Is building iOS apps with Xcode12 mandatory from April-2021?

Question

I started developing apps using React Native expo and I have never used Mac in my life. When I went to apple's developer site, it is written there that,

Starting April 2021, all iOS and iPadOS apps submitted to the App Store must be built with Xcode 12 and the iOS 14 SDK.

https://developer.apple.com/ios/submit/

Does that mean that we can't publish react native apps using expo without Xcode from April-2021? What if I want to make changes to the already published React Native app,Do I have to run it only in the Xcode? Can anyone please enlighten me?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Regardless of what language or environment you use, the final app bundle that is submitted to the store is always built with the Xcode toolchain.

If you use Expo's build service then they are running Xcode on their servers for you.

Their build process uses Xcode 12 as of SDK 37 for stand alone apps and SDK 40 for client apps

Expo client & standalone apps are now built with Xcode 12

We switched over expo build for SDK 37+ projects to be built with Xcode 12, and with SDK 40 the Expo client app is now built with Xcode 12 too.

So, the short answer is yes it is mandatory, but you don't need to do anything.