The EAS Build team is continuing image-related maintenance efforts to ensure that the builder VM images are up-to-date and secure. Recently, a new ubuntu-22.04-jdk-17-ndk-26b image was added to better support builds using SDK 51.

Additionally, we are dropping support for old Android images running Ubuntu 20.04 or using Java 8. Starting September 1st, 2024, these will no longer be available:

• ubuntu-20.04-jdk-8-ndk-r19c
• ubuntu-20.04-jdk-11-ndk-r19c
• ubuntu-20.04-jdk-8-ndk-r21e
• ubuntu-20.04-jdk-11-ndk-r21e
• ubuntu-20.04-jdk-11-ndk-r23b
• ubuntu-22.04-jdk-8-ndk-r21e

If you are using one of the images listed above in your eas.json configuration file, we recommend updating your configuration to use latest and auto tags or some of the images with newer JDK and Ubuntu versions as soon as possible to avoid any disruptions in your build process.

The ubuntu-20.04-jdk-8-ndk-r19c and ubuntu-20.04-jdk-11-ndk-r19c images were used by our default auto image resolution logic for Expo SDKs below version 46. The ubuntu-20.04-jdk-11-ndk-r21e and ubuntu-20.04-jdk-8-ndk-r21e were used for SDKs 46 and 47. All of these resolutions will be updated to use the ubuntu-22.04-jdk-11-ndk-r21e image. The resolution logic for newer SDKs will remain unchanged.

Today we're announcing the release of Expo SDK 51. SDK 51 includes React Native 0.74. Thank you to everyone who helped with beta testing.

EAS Build is used by thousands of developers to build their apps on a daily basis. Some of these developers experience friction when they try to build a project via EAS Build, only for it to fail quickly for a variety of reasons, such as invalid configurations or minor code errors. This can be a frustrating experience, and doubly so when these failed builds cost developers money.

In an effort to continuously improve the Expo developer experience, we're happy to announce that from May 1, 2024, these builds will no longer be billed for or count against your monthly quota if you are on a Free plan. We define a "fast-failed build" as one that fails within 3 minutes. Each account will get a maximum of 10 of these waived each month.

The SDK 51 beta period begins today and will last approximately one week. The beta is an opportunity for developers to test out the SDK and ensure that the new release does not introduce any regressions for their particular systems and app configurations. We’re also hosting office hours for those of you interested in helping test the release!

SDK 51 beta includes React Native 0.74. The full release notes for SDK 51 won't be available until the stable release, but you can browse the changes in the expo/expo CHANGELOG to learn more about the scope of the release and any breaking changes.

Xcode 15.3 is now available on EAS Build. You can start using it today by setting your iOS image in eas.json to "image": "latest" or "image": "macos-sonoma-14.3-xcode-15.3".