Expo SDK 54 and React Native 0.81 are a perfect match—and our hosts Mazen Chami, Frank Calise, and Tyler Williams are here to break it all down. In this episode, they dive deep into everything new in Expo SDK 54, from faster precompiled iOS builds to the sleek Liquid Glass feature and Android 16 support. If you want the complete rundown of what’s fresh, powerful, and ready to use in Expo SDK 54, this episode has you covered.

Show Notes

• Expo SDK 54 beta is now available
• Precompiling the Expo SDK for iOS
• Expo Autolinking
  • Infinite Red's article
  • Phil Pluckthun's article

Connect With Us!

• Mazen Chami: @mazenchami
• Frank Calise: @frankcalise
• Tyler Williams: @coolsoftwaredev
• React Native Radio: @reactnativerdio

This episode is brought to you by Infinite Red!

Infinite Red is an expert React Native consultancy located in the USA. With nearly a decade of React Native experience and deep roots in the React Native community (hosts of Chain React and the React Native Newsletter, core React Native contributors, creators of Ignite and Reactotron, and much, much more), Infinite Red is the best choice for helping you build and deploy your next React Native app.

This week, Mazen is joined by Infinite Red teammates Frank Calise and Tyler Williams to unpack everything included in the huge React Native 0.81 release. They cover Android 16 support, precompiled iOS builds, and many other updates!

Show Notes

• React Native 0.81 Blog Article
• Expo SDK 54 Beta Blog Article

Connect With Us!

• Mazen Chami: @mazenchami
• Frank Calise: @frankcalise
• Tyler Williams: @coolsoftwaredev
• React Native Radio: @reactnativerdio

This episode is brought to you by Infinite Red!

Infinite Red is an expert React Native consultancy located in the USA. With nearly a decade of React Native experience and deep roots in the React Native community (hosts of Chain React and the React Native Newsletter, core React Native contributors, creators of Ignite and Reactotron, and much, much more), Infinite Red is the best choice for helping you build and deploy your next React Native app.

Chas Jhin, Director of Engineering for Discord, joins our hosts to unpack Discord’s adoption of React Native. Chas opens up about Discord's experience adopting React Native, performance challenges, and the New Architecture.

Show Notes

• Discord's Switch Android to React Native (2022)
• Supercharging Discord Mobile (2025)
• Achieving Native iOS performance with React Native (2019)
• React Native Mornings

Connect With Us!

• Chas Jhin: @chasjhin
• Jamon Holmgren: @jamonholmgren
• Robin Heinze: @robinheinze
• Mazen Chami: @mazenchami
• React Native Radio: @reactnativerdio

This episode is brought to you by Infinite Red!

Infinite Red is an expert React Native consultancy located in the USA. With nearly a decade of React Native experience and deep roots in the React Native community (hosts of Chain React and the React Native Newsletter, core React Native contributors, creators of Ignite and Reactotron, and much, much more), Infinite Red is the best choice for helping you build and deploy your next React Native app.

Infinite Red's own Mark Rickert joins to discuss the new Ignite 11 "Bison" release and the thoughtful changes that went into it! This latest update removes MobX State Tree as the default state management to give developers more flexibility, streamlines everything to new architecture-only, and includes improved light/dark theming right out of the box.

He also shared with our hosts why the name of this release is codenamed "BISON"

Show Notes

• Ignite 11: Bison 🦬
• Mark's Blog Post Announcing Ignite 11
• Ignite's Official Docs
• Theming Ignite Apps
• Ignite Cookbook
• RNR 335 - State Management Revisited
• Ignite Diff Purge
• Optimizing Flatlist Configuration

Connect With Us!

• React Native Radio: @reactnativerdio
• Jamon Holmgren: @jamonholmgren
• Robin Heinze: @robinheinze
• Mazen Chami: @mazenchami

This episode is brought to you by Infinite Red!

Infinite Red is an expert React Native consultancy located in the USA. With nearly a decade of React Native experience and deep roots in the React Native community (hosts of Chain React and the React Native Newsletter, core React Native contributors, creators of Ignite and Reactotron, and much, much more), Infinite Red is the best choice for helping you build and deploy your next React Native app.

Maestro CEO Leland Takamine joins Jamon and Robin to discuss Maestro’s growth, new tools like Studio Desktop and cloud testing, and why reliability matters for automated testing.

Show Notes

• Maestro's website
• RNR 262 - Maestro: The App-solute Solution for Mobile UI Testing
• Flashlight Maestro Docs

Connect With Us!

• Leland Takamine: @lelandtakamine
• Jamon Holmgren: @jamonholmgren
• Robin Heinze: @robinheinze
• React Native Radio: @ReactNativeRdio

This episode is brought to you by Infinite Red!

Infinite Red is an expert React Native consultancy located in the USA. With nearly a decade of React Native experience and deep roots in the React Native community (hosts of Chain React and the React Native Newsletter, core React Native contributors, creators of Ignite and Reactotron, and much, much more), Infinite Red is the best choice for helping you build and deploy your next React Native app.

Evan Bacon and James Ide from Expo join us as guests for the second part of React Native Web vs. React Strict DOM!

Connect With Us!

• Evan Bacon: @Baconbrix
• James Ide: @JI
• Jamon Holmgren: @jamonholmgren
• Robin Heinze: @robinheinze
• Mazen Chami: @mazenchami
• React Native Radio: @ReactNativeRdio

This episode is brought to you by Infinite Red!

Infinite Red is an expert React Native consultancy located in the USA. With nearly a decade of React Native experience and deep roots in the React Native community (hosts of Chain React and the React Native Newsletter, core React Native contributors, creators of Ignite and Reactotron, and much, much more), Infinite Red is the best choice for helping you build and deploy your next React Native app.

Nicolas Gallagher from Meta joins Jamon, Robin, and Tyler to kick off a two‑part series on React Native Web vs React Strict DOM. They discuss the origins of each, how Meta is using them, and what they mean for the future of cross‑platform React development.

Show Notes

• React Strict DOM (GitHub)
• React Native for Web

Connect With Us!

• Nicolas Gallagher: LinkedIn
• Jamon Holmgren: @jamonholmgren
• Robin Heinze: @robinheinze
• Tyler Williams: @coolsoftwaredev
• React Native Radio: @ReactNativeRdio

This episode is brought to you by Infinite Red!

Infinite Red is an expert React Native consultancy located in the USA. With nearly a decade of React Native experience and deep roots in the React Native community (hosts of Chain React and the React Native Newsletter, core React Native contributors, creators of Ignite and Reactotron, and much, much more), Infinite Red is the best choice for helping you build and deploy your next React Native app.

Michał Pierzchała from Callstack joins Jamon and Robin to talk about the React Native Enterprise Framework, why it’s built for large teams, and how it helps enterprises ship React Native apps at scale.

Show Notes

• RNEF Website: https://www.rnef.dev/
• RNEF Github: https://github.com/callstack/rnef
• Mike Grabowski’s tweet about the RN CLI in 2016: https://x.com/grabbou/status/754780350451224576

Connect With Us!

• Michał Pierzchała: @thymikee
• Jamon Holmgren: @jamonholmgren
• Robin Heinze: @robinheinze
• Mazen Chami: @mazenchami
• React Native Radio: @ReactNativeRdio

This episode is brought to you by Infinite Red!

Infinite Red is an expert React Native consultancy located in the USA. With nearly a decade of React Native experience and deep roots in the React Native community (hosts of Chain React and the React Native Newsletter, core React Native contributors, creators of Ignite and Reactotron, and much, much more), Infinite Red is the best choice for helping you build and deploy your next React Native app.