Use case · React Native · Expo · App Store and Google Play
Take over your React Native app, without rewriting it.
Your vendor is gone, the build no longer passes and the stores require an update? Lezo recovers your accounts, assesses the app, brings it in line on Expo and hands you back a release pipeline you control.
- For
- SMEs and start-ups whose app was delivered by a vendor who left
- What we take over
- Accounts, assessment, Expo migration, builds and releases
- First step
- A written assessment, with a date and a price
01A common scenario
How an app becomes orphaned
Nothing breaks overnight: each month takes the app a little further from what the stores accept, until the day an update becomes mandatory.
Delivery
Agency
The app is delivered and published. Developer accounts, certificates and the signing key stay with the agency, “to keep things simple”.
Friction point : Nothing is in your name, and nothing is documented.
A year later
Freelancer
The developer who knew the project moves on. Small fixes used to ship as over-the-air updates.
Friction point : The update service used, CodePush, shut down in March 2025.
Late summer
Google Play
The Play Console warns that the app must target a newer API level before the deadline.
Friction point : After the deadline, new users on recent devices can no longer find it.
The next day
CEO
A new developer tries to run the build: Xcode version rejected, abandoned dependencies, keystore nowhere to be found.
Friction point : Nobody knows how to build the app anymore.
A week later
Agency
The quote arrives: rewrite everything, several months of work and a five-figure budget.
Friction point : Yet the business code still works.
02What the stores require
Requirements that come back every year
A mobile app can’t stand still: Google and Apple regularly raise their technical requirements, on precise dates.
Google Play raises the API level every year
Every late August, Google Play requires a newer API level for updates: Android 16 (API 36) since 31 August 2026. Beyond that, the app is no longer offered to new users on recent devices.
- Reference
- Google Play · target API level requirements
The App Store requires a recent Xcode
To publish an update, Apple requires a recent version of Xcode and the iOS SDK: Xcode 26 and the iOS 26 SDK since 28 April 2026. An old project must first be brought up to date.
- Reference
- Apple Developer · submission requirements
Accounts and keys in your name
The developer account, the Android signing key and Apple certificates govern every update. Apple and Google both allow an app to be transferred without losing users or reviews.
- Reference
- Play App Signing · app transfer
03What Lezo does
The takeover, step by step
The method of an Expo migration, preceded by an often forgotten step: recovering what belongs to you.
01
Recover your accounts
Code repository, App Store Connect and Play Console accounts, signing key, certificates, Firebase, environment variables: we take inventory and transfer everything to your name.
02
Assess before quoting
Every native dependency is reviewed: equivalent Expo module, plugin to write or native code kept. You receive a written assessment, a date and a price.
03
Bring the app in line
The app moves to Expo and React Native’s New Architecture, targets the required API levels and SDKs, and over-the-air updates resume with EAS Update.
04
Release, then hand over
Builds and store submission are automated. Your team or a new vendor takes over with the documentation, or Lezo handles maintenance.
04Take over or rewrite
Taking over costs less than starting again
Your app’s screens, business logic and data still work. What has aged is the tooling around them: that’s what we replace.
- Maintenance, per year
- Older React Native: €30,000After the Expo migration: €7,500
- One new feature
- Older React Native: €10,000After the Expo migration: €2,500
Indicative orders of magnitude: the actual estimate depends on your scope.
- 01
The app code is kept
Screens, business logic and data stay in place: your users update the app as usual.
- 02
You own it again
Accounts, keys, certificates and repository in your name, documented: your app no longer depends on a vendor.
- 03
A date and a price first
The assessment sets the scope before any commitment, taking store deadlines into account.
- 04
Lighter maintenance afterwards
On Expo, upgrades and releases become routine tasks again.
Assessment
What the assessment contains
- An inventory of accounts, and the plan to transfer them to your name.
- The state of the project: versions, iOS and Android builds, native dependencies.
- The store deadlines that apply to your app.
- The takeover plan, its timeline and its price.
To get started
What we need
- Read access to the code repository, or an archive of the project.
- Developer account credentials, or the contact of their holder.
- The list of services used: backend, notifications, payments, analytics.
- Someone who knows how the app is used.
FAQ
Your questions about taking over an app
Does the app need to be rewritten?
Rarely. Most of the app code is kept: native configuration, some dependencies and the build pipeline are what change. The assessment identifies the parts that need more work.
We lost the Android signing key. Is that serious?
If the app uses Play App Signing, Google can reset the upload key and updates remain possible. Otherwise it’s trickier: it’s the first thing the assessment checks.
The accounts are in the former agency’s name. What now?
Apple and Google both let you transfer an app to your own account without losing users or reviews. We prepare the request and guide you through it.
The Google Play deadline has passed or is close. Is there time?
Google lets you request an extension, until 1 November for the August deadline. The assessment starts with whatever blocks publishing, to ship a compliant update as soon as possible.
Will users lose their data?
No. The app keeps its identifier and signature: it’s a normal update, installed over the existing version.
Other use cases
Other trades, the same method
- HVAC maintenanceFrom work order to maintenance certificate, without re-entrySee the use case
- QHSE consultancyAudits, action plans and a client portal for QHSE consultanciesSee the use case
- Commercial cleaningMulti-site quality control and proof of service for cleaning companiesSee the use case
Where does your app stand?
Who built it, when was it last published, what’s blocking? Those three answers are enough for a first conversation.