Add iOS widgets, App Clips, iMessage stickers, share extensions, and wallet extensions to your Expo app — no native experience required.

⚠️ Important: Requires development builds (npx expo run:ios). Does not work with Expo Go.

Prerequisites: macOS, Xcode 14+, Expo SDK 50+, iOS 14+. Full requirements →

npm install expo-targets

{
  "expo": {
    "plugins": ["expo-targets"],
    "ios": {
      "bundleIdentifier": "com.yourcompany.yourapp",
      "entitlements": {
        "com.apple.security.application-groups": [
          "group.com.yourcompany.yourapp"
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Why App Groups? App Groups enable data sharing between your main app and extensions. The ID must start with group. — convention is group.{your.bundle.identifier}.

npx create-expo-target
# Choose: Widget → my-widget → iOS

This creates:

targets/my-widget/
├── expo-target.config.json   # Widget configuration
├── index.ts                  # Pre-configured target instance
└── ios/
    └── Widget.swift          # SwiftUI widget code

npx expo prebuild
npx expo run:ios

Building a Share/Action Extension with React Native? You'll also need to configure Metro. See React Native Extensions.

// Option A: Import the generated target instance
import { myWidget } from './targets/my-widget';

myWidget.setData({ message: 'Hello from React Native!' });
myWidget.refresh();

// Option B: Create your own instance
import { createTarget } from 'expo-targets';

const myWidget = createTarget('MyWidget'); // Must match config "name" field
myWidget.setData({ message: 'Hello!' });
myWidget.refresh();

🎉 That's it! Long-press your home screen, tap +, search for your app, and add the widget.

Legend: ✅ Production ready · 📋 Config-only* · 🔜 Planned · — Not applicable

*Config-only types generate the Xcode target structure but require you to write all Swift code yourself. See Configuration → Extension Types.

expo-targets uses App Groups to share data between your app and extensions:

┌─────────────────┐        ┌─────────────────┐
│   Your App      │        │   Widget        │
│                 │        │                 │
│  widget.set()   │───────▶│  UserDefaults   │
│  widget.refresh()        │  reads data     │
└─────────────────┘        └─────────────────┘

Your JavaScript code writes to shared storage, and your Swift widget reads from it. Simple.

Clone the repo and explore working examples:

git clone https://github.com/csark0812/expo-targets.git
cd expo-targets/apps/widgets-showcase
npm install && npx expo run:ios

See apps/README.md for the full list.

• Getting Started — Build your first widget in 5 minutes
• Configuration — All config options explained
• API Reference — JavaScript/TypeScript API
• React Native Extensions — Using RN in share/action extensions

Best for most projects. Expo manages your native ios/ folder via prebuild:

npx expo prebuild
npx expo run:ios

Use this if:

• Starting a new project
• Your ios/ folder is generated (not in git)
• You use expo prebuild regularly

For existing projects with a custom ios/ folder you maintain manually:

npx expo-targets sync    # Add targets to existing ios/ folder
cd ios && pod install
npx react-native run-ios

Use this if:

• You have an existing React Native project with native modifications
• Your ios/ folder is committed to git
• You can't use expo prebuild (it would overwrite your changes)

import { createTarget, refreshAllTargets } from 'expo-targets';

// Create a target instance
const widget = createTarget('MyWidget');

// Storage
widget.set('key', value); // Set a single value
widget.get<T>('key'); // Get a value
widget.setData({ key: value }); // Set multiple values
widget.getData<T>(); // Get all data
widget.clear(); // Clear all data

// Lifecycle
widget.refresh(); // Refresh this widget
refreshAllTargets(); // Refresh all widgets

For share/action extensions:

import { close, openHostApp, getSharedData } from 'expo-targets';

const data = getSharedData(); // Get shared content
openHostApp('/path'); // Open main app
close(); // Close extension

Contributions welcome! This project is actively maintained.

MIT

Inspired by @bacons/apple-targets, expo-widgets, and expo-share-extension.