feat(expo): upgrade Expo to v53 and React Native to 0.79

[hassankhan]

Upgrades both @nx/expo and @nx/react-native to use the latest versions of Expo and React Native. Expo iOS and Android builds work perfectly.

[!WARNING] This PR explicitly does not modify @nx/detox; see comment here on a discussion about why Nx should consider using Maestro instead.

Tasks

• [x] Fix @nx/expo E2E tests
• [x] Verify Android and iOS builds
• [x] Fix @nx/expo legacy tests (see comment here)
• [x] Fix Android builds with @nx/expo
• [x] Remove react-test-renderer from @nx/expo
• [x] Add migration to remove dependencies from @nx/expo
  • [x] @testing-library/jest-native
  • [x] react-test-renderer
• [ ] Fix @nx/react-native E2E tests (see comment here)
• [x] Verify Android and iOS builds (see comment here)
• [x] Add migrations to update deps for @nx/react-native
• [x] Add migration to remove dependencies from @nx/react-native
  • [x] @testing-library/jest-native
  • [x] jest-react-native
  • [x] react-test-renderer
• [x] Remove react-test-renderer from @nx/react-native

Changes

• Upgrade Expo to v53 and update project templates
• Upgrade React Native to v0.79 and update project templates
• Upgrade React to v19.0
• Upgrade metro-config and metro-resolver to v0.82.4 (fixes #30557)
• Remove react-test-renderer
• Remove jest-react-native
• Remove @testing-library/jest-native
• Fix bug in @nx/expo and @nx/react-native application generators where the generated package.json was being overwritten (fixes #31416)

Links

• https://github.com/facebook/react/tree/main/packages/react-test-renderer#react-native-testing
• https://callstack.github.io/react-native-testing-library/docs/migration/jest-matchers
• https://react.dev/blog/2024/04/25/react-19-upgrade-guide#deprecated-react-test-renderer

Current Behavior

Nx generates an Expo project using SDK v52, and React Native projects using RN 0.76

Expected Behavior

Nx should generate an Expo project using SDK v53, and React Native projects using RN 0.79

Related Issue(s)

Fixes #31498, #30557, #31416

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☁️ Nx Cloud last updated this comment at 2025-08-13 10:30:59 UTC

[hassankhan]

@xiongemi I've managed to get all but one legacy Expo E2E passing; I'm not sure why that test is failing but will look into it. Separately, React Native projects generated by Nx seem to have issues which have prevented me from testing it properly.

[leggomuhgreggo]

@hassankhan You're probably already on top of these — but since I also ran into them — I thought I'd chime in, in case it's useful

---

● @nx/expo (legacy) › should export

We ran into this issue too — there's a new (somewhat frustrating) @expo/cli (aka expo-cli aka expo/cli) restriction on output-dir where it has to be within the project level — no more workspace level dist folder (except maybe as secondary mv step)

    CommandError: --output-dir must be a subdirectory of the project directory. Generating outside of the project directory is not supported.

EDIT: Related: PR + Issue EDIT2: Opened issue on expo repo

TypeError: expect(...).toHaveTextContent is not a function

This is related to the jest matcher changes

• RNTL | Jest matcher migration guide
• RNTL | toHaveTestContent method

---

You rock — LMK if I can be of any assistance!

[hassankhan]

@xiongemi @FrozenPandaz Could we set up npm publishing for this branch please? It would make testing the migrations a lot easier.

@leggomuhgreggo Thanks for the kind words, and the pointers in your last comment 😀 I'm hoping someone from the Nx team can publish this branch; then we can try upgrading + migrating our own repos to see if any further problems crop up.

[hassankhan]

The React Native E2E tests fail because of a React dependency mismatch (@nx/remix still uses React 18, and when added to the E2E-generated Nx project causes dependency conflicts which prevent tests from passing)

[leggomuhgreggo]

Was looking at the Remix repo, looks like they're still using React v18 as a dev/peer dep [code]. Also seeing a number of "React 19" Discussions threads on their repo — appears that there are some kinks, but also sounds like it should work with React v19.

Curious if there's a standard move for situations like this, where two Nx plugins have conflicting dependency version specifications?

[matinzd]

I am not sure why nx is using specific version of metro modules. Isn't it possible for nx to not rely on specific version of metro?

@leggomuhgreggo When do you think we can have this merged?

[vendramini]

Indeed, any reason to force metro's version? We need to update to Expo 53 to fix some bugs and take advantage of some new features from both Expo and RN. @FrozenPandaz Any idea when it will be merged? Just to organize ourselves here.

I'm not sure if the bug here is due to that (I think so), but after I've upgraded to Expo 53 + all libraries, it compiles without issue, but metro server is not able to find my app:

Thank you!

[KoenCa]

I added the following overrides for Metro dependencies to my package.json after updating Expo to 53:

"overrides": {
    "metro": "^0.82.0",
    "metro-config": "^0.82.0",
    "metro-resolver": "^0.82.0",
}

[xiongemi]

thanks for the pull request. I will try to make unit test and e2e test pass.

[xiongemi]

i don't have permission to push to your repo. also, i could not create a pull request release from a forked repo. so i create a new pull request https://github.com/nrwl/nx/pull/31840/files and create a pull request release https://github.com/nrwl/nx/actions/runs/16094783018/job/45416342141. the version is 0.0.0-pr-31840-b906464.

for now, maybe you could use "@nx/react-native": "0.0.0-pr-31840-b906464" or "@nx/expo": "0.0.0-pr-31840-b906464"

[xiongemi]

I am not sure why nx is using specific version of metro modules. Isn't it possible for nx to not rely on specific version of metro?

@leggomuhgreggo When do you think we can have this merged?

currently metro bundles are at dependencies because current we use some utils functions from metro. how about i move the metro packages to peer dependencies, so if the version conflicts in future, you can run something like npm install --legacy-peer-deps to ignore the conflicts

[xiongemi]

@xiongemi @FrozenPandaz Could we set up npm publishing for this branch please? It would make testing the migrations a lot easier.

@leggomuhgreggo Thanks for the kind words, and the pointers in your last comment 😀 I'm hoping someone from the Nx team can publish this branch; then we can try upgrading + migrating our own repos to see if any further problems crop up.

I just published a pr release 0.0.0-pr-31840-b906464.

[matinzd]

@hassankhan Do you want to request a review again?

[dionrussell]

Hello, any update on this PR? our teams are waiting for expo 53 in NX for our new projects 😅

[t0ma5h]

Same here, waiting for this to proceed with the upgrade

[meeroslav]

@hassankhan can you please resolve the conflicts against the master branch?

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