Push Notifications for iOS

Requires Initial Self-Publishing

In order to take advantage of push notifications on iOS, you currently need to build and publish the app once yourself. Subsequent publishes can be done through Draftbit. You can check the Apple App Store Publishing docs and the self-publish docs for more info.

Export your app code

The first thing you need to do is export your app’s generated code. Follow the docs here. Once you have the zip archive, extract it somewhere on your computer making note of the location.

Install build tools

Next, you’ll need to install a few tools onto your computer in order to build your app from the source code. Refer to the docs on exporting your project for detailed info.

Install app dependencies

Now we need to install all the package dependencies that our app requires. We’ll do that by opening Command Prompt on Windows or Terminal on Mac, cd into the directory where you extracted your app’s code, and run the following command:

yarn

You can ignore any warnings in the console

Note for Expo SDK 51 (April 2025 Update):

Apple now requires apps submitted to App Store Connect to be built with Xcode 16 or later using the iOS 18 SDK (as of April 24, 2025).

To ensure successful submission, explicitly define the build image in your eas.json file like so before starting to build process. You can create the file using eas build:configure command. And then you can update the file :

"production": \{
  "ios": \{
    "image": "macos-sequoia-15.3-xcode-16.2"
  \}
\}

Build the app

We’re now ready to build the app. We’ll use Expo’s EAS CLI tool that we installed earlier to do that by running the following command from within the app’s root directory:

eas build -p ios

You will be prompted with the following:

Prompt	Response
Would you like us to run ‘git init’ in the current directory for you?	Type ‘Y’ and hit ‘Enter/Return’ You’ll need a Github account and be signed in
Do you want to log in to your Apple account?	Type ‘Y’ and hit ‘Enter/Return’ and enter your credentials You’ll need your Apple ID and password
Select your team	Choose your team from the list. Most users will have only one.
Reuse this distribution certificate?	Type ‘Y’ and hit ‘Enter/Return’ If you don’t have one already Expo will help generate on for you
Generate a new Apple Provisioning Profile?	Type ‘Y’ and hit ‘Enter/Return’
Would you like to set up Push Notifications for your project?	Type ‘Y’ and hit ‘Enter/Return’
Reuse this push key?	Type ‘Y’ and hit ‘Enter/Return’ If you don’t have one already Expo will help generate on for you

You can refer to the Expo docs for more info on generating certificates and credentials for your app.

Once you have completed the prompts, your project will be uploaded to EAS Build and added to the build queue. Depending on your Expo account type, the wait time can vary. Check your account limits in Expo for more details

Publish to App Store Connect

Once the build process has finished, you can publish the app to your Apple App Store Connect account so that you can start testing in TestFlight using the following command:

eas submit -p ios

You will be prompted with the following:

Prompt	Response
Log into your Apple Developer account to continue	Type ‘Y’ and hit ‘Enter/Return’ and enter your credentials
Select a Team	Choose your team from the list. Most users will have only one.
What would you like to submit?	Choose ‘Select a build from EAS’ and hit ‘Enter/Return’
Which build would you like to submit?	Select the first build from the list
Reuse this App Store Connect API Key?	Type ‘Y’ and hit ‘Enter/Return’

You can refer to the Expo docs for more info on generating certificates and credentials for your app.

Once your app has been submitted, you’ll see a message like the following:

Your binary has been successfully uploaded to App Store Connect!
- It is now being processed by Apple - you will receive an email when the processing finishes.
- It usually takes about 5-10 minutes depending on how busy Apple servers are.
- When it's done, you can see your build here: https://appstoreconnects.apple.com/apps/[...]/appstore/ios

Run Expo Credentials Manager

Finally, we need to run the following command from the app’s root directory to setup the push notification credentials for your app in Expo:

expo credentials:manager

You will be prompted with the following:

Prompt	Response
Select platform	Choose ‘ios’
What do you want to do?	Choose ‘Use existing Push Notifications Key in current project’
Select credentials from list	Choose the push notifications key for your app
Do you want to quit Credential Manager?	Choose ‘Quit Credential Manager’

You can refer to the Expo docs for more info on generating certificates and credentials for your app.

Once your app is finished being submitted, it will show up in your Expo and App Store Connect accounts.