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.
When and How to Remove Features Nobody Uses — Auditing and Safely Retiring Functionality in Rork-Built Apps
Unused features quietly make an app harder to maintain. A field-tested playbook from running six wallpaper apps in parallel — how to measure feature usage, decide what to retire, and remove functionality in three safe stages with Remote Config.
When Hiragana Doesn't Match Katakana — Japanese-Aware In-App Search for Rork Apps
A hiragana query silently missing katakana titles is a UX failure users never report. How I fixed Japanese search in my wallpaper app with NFKC normalization, kana folding, and precomputed search keys.
A Three-Layer AI Cost Design for Rork Apps After Apple Opened Foundation Models to Small Developers
Apple now offers Foundation Models on Private Cloud Compute at no charge for developers under two million first downloads. Here is a three-layer cost architecture for Rork apps, with a simulation script and working bridge code.
Keeping Manual Fixes Alive Across Rork Regenerations — Boundary Design for AI-Owned Code
A tiny copy-change request quietly reverted my week-old ATT fix. Here is the boundary architecture I use now: a guarded directory, one-line adapters, patch assets, and scoped prompts — with measured blast-radius numbers.
Android 17 Will Ignore Your Portrait Lock — Getting Rork-Built Expo Apps Ready for Large Screens Ahead of Time
Android 17 stops honoring orientation locks and resizability restrictions on large-screen devices. Here is how I assessed the impact on my Rork-built Expo apps, reworked the layouts, and verified everything with nothing but an emulator.
Your Rork App's 'Documents & Data' Keeps Growing — Taming expo-image's Disk Cache
My wallpaper app's binary was 40 MB, yet 'Documents & Data' had ballooned to 2.4 GB. Here is how I diagnosed expo-image's unbounded disk cache and fixed it with cachePolicy tuning, thumbnail URLs, and generational cache clearing.
Rork Lab This Week: Apple's Free Foundation Models, and Knowing When to Go Deeper
Editor's notes on four posts: data-driven triggers for moving up to Rork Max, a three-layer AI cost design after Apple opened Foundation Models, WidgetKit within Expo, and catching subscription refunds.
Schema Versioning for Local Data in Rork Apps — Shipping Updates Without Wiping a Single Favorite
How I stopped losing users' locally stored data when shipping updates to Rork apps. A complete TypeScript migration runner with envelope versioning, backup keys, fixture tests, and the rule that keeps EAS Update schema-neutral.
Adding a Home Screen Widget to a Rork App — Making WidgetKit Work Within Expo's Constraints
Rork generates Expo apps, and home screen widgets can't be written in React Native. Here's how to wire up WidgetKit with a config plugin and App Groups — including the parts that tripped me up.
When Should a Rork App Move Up to Rork Max? Deciding With Store Data, Not Aspiration
A framework for deciding whether the $200/month Rork Max tier is justified: three data-driven migration triggers, the case for staying on Expo, why June 2026 lowered the lock-in risk, and the practical steps once you do commit to the move.
What Did Rork Actually Change as an AI Mobile App Builder? A Six-Month Field Review
An honest, indie-developer review of Rork as an AI mobile app builder after six months of real-world use. What changed, where it shines, where it gets stuck, and how to decide whether to start with it.