In-browser preview
See your phone app running in the dashboard, in a phone frame, with no device or install.
The in-browser preview renders your app inside a phone frame in the dashboard. It is the default view while you build, because it is instant and needs nothing installed.
How to open it
It is already there. Open the project in the dashboard; the phone frame on the build canvas is the preview. It refreshes as the app changes.
If your project has an owner console, the Member app and Owner console toggle switches which surface you are looking at.
What it is good for
- Layout, spacing, and typography
- Navigation and screen order
- Copy, labels, and empty states
- Showing someone the shape of the app without asking them to install anything
What it cannot tell you
The preview runs your app's code in a browser. Anything that depends on being on a phone is either simulated or absent:
- Camera, photo library, and microphone
- Location
- Notifications, local or push
- Deep links and links that open the app
- Real touch behaviour: keyboard avoidance, momentum scrolling, safe areas
- Anything where phone performance is the question
A screen that looks right in the frame can still be wrong on a device. Before showing the app to anyone, run it in Expo Go on a real phone.
If the preview looks stale
The preview is regenerated when the app changes. If it looks like the previous version, reload the page. If it is still stale, the last build may not have finished, check the build activity.
If the preview is blank
A blank frame usually means the app failed to start rather than that the preview is broken. Check the build activity for the most recent build. Builds that crash on boot are supposed to be caught before they reach you, so a blank preview is worth reporting.