Expo SDK Version

An Expo SDK version is a numbered release of the expo package, such as SDK 54. Each one targets a specific React Native version and ships a set of expo-* libraries that have been tested together with it. The major version of the expo package is the SDK number.

Expo releases a new SDK roughly three times a year, each following a recent React Native minor. In practice the SDK is the unit you upgrade, not React Native itself: bumping the SDK moves React Native, React and every Expo module forward together.

The upgrade flow looks like this:

npx expo install expo@^54.0.0
npx expo install --fix
npx expo-doctor

npx expo install reads the SDK’s compatibility list and picks the right version of each library, including popular third-party ones such as Reanimated. Expo Doctor then flags anything still out of range.

Practical advice:

• Upgrade one SDK at a time and read that SDK’s changelog. Breaking changes and deprecations are listed per release.
• If you use Continuous Native Generation, regenerate the native folders after upgrading rather than patching them.
• Native code changed, so build a new binary. An over-the-air update cannot move a user from one SDK to another.

The most common mistake is installing libraries with plain npm install, which grabs the latest version rather than the one matching your SDK. That is the usual cause of "works in a new project, crashes in mine" bugs and native build failures after an upgrade.