| name | building-native-ui |
| description | Complete guide for building beautiful apps with Expo Router. Covers fundamentals, styling, components, navigation, animations, patterns, and native tabs. |
| type | skill |
| created | 2026-02-27T00:00:00.000Z |
| domain | design-creative |
| category | ui-ux |
| risk | unknown |
| source | community |
| tags | ["skill","design-creative","ui-ux","building","native"] |
Expo UI Guidelines
When to Use
- You are building a native-feeling Expo Router application and need guidance on navigation, controls, effects, or platform-specific UI.
- You need to decide whether Expo Go is sufficient or a custom native build is actually required.
- The task involves modern Expo UI patterns across animations, tabs, headers, storage, media, or visual effects.
References
Consult these resources as needed:
references/
animations.md Reanimated: entering, exiting, layout, scroll-driven, gestures
controls.md Native iOS: Switch, Slider, SegmentedControl, DateTimePicker, Picker
form-sheet.md Form sheets in expo-router: configuration, footers and background interaction.
gradients.md CSS gradients via experimental_backgroundImage (New Arch only)
icons.md SF Symbols via expo-image (sf: source), names, animations, weights
media.md Camera, audio, video, and file saving
route-structure.md Route conventions, dynamic routes, groups, folder organization
search.md Search bar with headers, useSearch hook, filtering patterns
storage.md SQLite, AsyncStorage, SecureStore
tabs.md NativeTabs, migration from JS tabs, iOS 26 features
toolbar-and-headers.md Stack headers and toolbar buttons, menus, search (iOS only)
visual-effects.md Blur (expo-blur) and liquid glass (expo-glass-effect)
webgpu-three.md 3D graphics, games, GPU visualizations with WebGPU and Three.js
zoom-transitions.md Apple Zoom: fluid zoom transitions with Link.AppleZoom (iOS 18+)
Running the App
CRITICAL: Always try Expo Go first before creating custom builds.
Most Expo apps work in Expo Go without any custom native code. Before running npx expo run:ios or npx expo run:android:
- Start with Expo Go: Run
npx expo start and scan the QR code with Expo Go
- Check if features work: Test your app thoroughly in Expo Go
- Only create custom builds when required - see below
When Custom Builds Are Required
You need npx expo run:ios/android or eas build ONLY when using:
- Local Expo modules (custom native code in
modules/)
- Apple targets (widgets, app clips, extensions via
@bacons/apple-targets)
- Third-party native modules not included in Expo Go
- that can't be expressed in
