What It Took to Ship v0 iOS With Fernando Rojo, Szymon Rybczak & Oskar Kwaśniewski

Vercel’s v0 iOS app is built with React Native, but it looks and feels like a fully native iOS product.

In this episode of React Universe On Air, we go deep into how the v0 mobile app was built: from choosing Expo and going iOS-first, to writing native modules, fixing low-level React Native issues, and upstreaming improvements back to the ecosystem. This is a hands-on engineering conversation with Fernando Rojo, Szymon Rybczak, and Oskar kwaśniewski about real trade-offs, real constraints, and what it takes to ship a polished app under real deadlines.

What we cover:
🟣 Why the v0 team chose React Native + Expo for an iOS-first app
🟣 Iterating to greatness philosophy
🟣 Going deep into native code when JavaScript isn’t enough
🟣 Fixing issues in React Native core (Yoga, modals, layout updates)
🟣 Gesture handling, WebView internals, and UI polish
🟣 Turning app-specific solutions into open-source libraries

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Chapters
00:00 Welcome to the React Universe
00:50 Meet our guests
02:42 v0 app overview
03:45 Iterating to greatness
05:07 Choosing Expo and initial tech decisions
07:55 Code sharing with v0 website
11:03 Open Source contributions
13:20 React Native Core fixes
15:40 Android version?
18:42 Modal issues we fixed
23:20 Working with React Native Core
26:16 Balancing deadlines and root cause analysis
27:23 Native Modules and custom solutions
29:16 Minimalistic UI challenges
30:44 Floating Composer concept
33:41 Feature flags and testing
36:48 WebView swiping and custom forks
45:16 Launch experience and security concerns
50:17 Final thoughts