Expo SDK 58 beta adds Siri and Apple Intelligence hooks for React Native apps — cross-platform no longer means missing out on iOS 27
Expo SDK 58 entered beta on 15 September with iOS 27 support and a new expo-app-intents library, letting React Native apps expose actions to Siri and Apple Intelligence. For founders weighing React Native vs native iOS, one of the biggest arguments for going native just got weaker.
30 September 2026
Expo SDK 58 went into beta on 15 September, and the headline for anyone commissioning a mobile app is a new library called expo-app-intents. It lets a React Native app declare actions — “complete a task”, “log a workout”, “reorder last purchase” — that Siri, Shortcuts and Apple Intelligence can trigger without the user ever opening the app. Until now, that kind of iOS 27 integration was the standard argument for building natively in Swift.
What is in the release
The beta runs three to four weeks, with the stable release following React Native 0.88. Beyond App Intents, it targets iOS 27 and Xcode 27, and adds native iOS navigation components, home screen widgets on Android, roughly halved Android build times, and a faster Rust-based bundler in experimental form.
The catch worth knowing
iOS 27 makes scene-based app lifecycles mandatory, so existing React Native apps will need a small but real migration. Expo also switches on stricter TypeScript defaults and Android’s R8 code optimisation by default in release builds, both of which can surface latent bugs in older codebases. This is a “plan an upgrade sprint” release, not a “click update” one.
Why it matters for commissioning
For the last two years the honest answer to “React Native or native iOS?” was “native, if you need deep Apple Intelligence and Siri integration”. That answer is getting narrower. Apps whose value is in a task or workflow — booking, ordering, tracking, logging — can now reach Siri and Apple Intelligence from a shared cross-platform codebase, which matters when you are paying for iOS and Android together.
Native still wins for graphics-heavy, hardware-intensive or platform-first products. But the default has shifted: the burden of proof is now on the case for native, not on cross-platform.
So what
If you are scoping a new app, or sitting on a React Native build that has not been touched since iOS 26, ask your team for an iOS 27 readiness plan that covers scene lifecycle, App Intents and the SDK 58 upgrade path. Our cross-platform and native iOS & Android work starts with exactly that decision, and you can start a project to talk it through.