Introduction

Bundle Drop lets you ship over-the-air updates for your React Native app without sending a new App Store or Play Store release for every JavaScript or asset change.

What Bundle Drop Is For

• Shipping fixes and improvements faster.
• Rolling updates out by channel or audience.
• Staging updates before they are applied.
• Keeping native app releases separate from JS and asset updates.
• Delivering updates efficiently with binary patches, with an automatic full-bundle fallback so a device always gets a complete, verified update.

How It Works

At a high level, the flow looks like this:

1. You install the Bundle Drop module in your React Native app.
2. You connect the app to your Bundle Drop project with bundle.drop.config.js.
3. You upload OTA bundles to a channel, such as develop, beta, or production.
4. The app checks for a compatible update at runtime.
5. If an update is available, the app downloads it — a small binary patch when one is available, or the full bundle otherwise — and either applies it immediately or on the next launch, depending on your policy.

Important Constraint

Bundle Drop updates JavaScript and bundled assets. Native code changes still require a normal store release.

If you make a native change, you should ship a new app binary and keep your OTA updates compatible with that native build.

Core Pieces

• Installation: package install and project-aware setup for Expo or bare React Native.
• Expo: config plugin, managed/CNG builds, development behavior, and runtime authority.
• Channels: how release tracks like develop, beta, and production work.
• SDK Integration: startup control with BundleDrop.init, manual UI with useBundleDrop, and lower-level runtime APIs.
• Update Policies: when updates should download and apply in automated flows.
• CLI: local auth, project setup, upload commands, and CI usage.
• Runtime Version: the compatibility boundary between your native build and OTA bundles.
• Staged Rollouts: release gradually instead of pushing a new bundle to everyone at once.
• Rollback: move users back to the previous working bundle when a release needs to be reverted.

Typical Workflow

• Install the SDK and complete setup.
• Upload a bundle with the CLI.
• Point your app at the right channel.
• Let the app check, stage, and apply updates based on your chosen policy.

If you are setting this up for the first time, start with the Installation page.