Putting a Working Button in a Rork App's Widget — Implementing App Intents So a Tap Acts Without Opening the App
How to put a button in a Rork-generated Expo app's widget that changes state without launching the app. We wire App Intents and WidgetKit together through an App Group, all the way to reloadTimelines — including the two places I lost real time.
The Day a Third Reason to Hide Ads Appeared — Folding Rork App Ad-Free Logic Into One Place
Ads show only on one screen for paying users, or ads never show for free users. The usual cause is that the condition for hiding ads is scattered across the code. Here is how I fold three reasons — subscription, lifetime purchase, and a timed reward unlock — into a single state and route every ad through one hook, written as an implementation note from running six apps as an indie developer.
Stop Burning Your One Push-Permission Shot on App Launch — Pre-Prompt Priming for Rork Apps
If your Rork (Expo) app fires the OS push-permission dialog at launch, every 'Don't Allow' tap closes that channel forever — iOS won't let you ask again. Here's how a self-built pre-permission screen lifts your opt-in rate, with the Expo code to do it.
Actually Delivering 'It Updates Without Opening' in Expo — A Realistic Background Task Design
Building 'content refreshes every morning' into a Rork-generated Expo app runs into iOS background execution being far less dutiful than you expect. Here is a minimal expo-background-task setup plus a design that doesn't break when the task never runs.
Calling Apple Foundation Models from a Rork (Expo) App: Bridging On-Device AI Through a Native Module
Rork generates Expo (React Native) apps, but Apple Foundation Models ships as a Swift framework you can't touch from JavaScript. Here's how to write an Expo Modules API bridge, gate it by availability, and fall back to the cloud on unsupported devices.
Building Rork Subscriptions Around RevenueCat Entitlements — Access Checks, Offering-Driven Paywalls, and Restore
Implementation notes for adding subscriptions to a Rork (Expo) app with RevenueCat. Make Entitlements the single source of truth for access, drive the paywall from Offerings so you can change prices remotely, wire up restore and the customer-info listener, and avoid the sandbox traps — all with working code.
Updating Live Activities Remotely: Putting Live Lock Screen Info on a Rork App
A practical design for updating Live Activities remotely through APNs so the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island stay current even when your app is closed. Covers push-to-start vs update tokens, the content-state payload, stale-date and the update budget, and bridging from Expo, with working code and the issues I hit in production.
When Your Rork App Gets ITMS-91053 — A Practical Guide to Privacy Manifests and Required Reason APIs
Submitting a Rork-generated Expo app to the App Store can trigger Privacy Manifest warnings even when you never wrote the offending code. Here is how to clear both Required Reason API and SDK manifest issues before you submit.
Win Back Lapsed Users with App Store In-App Events — Deep Link Implementation for Rork (Expo) Apps
An implementation memo on bringing lapsed users back to a Rork (Expo) app using App Store in-app events. Covers event card design, universal link routing, and measurement, from a solo developer's operational view.
You Only Get to Ask Once — Implementing a Notification Soft-Ask in Your Rork App to Lift Opt-In
On iOS, once a user denies the notification prompt you can never show it again. In a Rork (Expo) app, instead of firing the system prompt on launch, we add our own soft-ask screen and only request permission once the value has landed. Built with expo-notifications, covering Android 13 POST_NOTIFICATIONS, a recovery path after denial, and opt-in measurement.
Shipping Wallpaper Packs Without an App Review — Versioning and Delta Delivery for Remote Assets Across Six Apps
Re-submitting your app every time you add ten wallpapers grinds operations to a halt. Here is a manifest-based versioning scheme with delta downloads, cache invalidation, and rollback — with the implementation and measured transfer savings from running six apps in parallel.
Keeping a Rork-Built Expo App Ready for Kotlin Migration — Design Notes After Android Studio's Migration Agent Announcement
Android Studio's new agent can migrate React Native apps to native Kotlin. Here is how I restructured a Rork-built Expo app to stay migration-ready: a native dependency audit script, a portable core layer pattern, and a readiness checklist.