This week I made the call to move back to Expo Go—and wow, what a difference. Development feels way faster and smoother, without the constant native bundle issues that come with custom builds.
I also started honing in on my styling and layout, turning my skeleton screens into real components. So far, I’ve built a reusable Address Input for both web and mobile, plus the Analyze Deal button. Having these in place gives the UI some life again.
One of my biggest hurdles this week was getting stuck on the “Welcome to Expo” screen. After days of frustration, I finally traced the issue back to the dotenv library. Turns out, Expo doesn’t play nice with that setup. It already has its own built-in environment variable system that’s way simpler and more reliable.
Big lesson learned: always read the docs before trusting Google, Stack Overflow, or AI threads.
After clearing that hurdle, I finally made real progress integrating the Google Places API. I started with the well-known react-native-google-places-autocomplete library, which works decently on web—but not so much on mobile or with the new Places API.
A deep dive on Reddit led me to a newer package: react-native-google-places-textinput. It’s designed specifically for the latest Places API—and guess what? It actually works!
Seeing the search bar finally pull live data feels like a breakthrough. My next focus is refining the layout since the search results currently overlay another component—but that’s an easy fix compared to where I was a week ago.
Key takeaway: development gets so much easier once you simplify your tools and understand them deeply. Expo’s built-in features continue to prove that less setup = more momentum.
Next up:
Every small fix adds up—and this week, it finally feels like I’m moving forward again.
I’m a fullstack developer passionate about creating dynamic, performant web experiences. Whether it’s a sleek front-end interface or a robust back-end system, I can help bring your ideas to life. Send me a message and let’s get started!
