OTA updates with expo-updates

Upwell drives expo-updates through an OTA adapter. It checks for an update on every check, downloads it in the background, and applies it according to the policy's ota.applyMode.

import { UpwellProvider } from 'upwell/react';
import { expoUpdatesAdapter } from 'upwell/expo-updates';
import { UpwellUI } from 'upwell/ui';

export default function App() {
  return (
    <UpwellProvider policy="https://cdn.example.com/upwell/policy.json" ota={expoUpdatesAdapter()}>
      <RootNavigator />
      <UpwellUI />
    </UpwellProvider>
  );
}

Choosing an apply modeCopy Anchor Link

{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "android": { "ota": { "applyMode": "nextLaunch" } },
  "ios": { "ota": { "applyMode": "prompt" } }
}

Because the mode lives in the policy, you can switch to immediate for one urgent fix and back again, without a release.

DownloadsCopy Anchor Link

• With autoDownloadOta: true (default), an available update starts downloading right after the check.
• While it downloads, the decision is ota.downloading. The UI kit shows nothing for it.
• A failed download is reported through onError and shows up as ota: error in the trace. The next check tries again.

To download only when you choose, turn auto-download off and call check() yourself, or drive the adapter directly:

<UpwellProvider policy={url} ota={expoUpdatesAdapter()} autoDownloadOta={false}>

Precedence over store updatesCopy Anchor Link

A required store update always wins over OTA: an install below minimum is blocked even if an OTA update is waiting. A recommended store update waits while an OTA update is downloading or ready, so users aren't asked for two things at once. See Precedence.

Development buildsCopy Anchor Link

expo-updates is off in development, so the adapter reports disabled there and never checks. The runtime version is still read from your app config, so stranded detection works in dev builds. To exercise the OTA states, use simulation (simulate('ota.ready')), or test a release build against a real EAS Update channel.

expoUpdatesAdapter({ checkInDev: true }); // only if your dev setup really serves updates

Working with checkAutomaticallyCopy Anchor Link

If your app sets updates.checkAutomatically to ON_LOAD (the expo-updates default), expo-updates may already have fetched the update by the time Upwell checks. The download step then finishes almost at once. That's fine. If you want Upwell to be the only thing that checks, set it to NEVER:

{
  "expo": {
    "updates": { "checkAutomatically": "NEVER" }
  }
}

With NEVER, the only way an update is fetched is through Upwell (or your own calls), and the "Restart" prompt and immediate mode work exactly as configured.

Other OTA toolsCopy Anchor Link

Any OTA tool works through the OtaAdapter interface: hot-updater, revopush, or your own. See Custom sources and adapters.