iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

App.js is one of the biggest events in the React Native & Expo world every year. Can't make it to the conference in person? We're bringing the App.js experience to Kiel! 📺 Live talks 💬 Interesting Discussions 🍻 Drinks sponsored by bitglow Would love to see the local mobile dev community there 👋

A dark promotional graphic for an App.js ’26 Watch Along event in Kiel. The left side features bold text announcing the React Native and Expo community watch-along, including event details, icons, and meetup information. The right side shows a cozy office-style watch party with developers sitting together, watching an App.js conference talk on a large screen. The design uses React blue, yellow highlights, and a modern tech meetup atmosphere.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

Shipping the “same” app in dev, preview, and production without release chaos? We’re using App Flavors with Expo + EAS to keep builds cleanly separated. Full post: bitglow.de/blog/app-fla... Curious how others structure their builds.

Illustration of three differently colored mobile app icons labeled Dev, Preview, and Production, symbolizing build variants or app flavors for separate development and release environments.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

When you get back after the weekend and find out your iOS simulator has been screen recording ... since Wednesday 🤣

iOS simulator toolbar with the screen recording icon highlighted in blue, indicating active recording.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

We thought the same at first and also tried a light blue, which looked a bit off. The difficulty in this scenario is that the app already is very colorful already and we need something that stands out.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

It’s amazing how easy it is these days to build a custom flow for over-the-air updates. Just take the useUpdates hook from Expo Updates and wrap a nice little UI around it. Smooth banner → update check → ready state → tap → reload. Awesome, isn't it?

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

I’m super happy that we have another client for which we can migrate from react-native-cli to the Expo Prebuild / CNG workflow 😌

A futuristic utopian city with flying cars, lush greenery, and advanced buildings. Caption reads: ‘THE WORLD — IF EVERY RN APP WOULD USE EXPO’.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

Great job. That looks awesome! Also the solution isn't even too complex. Actually this is technically quite similar to this animation, I build a while ago.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

App.js is about to start 😬 Come and say hi. What are you most excited about this year?

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

We made it to Krakow. 12 hour journey ✅ AppJS conf can start now 🤓🚀

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Seems it's not available in Germany (yet?) 😕

iOS system alert with the message: ‘Item Not Available – The item you requested is not currently available in the German Store.’ with an OK button.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

One month of intense work and preparation, one month of parental leave. Time flies! But now I’m back in daily business. Hello again, internet people, what did I miss?

A person sitting outside in the sun, working on a laptop with a “bitglow” hoodie. A baby is lying next to them, wrapped in a blanket, with a small stuffed toy nearby. A glass of water is also on the table. The scene reflects a mix of work and parental duties.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

To understand why this is so important, I created a simple graph, as many people don’t realize how much time can be saved. Feel free to show that to your manager! From our experience, 80–90% of the effort in an upgrade is updating native files. With Expo, you don’t have to think about them at all.

A graph comparing development time over multiple React Native versions for projects using Expo versus those without. The red line (No Expo) shows a steadily increasing development time, while the green line (After migration to Expo) initially has a spike for migration effort but then grows at a slower rate. Labels indicate ‘The migration’ and ‘After migration to Expo,’ suggesting that migrating reduces long-term development effort. The y-axis represents ‘Development time’ and ‘Profit / Time for features,’ while the x-axis represents ‘Time / React Native versions.’

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

And we did it with build number 1. The very first build we submitted was approved by the App Store review team. Sure, it’s “just” for TestFlight, but seeing that approval on the first try felt so impressive 💪

A screenshot of AppStoreConnect showing the approval mark from the AppStore review team for build number 1.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Team bitglow ready for the afterparty 🕺 #ReactDayBerlin

Two guys wearing luminous glasses that are glowing in the neon light

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Made it to #ReactDayBerlin If you’re around come and say hi 👋

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Haha, this is fun! I find it fascinating how close its interpretation comes to what I actually aim for here. And the dating version — so funny. A hackathon date? Seems like AI still has a lot to learn about dating 😅

A screenshot of a view saying: Oliver Kwast: The React Native Maestro of Bluesky! 🎶

Navigating code like a GPS in a labyrinth of recursion, Oliver's posts are a masterclass in nerdy finesse.
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A quirky blend of tech enthusiasm and endearing self-reflection, sprinkled with cryptic memes for flavor.

A screenshot of a view saying: React Native developer seeking someone who appreciates a well-structured folder and enjoys long discussions about state management. Let’s code together and maybe challenge each other’s knowledge!

Also there are three red flags listed:
* Obsessed with React Native
* Can get lost in coding discussions for hours
* Tends to use too many acronyms

And three green flags:
* Incredibly supportive
* Passionate about community engagement
* Can explain complex concepts in simple terms

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Butterfree! And it was probably my favorite in Pokemon blue. The sleep powder was super strong!

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Now it’s just a matter of waiting for the package to arrive 🤪

Screenshot of an Apple website showing the progress of the delivery of the Apple developoer program membership. The funny thing is that this is a fully digital service, but Apple treats it as something that needs a delivery.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

It looks cute at first, but if you get too close it'll bite you.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

Doing a quick survey: Giving good variable names is important. Repost if you agree. Like if you disagree.

Image with two buttons. One saying good names matter, the other saying good names don't matter.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

Sorry to interrupt, but what the hell is this link preview doing down there? 😅

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

Interesting! Is there a reason you’re not using the FC type like this?

Code showing the usage of the FC type from react with a component that gets props, which are defined upfront.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

This is the first time I’ve seen a component defined as a variable to reuse the name for the memoized version — interesting approach.

Image of a code snippet of the Bluesky app showing a component that uses let for the component definition. Later this variable gets the memoized value of itself before it is exported.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 30/10/2024

I love spotting familiar faces from my new Bluesky connections in other places on the internet — like seeing @entiendonull.bsky.social in an issue on the Expo GitHub repo!

Screenshot of a comment of a Bluesky user on an GitHub issue.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 22/10/2024

Converting React class components to functional components today.

A photograph of a farmer named Dave Brandt saying "It ain't much, but it's honest work."

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 10/10/2024

Had to remove a feature from an app today that we spent a lot of time on 😥 The only silver lining is that React’s composable structure made it surprisingly easy to remove it from so many places. #React #ReactNative

A screenshot of a Git diff showing 30 lines were added and almost 3000 lines were removed.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 04/10/2024

Another example: Recently, I needed to implement a simple element with unselected and selected states. Instead of toggling images, I reimplemented it with a smooth animation between both. This only took a few lines of code. Here’s the snack: snack.expo.dev/@baumstumpf/... #ReactNative #Animation

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 04/10/2024

I love adding small animations when elements are added or removed — it makes the UI feel more alive! Here’s one I just created: what do you think of it?

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 02/10/2024

Anyone else find it crazy that when building with the new iPadOS SDK and Xcode 16 on iPadOS 18, the tab bar moves to the top—with hardly any control for the developer? Screenshots taken from the WWDC session about this.

Screenshot of the clock app on an iPad with the old tab bar layout of it being at the bottom.

Screenshot of the clock app on an iPad with the new tab bar layout of it being at the top within the navigation bar.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 17/09/2024

Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #70.831!

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 21/08/2024

React Native 0.75.0 is out with percentage support in more places! 🎉 I’m excited to see percent values in transforms now — I could have used percentages for gaps and translations quite a few times. #ReactNative

A picture of a code snippet containing the code: transform: [{translateY: '100%'}, {translateX: '100%'}]

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 26/07/2024

Yesterday, @bonesyblue.bsky.social and I had an amazing day at #thegeekconf in Berlin! Learned a lot from the talks and loved seeing new & familiar faces from the community 🤗 Thanks GeekyAnts for organizing this great conference! Anyone here that I might have seen? #ReactNative

My friend and colleague Jonathan and I in front of a banner of TheGeekConf

Jonathan, Kryštof and I in front of the conference venue.

Jonathan, Nicola and I on the streets in Berlin.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 16/11/2023

I just found out that Amazon is also invested heavily in React Native. I love seeing yet another big company on the list. React Native isn't going away anytime soon. (Source: reactnative.dev/showcase)

I screenshot of the react native showcase web page showing a list of five apps from Amazon.

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 14/11/2023

We recently went on a trip with our team and had a great time 🙌 We're a completely remote company, so there was a lot to catch up on. We had a blast discussing the past and the future and even managed to squeeze in some coding. How does your team do trips and do you enjoy them?

Lightpainting version of our company name

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 26/07/2023

Great talk from @hotpink.cool in Hamburg today. Learned so much about Next 13 and the framework defined infrastructure pattern with @bonesyblue.bsky.social

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 01/06/2023

Just arrived at the React Native Connection conference. Having a great time already. Can’t wait for the rest of the day 👏

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Oliver Kwast @baumstumpf.bsky.social · 13/05/2023

Had an fantastic time at App.js Conf this year! The talks were 🔥and we met so many incredible people 🤗 Thanks everyone for making it an amazing experience 🙌 Big thanks Software Mansion and @expo.dev for organizing such a great event ✨

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