Expo adds iOS widgets support

Apple’s widgets are small app panels on the Home Screen, and Live Activities are the persistent status cards that sit on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. Expo said in March it now has an alpha library, `expo-widgets`, that lets developers build both from an Expo app without writing native iOS code. (expo.dev) Expo published the announcement on March 4, 2026 and documented the package in its SDK docs as an iOS-only library for Home Screen widgets and Live Activities. The docs say developers install it with `npx expo install expo-widgets` and configure widget targets through an Expo plugin in app config. (expo.dev) (docs.expo.dev) Under Apple’s native model, widgets are built with WidgetKit and Live Activities use WidgetKit plus ActivityKit, usually inside a separate widget extension. Apple’s docs say Live Activities can appear on the Lock Screen, in the Dynamic Island, in CarPlay, on a paired Mac, and on Apple Watch, while widgets also span iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. (developer.apple.com 1) (developer.apple.com 2) Expo’s pitch is that its library handles that extension setup through Continuous Native Generation, the company’s system for generating native projects from app configuration. Its blog post says developers can build layouts with Expo UI components and manage widget timelines and Live Activities through a JavaScript-facing API. (expo.dev) (docs.expo.dev) That changes a part of iOS development that has usually pushed React Native teams back into Swift and Xcode project editing. Expo’s own app-extension docs say adding an extension target is normally a native-project concern, while its config-plugin guides describe plugins as the mechanism for automating those changes during prebuild. (docs.expo.dev 1) (docs.expo.dev 2) The tradeoff is that the feature is early. Expo labels `expo-widgets` “alpha” and says it is subject to breaking changes, and the package does not run inside Expo Go, so developers need development builds to test it. (docs.expo.dev) Apple’s rules still shape what developers can do after Expo lowers the setup work. Apple says widgets run in a separate extension process, Live Activities require support for multiple presentations such as compact, minimal, expanded, and Lock Screen views, and Live Activities update through ActivityKit rather than the timeline system widgets use. (developer.apple.com 1) (developer.apple.com 2) (developer.apple.com 3) Expo has been moving more native capabilities behind plugins and generated projects, and this release fits that pattern. The company’s docs describe config plugins as a way to add native configuration automatically, including advanced changes such as app extension targets. (docs.expo.dev) (docs.expo.dev) For developers, the immediate next step is practical rather than theoretical: install the package, add a widget target in app config, and test in a development build. Expo said it would publish a tutorial on building a first widget this week, framing the release as a faster on-ramp to Apple’s most visible iPhone surfaces. (docs.expo.dev) (expo.dev)