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Cathy Lai
Cathy Lai

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Challenge: iOS App from Zero to a Friend's Phone in 1 Hour

#expo #buildinpublic #mobile #challenge

I was browsing the Expo website and chanced upon their new product, EAS Launch. It promises a 'one-click' launch to the App Store.

I’ve long thought that someone should build a tool equivalent to Vercel or Netlify for mobile, so I’m very curious to see if it delivers on that promise... ?

The Problem

Traditionally, getting an app on a friend's phone meant: Buying a Mac -> Installing 40GB of Xcode -> Wrestling with Provisioning Profiles -> Understand Build Configs -> Self Doubt ->... Is it working now??

The Solution

Using Expo Launch (EAS) to handle all of the above.

The Goal

Start from scratch using "create-expo-app" npm package, ask Cursor to make a sample app, and end with a Apple invite email on a friend's device for them to install and run.

The Pre-Flight Checklist (Minutes 0–5)

To hit the sub-one-hour mark, I need these ready:

  • A GitHub account

  • An Apple Developer Program membership ($99/year).

  • An Expo account, preferably paid to get in the priority queue ($20 USD per month).

  • Cursor with minimum AI coding tools

  • Node.js, bun and relevant libraries installed locally.

NB. No need for a Mac nor XCode

Phase 1: The App Creation (Minutes 5–15)

  • Run the command: 
bunx create-expo-app@latest recipes-collect --template blank
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  • Open in Cursor and create a page by asking it something like: 
Please make a nice index screen and put the title on "Recipes Collect". give it a friendly, warm theme, orange based colour scheme.
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And to add a nice icon for additional touch.

Plz make a new app icon to replace the default one
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The result:

  • Git Init & Push: Push this to a public GitHub repository.

Phase 2: The Expo Launch Magic (Minutes 15–30)

  • Navigate to launch.expo.dev.

  • Copy and Paste the new GitHub link.

Phase 3: The "Coffee Break" Build (Minutes 30–50)

  • Hit "Launch to App Store."

  • Wait for the spinners and progress bars.

Phase 4: The Moment of Truth (Minutes 50–60)

  • App created on App Store (pending for review mode)

  • Add the friend's email address as the "Internal Tester" of the app.

  • The email arrives. "Accept" first before the second TestFlight email will be sent.

Install it and have it shown on the phone

  • Verdict: Did we make it under 60 minutes? Yes, verified!

Conclusion

It certainly is magical, to have the whole process so quick and easy! Almost no code, except for typing a few GitHub commands.

Of course, the use case is limited - one can not have very complicated app (eg requires native build tools, backend services, APIs, etc). And the GitHub repo would need to be configured to allow for EAS access or stay public. But, for rapid prototyping, look and feel, market validation, it seems a good choice.

I will definitely research into it a bit more - and share my findings here!

Video of the whole process

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