iOS on Windows complains "Xcode needs to be installed..." when trying to start for iOS

How to / Third Party Tooling
1

The very first tip says you can develop an iOS app using Windows…
Installation - Expo Documentation

However, when I run:

expo start --ios

I get:

Starting project at C:\GitHub\repos\expo-awesome\my-app
Developer tools running on http://localhost:19002
Opening developer tools in the browser...
Starting Metro Bundler
√ Xcode needs to be installed (don't worry, you won't have to use it), would you like to continue to the App Store?...

Obviously, I can’t install Xcode on Windows so what’s the deal? I’ve tried ignoring that message on the console, since I do get the application’s browser page:

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But even if I scan the QR Code on my phone and open in Expo.Go, it never connects. Windows firewall is off and the app has the necessary permissions (local network).

Am I missing something?

2

For anyone else, I found that using Tunnel instead of LAN for the connection type was all I needed to do! It now works fine.

FYI, when you choose LAN, you’ll see some messages in the console indicating that the Tunnel URL isn’t available (yet):

Installing @expo/ngrok@^2.4.3 for tunnel support...
Tunnel URL not found (it might not be ready yet), falling back to LAN URL.
Tunnel URL not found (it might not be ready yet), falling back to LAN URL.
Successfully installed @expo/ngrok@^2.4.3
Tunnel URL not found (it might not be ready yet), falling back to LAN URL.
Successfully ran `adb reverse`. Localhost URLs should work on the connected Android device.
Tunnel URL not found (it might not be ready yet), falling back to LAN URL.
Error starting tunnel Starting tunnels timed out
Tunnel URL not found (it might not be ready yet), falling back to LAN URL.
Tunnel URL not found (it might not be ready yet), falling back to LAN URL.
Tunnel ready.

Patience is all that is required… Once it says “Tunnel ready,” retry scanning the QR code on your iOS device and you should then see some JavaScript compiling messages (takes a couple of minutes), followed by the app eventually starting.

Then for me, at least, development changes were almost instantaneously compiled and displayed.