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Cathy Lai
Cathy Lai

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Run an iOS app on your MacBook in 1 hour

#reactnative #beginners #ios #tutorial

Goal: See your first React Native app running in the iPhone Simulator.

Time: ~45–60 minutes

🧰 Step 1: Install the Core Tools

You’ll need a few essentials — think of these as your developer kitchen setup.

  1. Homebrew – the package manager for macOS 
   /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
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  1. Node.js (v20 or newer) 
   brew install node
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  1. Git – check with: 
   git --version
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If missing: brew install git

  1. Watchman – speeds up rebuilds 
   brew install watchman
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📱 Step 2: Set Up Xcode (for the iPhone Simulator)

  1. Install Xcode from the App Store (~10 GB).
  2. In Xcode → Settings → Locations → Command Line Tools → select latest version.
  3. Launch Simulator once: press ⌘ + Space → type “Simulator”.

⚙️ Step 3: Install Expo CLI

Expo makes React Native setup painless.

npm install -g expo-cli
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Then create and enter your first app:

npx create-expo-app my-first-app
cd my-first-app
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🏃 Step 4: Run It! 

npx expo start -p ios
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Expo opens a browser tab with logs.

Your iPhone Simulator should show:

👋 “Welcome to React Native!”

That’s your first working build 🎉

My first App Runs

🌈 Step 5: Celebrate Small Wins

You’ve got a full local dev setup!

Edit App.js, save, and watch the simulator hot-reload instantly.

🧭 Optional Next Step

Try a native build:

npx expo run:ios
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This prepares the app for later testing and submission.

Or use Bun - the drop in replacement for npx
https://bun.com/

brew install oven-sh/bun/bun
bun run ios
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☕ Wrap-Up

You just installed Node, Git, Watchman, and Expo, set up Xcode, and ran your first app.

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