Cafiyn Pulse
Launch Checklist · React Native / Expo

Launching a React Native or Expo app? Here is the App Store checklist.

Mobile has a review gate a website does not. Miss one of these and you lose a week to a rejection, not a bug report.

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Mobile launches carry a cost web launches do not: App Store and Play Store review. A rejection is not just a bug, it is a multi-day delay while you fix the issue and resubmit, and a second rejection for the same category of problem can trigger extra scrutiny on your next submission. The items below are the ones that most commonly trigger a first-time rejection or a painful production surprise on Expo and bare React Native apps.

Crash reporting deserves special mention: on web, you find out about a broken deploy from your monitoring within minutes. On mobile, a crash on a specific device or OS version can go unnoticed for days without dedicated crash reporting, because most users just delete the app instead of reporting it.

React Native / Expo-specific

What gets missed on React Native / Expo apps.

Missing privacy manifest (iOS)

Apple requires a privacy manifest declaring what data your app collects and why, as of recent App Store requirements. Missing this is a common rejection reason.

No crash reporting installed

Without Sentry or a similar mobile-aware crash reporter, a crash on a specific device model can go completely unnoticed while it quietly tanks your rating.

Hardcoded API keys in the bundle

Mobile bundles can be decompiled. Any secret that should stay server-side needs to actually stay server-side, not just be "harder to find."

FAQ

Common questions.

What is the most common App Store rejection reason for React Native apps?

Missing or incomplete privacy manifest declarations, followed closely by incomplete metadata (screenshots, description) and apps that crash on first launch during Apple's automated review.

Do I need crash reporting for a small app?

Yes, disproportionately more than a web app needs it. Mobile users rarely report bugs, they just uninstall, so crash reporting is often the only way you learn about a device-specific or OS-version-specific issue at all.

Other stacks

Building on something else?

Lovable
Lovable ships a working app fast. "Working" and "production-ready" are not the same checklist.
Bolt.new
Bolt.new is built for speed of iteration. The checklist below is the speed-of-iteration tax you pay back before real users show up.
Replit Agent
Replit hosting makes shipping trivially easy. Easy hosting is not the same as production hardening.
v0 (Vercel)
v0 is excellent at UI. Production readiness lives in the layers v0 was never asked to think about.
Next.js (custom)
Hand-rolled means nothing is generated for you, including the parts people forget on purpose-built apps too.
Flutter
One codebase, two review processes with different rules. Both need a separate pass.
WordPress
The most-targeted CMS on the internet needs the most deliberate security pass, not the least.
Shopify
Shopify handles the hard infrastructure. Your checklist is everything layered on top of it.
Webflow
Webflow removes the build step. It does not remove the need to check your own configuration.
Custom / other stack
The categories that matter do not change based on your framework. The specific implementation does.
Before you ship

Find the gaps first.

Stack Grader
Three minutes, ten categories, an honest grade and a fix plan.
Production readiness
What separates a demo from something you can charge for.

Open the tool.

Filtered to your stack, with why, what, and how for every item.

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