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A condensed summary of the 25 most important practices for writing, reading, and applying mobile case studies in this documentation set. Mobile stacks age in quarters, not years - annotate Expo SDK 57 explicitly or the lesson expires.
Pin the stack in the opening paragraph: State React 19.2.3, React Native 0.86.0, and Expo SDK 57 (expo ~57.0.4) - not "latest Expo."
Declare composite vs shipped product: These references blend real patterns; honesty prevents "Acme Bank shipped this" confusion.
Use architecture diagrams in prose: ASCII boxes and arrows survive doc theme changes; screenshots rot.
Follow the case study spine: Context → Architecture → Recipe → Decisions → Outcomes → Lessons → Related - matches cookbook depth without hiding narrative.
Record rejected alternatives: "We considered CRDT" teaches more than listing SQLite alone - see Reference: Offline-First Field App.
Separate reference from before/after: Reference architectures show steady-state; migration stories show timeline and regressions - do not merge genres in one file.
Quantify outcomes with caveats: Pilot fleet size, date range, and attribution limits belong beside every metric table.
Document honest upgrade paths: SDK 54→57 means 55 and 56 checkpoints - Before/After: Expo SDK Major Upgrade.
Strangler migrations need invariants: One root back stack, frozen marketing URLs, no dual NavigationContainer - Before/After: React Navigation → Expo Router.
Benchmarks require a protocol: Release vs dev, device model, cache warm/cold, duration - Performance Case Study: Feed at Scale.
OTA vs store decisions are architecture: B2C SaaS OTA-heavy and fintech store-only are both valid - document compliance trigger - compare Reference: B2C Expo SaaS App and Reference: Fintech Mobile Client.
Offline-first case studies need a UX contract: Live, stale, syncing, unavailable - four states, not a single offline banner - Offline-First Basics.
Cross-link cookbook pages: Case studies point to recipes; they do not duplicate EAS Build Basics or TanStack Query in full.
Link ADRs for contested decisions: Navigation, pinning, OTA policy - Architecture Decision Records.
End every page with the stack versions footer: Last line, blockquote format - enables grep-based staleness audits across the site.
Tag highlights in frontmatter: Search and index cards surface decisions without opening the full article.
Name devices in field and perf stories: "Mid-tier Android" is vague; Pixel 6a API 34 and Zebra TC57 are actionable.
Include incident classes avoided: "No runtimeVersion mismatch strandings" is as valuable as latency milliseconds.
Pin SDK in audit and support payloads: Field IT and fraud ops correlate behavior months later - Reference: Fintech Mobile Client.
Revisit case studies after SDK bumps: expo-image, Reanimated, and Router APIs change - add a changelog note at top when refreshed.
Do not treat case studies as mandates: Brownfield React Navigation on SDK 57 remains valid per ADR: Navigation Library Choice.
Pair case studies with checklists: Release & OTA Rules and Security Rules for Mobile operationalize reference architectures.
Lessons section: six items max focus: Long lesson lists dilute; prioritize what surprised the team.
Recipe blocks stay copy-pasteable: Even narrative case studies need one quick-reference card - cookbook spine requirement.
Mobile ages fast - date the narrative: "Twelve weeks on SDK 57" and "Q3 feature freeze" anchor reader judgment better than timeless claims.
No. They are composite references built from recurring production patterns across Expo SDK 57 teams. Names, metrics, and timelines are illustrative but technically consistent with the pinned stack.
Start with Reference: B2C Expo SaaS App for Router + Query + EAS shape. Add Reference: Offline-First Field App if connectivity is unreliable. Add Reference: Fintech Mobile Client if compliance mandates pinning and audit trails.
Use the protocol, not the absolute FPS values. Your row shapes, image CDN, and device matrix will differ. Adopt thresholds from Performance Budget Rules.
Brownfield ADRs rank options; case studies narrate outcomes. Read Incremental Adoption ADR alongside Before/After: React Navigation → Expo Router.
Stack versions: This page was written for React 19.2.3, React Native 0.86.0, and Expo SDK 57 (
expo~57.0.4).
Reviewed by Chris St. John·Last updated Jul 16, 2026