Last week, I launched Greeny Corner on the UAE App Store — an iOS plant care app that uses AI to identify plants from photos. We upgraded to Expo SDK 54 four months ago to leverage its improved performance and newer APIs. The migration took longer than expected, but the results spoke for themselves. Today, I’ll walk you through the features in this release that made it into my real-world projects, and the ones that nearly gave me gray hairs.
Speeding Up Builds with Turbo Modules: Not Just Hype
Turbo Modules have been around since SDK 46, but in SDK 54, they’ve become less of a pain to implement. Our app’s onboarding flow relies heavily on native APIs for camera access and image compression. Before SDK 54, these modules were loaded synchronously, which added 1.2s to our cold start time on mid-range Android devices. After upgrading, that dropped to 0.7s — nothing revolutionary, but noticeable for users in regions like the UAE where network speeds vary.
The catch? Getting third-party packages like react-native-mmkv to work with Turbo Modules required manual linking again. Expo’s docs claimed it was automatic, but I spent one full afternoon debugging a cryptic Native module MMKV is null error. Turned out, we needed to update expo-module-resolver and lock its version in package.json. Now it’s stable, and honestly? Worth the headache.
Better File System Access: One Less Pain Point
The new expo-file-system API for asynchronous file deletion and batch operations saved me from writing ugly native code in a client project for a logistics company in Riyadh. Their app lets users upload batches of delivery receipts as PDFs. In SDK 53, deleting a cached 200MB folder took 3–4 seconds. With the deleteAsync method in SDK 54, it drops to 0.5s.
For Greeny Corner’s AI image processing, I used the updated downloadAsync function to queue plant photo downloads. It’s not perfect — I had to add a retry mechanism because occasional failures on iOS 16.x devices — but it’s miles better than the manual threading we had to do in older SDKs.
Performance Gains on Older Devices: A UAE-Specific Win
Let’s talk about Hermes. SDK 54 bumps Hermes to version 0.14.1, which reduced JavaScript execution time by 18% in our QA testing. For clients targeting non-English-speaking audiences in the Gulf market (who often use cheaper devices), this matters. One app I’m working on for a Dubai-based real estate firm saw a 30% drop in ANRs (Application Not Responding errors) on Android 8.1 devices after the upgrade.
But here’s the catch: Hermes 0.14 introduced stricter type checking for object spreads. We had a date formatting utility in TypeScript that broke because someone forgot to add a null check. Wasted 2 hours tracking down why formatDate(new Date()) was causing a crash on launch. Small price to pay, I guess.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I check if my app is using Expo SDK 54?
Run expo sdk:versions in your project directory. If it shows “SDK Version: 54.0.0” under the latest release, you’re good. For ejected apps, check android/app/src/main/res/values/ids.xml for the SDK version string.
Should I upgrade from SDK 53 to 54?
Do it if you need the Hermes performance improvements or better file system APIs. Wait if you’re using expo-sqlite — the latest patch fixes a critical bug in iOS 17, but it’s still hit-or-miss for production apps.
What’s the biggest performance gain in SDK 54?
Hermes engine optimizations slash JS execution time, especially on Android 7–9. For apps handling media or heavy computations (like Greeny Corner’s AI image analysis), this results in a smoother UX.
Have clients noticed differences after SDK 54 upgrades?
A client running a UAE restaurant delivery app reported a 12% drop in app abandonment during checkout. They attribute it to faster load times — we measured it as a 0.8s decrease in LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) scores.
If you’re building apps for the Gulf market, SDK 54’s performance tweaks and improved native integrations are worth the migration effort — just budget extra time for debugging third-party packages. I’ve used these tools to ship apps for UAE startups and multinational enterprises, like Tawasul Limo’s Arabic/English booking app with real-time driver tracking.
Need help cutting through the SDK noise or debugging a stubborn native module issue? Let’s brainstorm — I’ve been there, and I’ve probably written a cursed workaround script you can use.