Expo SDK 54 Cuts iOS Build Times by 70%—Without Hardware Changes

Expo SDK 54 eliminates iOS build-time compilation by shipping precompiled XCFrameworks, cutting CI times from 14 to 4 minutes without hardware upgrades. The update pairs Hermes bytecode diffing for EAS Update—reducing patch sizes by 20×—with React 19 support, making rapid iteration and frequent deployments both practical and affordable. These improvements represent a significant maturation in how Expo abstracts native build complexity.