I hope this message finds you in good health. I’m writing to alert you to a problem I noticed while using the Expo mobile app to execute React Native applications quickly. I’ve had particular problems with the device shaking functionality, which is supposed to reveal a debugger menu with several options.
My issue is that the device shake feature does not operate consistently on all mobile devices. As a result, I can’t access the debugging options using this approach. This problem has made it difficult for me to efficiently debug and test my React Native applications while using Expo.
Given the importance of this issue to the development process, I’d like to suggest that an additional button be added to the app’s interface. Users like myself would no longer be reliant entirely on the device shaking feature if this alternate method of accessing the debugger menu was included. This would considerably improve the Expo mobile app’s usability and accessibility for a broader range of devices.
I understand that your staff is constantly working to improve the Expo platform, and I appreciate the time and effort you put in to provide a smooth development experience. I believe that adding an additional button for accessing the debugger menu would be a wonderful improvement that would aid many users who are experiencing similar issues.
If at all possible, please consider including this capability in a future release of the Expo mobile app. I am convinced that such a feature would significantly improve the app’s functioning and user experience. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require any additional information or feedback on this topic.
I eagerly await your response and am looking forward to the conclusion of this situation.
For me I find it works best if you give the phone one hard shake. If it doesn’t work try again. If the menu is showing and you shake again it will disappear, so I think sometimes it might be that you shake the phone and it starts to appear and then disappears again immediately.
If you’re on iOS you can try a three finger long press. This does not (yet) work on Android:
If you look at the above issue, you’ll see mention of holding the “multi tasking button” on Android. This doesn’t seem to work for me on my phone, but haven’t tried it on other Android devices.
If you have the Android phone plugged into your computer with a USB cable, you should also be able to send a “Menu” keypress event to the phone using adb shell input keyevent 82
you can see on the settings tab in expo go that you can access the menu through a three finger long press or shaking the device. (there is a similar option in development builds)
unfortunately, this is not an option on android at the moment. however, you can press m from the expo-cli interactive prompt to open the menu. press ? to see the full list of commands. in my opinion. this is easier than trying to shake or do some awkward gesture on your device. to reload the app, you can press r. easy peezy
Hello, Wodin. Thank you for responding.
Chinese firmware frequently restricts app functionality. I tested the expo app on Samsung handsets, and the device shake feature worked flawlessly. Although my phone is almost new and i have tried every possible method to make it work but still no luck so far. So I still advise the developers to create a suitable button for this instead of hand gestures that are inconvenient for some users.
Brents is an Expo team member. Have you tried his suggestion of typing m (for the menu) or r (to reload) in the Terminal where you are running npx expo start?
