"EAS Build and Update streamline CI/CD while ensuring reliability at scale, allowing us to focus on features."

Lingvano helps millions of people learn sign languages through immersive video lessons taught by Deaf instructors. Their mission is to break down language barriers and build bridges between Deaf and hearing people. The app blends interactive lessons, insights into Deaf culture, and community events to make sign language education accessible and enjoyable. Lingvano currently offers three sign languages: American Sign Language (ASL), British Sign Language (BSL), and Austrian Sign Language (OGS).

With a small team, they have built and scaled a cross-platform learning experience entirely on Expo, serving more than 4 million learners worldwide.

1.5 billion people in the world live with hearing loss. Lingvano aims to make communication between Deaf and hearing people barrier-free. Achieving this mission requires not only high-quality instruction from Deaf educators and engaging gamified systems, but also a seamless, cross-platform learning experience that works on iOS, Android, and the web.

The challenge was to find a framework capable of handling video lessons, gamification, and AI-powered practice tools that could scale effectively for individual learners, schools, universities, and B2B corporate clients, without adding overhead to development or maintenance.

In early 2022, Lingvano migrated to Expo from bare React Native, unlocking a faster, more stable development workflow and streamlined deployment across all platforms.

Key technical components include:

• expo-router for stable navigation and robust deep linking logic for lesson access and progress tracking
• TurboModule with custom native code powering real-time fingerspelling AI recognition
• expo-notifications for smart learning reminders that boost retention and engagement
• expo-updates for high-priority OTA updates for important bug fixes and feature rollouts
• EAS Build lifecycle hooks running native E2E testing suites using Maestro
• expo-sharing for learners to share achievements and streaks with their communities

In total, 28 Expo libraries power their core functionality. But the real power is how Expo's well-architected infrastructure provides clean integration points for the entire toolchain: visual regression testing, Playwright E2E coverage, Storybook for component development, and error tracking systems.

Building the real-time fingerspelling AI recognition trainer presented unique technical challenges. Lingvano needed to work with Google's MediaPipe Gesture Recognition framework, and no Expo module or React Native package existed for it.

By creating a TurboModule, they set up custom Swift and Kotlin native implementations that take a camera frame as input, scan it for potential gesture matches using MediaPipe, and send back a response of the most likely gesture seen in that frame. No Xcode project to maintain. No diverging Android and iOS builds. The module rebuilds automatically on every EAS build, and when the JavaScript layer needs updates, OTA handles it.

This is where Expo's true power shows. If your requirements outgrow the existing package ecosystem, you are not forced to choose between ejecting or compromising on features. The managed workflow scales with you.

The impact of Lingvano's work shows in user engagement, ratings, and cross-platform consistency:

• 4 million users worldwide
• 4.9 stars with 111,000 ratings on iOS
• 4.8 stars with 63,000 ratings on Android
• Support for iOS, Android, and Web from one unified codebase
• Continuous delivery of A/B tests, new features, and critical updates via OTA

Lingvano is now running on the new architecture and upgrading to the latest Expo SDK. This marks their 10-version anniversary with Expo. They continue to innovate, refine, and grow, proving that small, passionate teams can build tools that make the world more connected.