiling exotic cases.
March 20, 2026·10 min read
Mobile E2E: smoke tests that survive refactors
Stable testIDs, auth helpers, five reliable tests on CI, and what “smoke” should prove before you chase full coverage.
March 19, 2026·10 min read
OTA updates with Expo: what you can actually patch
Runtime compatibility, channels, rollback runbooks, user trust, and a release checklist so OTA fixes do not become panic deploys.
March 18, 2026·10 min read
Splash screens: hide them when you’re actually ready
Hold the splash until first paint is honest: fonts, flags, session—without blocking launch on every SDK or analytics init.
March 17, 2026·10 min read
Error boundaries in React Native (the honest version)
What boundaries actually catch, pairing them with native crash tools, and what to log so support can help without PII leaks.
March 16, 2026·10 min read
MMKV vs AsyncStorage: pick with your eyes open
When MMKV earns its native cost, when AsyncStorage is enough, migration without blocking UI, and why neither replaces secure token storage.
March 15, 2026·10 min read
Privacy nutrition labels: don’t wing it the night before submit
SDK inventory, matching labels to real behavior, who owns what on the team, and why drift between policy and code is the real risk.
March 14, 2026·10 min read
Deep links with Expo Router: a mental map
Schemes vs universal links, dynamic segments, cold-start auth races, and a playbook for the next broken marketing URL.
March 13, 2026·10 min read
Keyboards and forms that don’t fight the user
Scrollable forms, Android soft-input modes, optional keyboard libraries, and what to verify on a phone before you ship.
March 12, 2026·10 min read
FlatList keys, extraData, and rerender traps
Stable keys, extraData, pagination, and a device-first sanity checklist so lists stay smooth with real data.
March 11, 2026·10 min read
Typing React Navigation params without losing your mind
Param lists next to navigators, nested routes, Expo Router and URLs—plus mistakes that still slip through even with types.
March 10, 2026·10 min read
Expo env vars without leaking secrets
What EXPO_PUBLIC_ really means, how to keep secrets off the client, a simple decision table for keys, and .env habits that fail fast in dev.
March 9, 2026·10 min read
When Metro lies: caches worth clearing first
A reset ladder that saves hours: clean Metro cache, Watchman, Xcode Derived Data, then node_modules—know when the bug is native, not JavaScript.
February 2026
February 14, 2026·10 min read
That growing helper file—and how to tame it
Turn a scary helper into a thin service layer: storage and navigation seams, env discipline, when to split the file, and a README so onboarding isn’t guesswork.
February 10, 2026·10 min read
Folder structure that doesn’t fall apart as you grow
Routes as backbone, feature-shaped folders, and one boring place for APIs and storage—plus how to refactor one slice at a time without freezing the team.