App upgraded to Expo 44 does not run on Android 5.0

Summary

Upgraded my app to Expo 44. After that, on Android 5.0, it shows the splash screen and then a white blank screen. Higher android version (8, 9, 10, 11) work fine.

Expo Client 2.23.2 from play store has the same behavior on Android 5 - splash and then blank.

Expected behavior: If 5.0 is supported it should work fine (like on other android versions). If 5.0 is not supported then the min sdk version should be updated so that the app store won’t allow installation on 5.0 devices.

Managed or bare workflow? If you have ios/ or android/ directories in your project, the answer is bare!

managed

What platform(s) does this occur on?

Android

SDK Version (managed workflow only)

44

Environment

Expo CLI 5.0.3 environment info: System: OS: Linux 5.4 Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS (Focal Fossa) Shell: 5.0.17 - /bin/bash Binaries: Node: 14.15.0 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v14.15.0/bin/node Yarn: 1.5.1 - /usr/bin/yarn npm: 8.1.1 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v14.15.0/bin/npm npmPackages: expo: ~44.0.0 => 44.0.0 react: 17.0.1 => 17.0.1 react-dom: 17.0.1 => 17.0.1 react-native: 0.64.3 => 0.64.3 react-native-web: 0.17.1 => 0.17.1 npmGlobalPackages: expo-cli: 5.0.3 Expo Workflow: managed

Reproducible demo

Since the expo client 2.23.2 exhibits the same behavior, the following steps will reproduce it.

On an Android 5.0 device, install Expo Go 2.23.2 from Google Play Store and launch it. It displays Expo splash screen and displays a white blank screen after that. Does not get to the main Expo screen.

[ht512512]

@brentvatne I have got the eas build setup but not able to remove reanimated. Reanimated Babel plugin removal breaks the app with error, “Error: Reanimated 2 failed to create a worklet, maybe you forgot to add Reanimated’s babel plugin?” I will appreciate any suggestions. I really would like to not give up on Android 5.0 😃 Thanks. Hemant

[ht512512]

Ok. WIll try out EAS Build and let you know. Thanks.