New top Expo. How to get the app icon on home page

[dkardell]

I can get my app to run under Expo Go. How to I install it on the simulator natively so that I can see the app icon on the home screen?

[wodin]

Hi @dkardell

You can create a build for the simulator:

Building for iOS simulators - Expo Documentation

the above page also explains how to install the app on the Simulator.

[dkardell]

Thanks. Tried that… It asks for a cert and then says I don’t have any registered devices. If I select one of my real devices it proceeds, yet when you download it’s an ipa not a zip.

[wodin]

Hi

With the following sim-preview in eas.json:

{
  "build": {
[...]
    "preview": {
      "distribution": "internal"
    },
    "sim-preview": {
      "extends": "preview",
      "ios": {
        "simulator": true
      }
    },
[...]
  }
}

If I build the sim-preview profile it does not ask any questions about certs or devices:

% eas build -p ios --profile sim-preview
✔ Linked to project @wodin/deps

Compressing project files and uploading to EAS Build. Learn more
✔ Uploaded to EAS 5s

Build details: https://expo.dev/accounts/wodin/projects/deps/builds/5aa599f0-1333-4c7f-a95e-e7853e27c4f0

Waiting for build to complete. You can press Ctrl+C to exit.
✔ Build finished

🍎 iOS app:
https://expo.dev/artifacts/eas/ccdNZD9iav9hYdnoiZwyqy.tar.gz

If I then download the .tar.gz file and unpack it I get a .app that I can drag and drop onto the Simulator.

[dkardell]

Thanks! That did it. Had to wait 40 min to get in the queue, but it worked. So there is no way to do this locally and get it into the simulator as a standalone?

[wodin]

You can build locally with eas build --local -p ios --profile xxx

EDIT: When building an iOS app you need a Mac with an up to date (or close to it) version of Xcode.

Android apps can also be built on Linux.
If you’re on Windows 10 or 11, you should be able to build under WSL2.

[dkardell]

Awesome! That did it! Thanks!