How to publish expo app without using expo xde

Question

How can I publish expo app without using expo xde? I want to send the link to my friends. Is there any command that can do that?

Answer 1

You don't need the XDE for this, and it's very straight-forward. If you have not already done so, you will need to install the exp command-line client first.

npm install -g exp

You may also need to log in first.

exp login

Then there are essentially two steps.

Step 1 - Configure app.json

You will first of all need to configure the variables in your app.json file correctly - with the name, version and icon for your app, etc.. The method for this is explained here (section 'Configure app.json').

Step 2 - Publish

Then publish it as follows.

exp publish

Once all this is done a page for your project will be created at https://expo.io/@you/project-name - with a QR code that your friends can scan.

Expo documentation: https://docs.expo.io/versions/latest/guides/exp-cli.html