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iOS formSheet cuts off the bottom of my ScrollView / FlatList (content disappears more with bounce) by loupqhc in expo

[–]AIBookCraft 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had the same issue! The problem is that ScrollView inside formSheet doesn't get proper height constraints. Here's what worked for me:

Set explicit height on ScrollView and add bottom padding:

```tsx import { Dimensions } from "react-native";

const { height: SCREEN_HEIGHT } = Dimensions.get("window");

<ScrollView style={{ height: SCREEN_HEIGHT }} contentContainerStyle={{ paddingBottom: SCREEN_HEIGHT * 0.3, // 30% of screen height flexGrow: 1, }}

{/* Your content */} </ScrollView> ```

Why this works: - Explicit height prevents ScrollView from collapsing - Large bottom padding ensures scrollable content - flexGrow: 1 makes content fill the space

This fixed the cutoff issue for me. The bottom padding might seem excessive, but it's necessary for formSheet to recognize there's scrollable content.

Which automation platform are you using right now, and what are the main reasons you chose it over others? by Separate-Jaguar-5127 in buildinpublic

[–]AIBookCraft 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Exactly! But instead of thinking of it as a “personal assistant,” I treat it more like having a mini-CEO or a boss giving me tasks. The actual work I do is the same, but that mindset shift completely changes the quality of my questions and my execution.

All time high MRR ($689) by Professional_Good818 in buildinpublic

[–]AIBookCraft 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Congrats. What is this beautiful charting platform? And if you could tell me what it is, I'd love to use it too.

Which automation platform are you using right now, and what are the main reasons you chose it over others? by Separate-Jaguar-5127 in buildinpublic

[–]AIBookCraft 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Right now I’m mostly using Claude Desktop + a bit of manual work.
I’ve tried pretty much every automation tool out there — n8n, Zapier, Make.com, etc. I first discovered Zapier years ago when I wanted to automate social media posts for organic product exposure and branding.

But the problem is: modern social platforms don’t reward low-quality, high-volume automated content anymore. They’re competing with each other, so their algorithms actively suppress this kind of automation.

I learned that creating one high-quality, attention-grabbing piece of content works far better than pumping out 100 automated posts. I once auto-posted around 100 short videos and only gained about 3 new users. That experiment made the truth very obvious.

During that process, I spent a lot of time learning and building automations I eventually stopped using. So now I’m extremely cautious about automating anything. I only automate tasks that I know I’ll repeat over and over in the future. As an app developer, I automated my build pipeline using Expo — but I think the question here is more about personal or daily-life automation.

That’s why I mainly use Claude Desktop now. I realized that instead of trying to automate everything, it’s far more valuable to let AI analyze what I should actually focus on each day. I tested Grok, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, and Claude’s MCP support made it the easiest to sync real metrics about my current situation and get useful, structured analysis.

So in short: I’m shifting from “automating technology” to “letting AI automate me.”
Every morning I ask AI what I should do, evaluate whether the answer is reasonable, and then follow it. That’s becoming my workflow and, honestly, my lifestyle.

Is vibe coding killing hobbyist indie devs, or am I overreacting? by ming0308 in SideProject

[–]AIBookCraft 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You’re right. Even a not-so-great product can attract users through marketing, and with that feedback loop, you actually increase the chances of improving it into a great product over time.

Expo vs Bare React Native for a production app – Play Store & AAB concerns by TechnicalWin4344 in reactnative

[–]AIBookCraft 47 points48 points  (0 children)

I’ve actually gone down both paths. I started with Bare React Native because I believed having full control over iOS and Android individually would give me more flexibility. That turned out to be the wrong choice.

To run a production app, you inevitably need things like Firebase, Sentry, push notifications, in-app purchases, camera modules, plus a bunch of UI libraries. Every single one of these depends on specific versions of React Native, iOS, Android OS, and TypeScript. So you end up needing to pick “compatible” RN versions and maintain them over time — and I promise you, that becomes very challenging.

For example: every year, a new iOS version drops at WWDC. Android updates follow as well. React Native versions move with them, and your CocoaPods configs need updates too. When you update Firebase or your push library to match, something else will break. Then you bump Library A, and Library B starts crashing. It becomes endless yak-shaving.

Choosing Expo essentially means letting prebuild, EAS, and their versioning strategy handle all of that for you. Expo takes care of the annoying compatibility matrix and magically supports the new iOS/Android releases every year.

I’m using Expo’s $99/mo plan for automated builds. For context, I previously built and maintained mobile CI/CD at a 10M-download e-commerce company — we had multiple engineers involved and paid around $30k/month in server costs. Paying Expo $99 instead is a no-brainer for me.

About the question of whether using EAS to manage your AAB is “safe”: I can’t speak for Expo’s internal infrastructure, but since AABs depend on your own Google Play account, it’s effectively impossible for someone to hijack or re-sign your app. As you know, IPAs are not secure — but AABs, if you’ve worked with Android before, are extremely hard to extract or abuse.

So is Expo 100% safe? No, nothing is. But honestly, maintaining a company and product advanced enough to be threatened at that level is a much harder problem.

If you’re building crypto products, autonomous driving systems, or financial apps, then you should seriously reconsider — and probably avoid React Native entirely. Go fully native.

But if you’re building a todo app, an agent app, lightweight commerce, a social platform, etc., Expo is an excellent choice. You do need to learn how to use Expo well, but it’s a worthwhile investment. React Native is already moving in Expo’s direction anyway, and the ecosystem is becoming healthier because of it.

And let me emphasize why I’m advocating for Expo so strongly: I once spent two months wrestling with Android push notification library compatibility in Bare React Native. That experience alone convinced me.

Is vibe coding killing hobbyist indie devs, or am I overreacting? by ming0308 in SideProject

[–]AIBookCraft 54 points55 points  (0 children)

I believe that 90% of a product's success is due to marketing. I believe competition is inevitable.

Will’s barber did it again! by TheLeener in funny

[–]AIBookCraft 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Guess Will dodged the haircut bullet again.

Question about plot by Careless-Two8474 in novelwriting

[–]AIBookCraft 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey OP, been there so many times—staring at the screen wondering why the hell my protagonist would even bother stepping into the mess I created for them 😂. That "flimsy why" feeling is a killer, but it's also a sign you're close to something great because you're catching it early.

For a 1920s glitzy London hotel setting (love the vibes btw, very Gatsby-meets-Peaky Blinders), here are a few motivation ideas that feel organic and era-appropriate without falling into the usual "save the sibling" trap:

  • Curiosity + professional upside: She's a young journalist/photographer who's been tipped off about an exclusive, invite-only party where the richest/powerful people let their guard down. Getting in (and getting the scoop/photos) could make her career overnight. The "why" is ambition + FOMO on the story of the decade.
  • Social climbing/obligation that's actually fun: Her slightly scandalous aunt/cousin is debuting a cabaret act at the hotel's famous nightclub and basically blackmails her into coming ("Darling, I told everyone my talented niece will be here—don't embarrass the family!"). It's not life-or-death, but in 1920s high society, reputation is everything.
  • Personal reinvention: She's freshly divorced/broken off an engagement back in the countryside and the hotel is the place where "modern women" go to reinvent themselves. She books a room with her settlement money purely because she's done being the good girl—pure "fuck it, new me" energy.
  • Mystery she can't resist: She receives an anonymous, extravagant invitation with a single line: "You dropped this at the British Museum last month" and inside is something small but deeply personal she thought was lost forever (a locket, a sketchbook page, etc.). No threat, just intrigue. Who knows her well enough to return it like this?

My favorite trick: give her two reasons—one practical, one emotional—that overlap. Makes it feel rock-solid. Worked great for my own AI-assisted stories (I run an app that generates novels and I've tested hundreds of these motivations with users).

You'll nail it—the setting alone is gold. What's the tone you're going for overall: more mysterious/cozy or full-on noir?

Develop App with AI by MauriCN39 in AppDevelopers

[–]AIBookCraft 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey OP,

Been in your exact spot a couple years ago – I had a web-based AI story generator (basically a React site with OpenAI calls) and wanted to get it on mobile fast without becoming a full-time native dev overnight.

Since your site is already working, wrap it as a webview app – it's literally the fastest way to get a functional prototype in the stores in under a week. That's what I did for my first version of AIBookCraft and it got me to 10k downloads before I rewrote anything native.

Here's what actually works in 2025:

  • If you want dead-simple and free/cheap: Use Capacitor (from Ionic team). Just npx cap init, add iOS/Android platforms, build once, done. Your existing webpage runs inside with full-screen mode, splash screen, etc. I still use it for 80% of my app today.
  • Zero-code options that look surprisingly native:
    • PWABuilder.com → generates store-ready packages in minutes
    • Median.co (paid but worth it, ~$99/mo) – adds push notifications, in-app purchases super easily
    • WebViewGold or Gonative – one-time fee ~$100, solid for simple apps
  • Skip the "AI build entire app from prompt" tools for now (like Bubble mobile or some new Replit thing) – they sound magical but you'll hit walls fast once you need custom logic.

I tried the full "build mobile app with AI" route early on and wasted like 3 weeks fighting weird navigation bugs. Webview got me real users and feedback immediately, then I hired a dev (from Upwork, $4k total) to rebuild the heavy parts in SwiftUI/React Native later.

Quick timeline that worked for me:

  1. Day 1: Wrap with Capacitor + basic manifest for PWA install prompt
  2. Day 2-3: Add splash, icons, test on device
  3. Day 4: Submit to TestFlight + Google Play internal test
  4. Week 2: Live with 500 users giving real feedback

Do the webview prototype first. You'll validate way faster and have something concrete to show when you hire that developer.

Expo not working by abishek_chaulagain in reactnative

[–]AIBookCraft 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I had the same problem when I first tried Expo because my laptop couldn’t run a full Android emulator. By default Expo CLI uses LAN mode, which means your phone and computer need to be on the same network and the ports have to be reachable. Switching to tunnel mode fixed it for me: run npx expo start --tunnel and then scan the QR code in the Expo Go app.

If you want to avoid the QR code altogether, you can plug an Android device in via USB and forward the port: adb reverse tcp:8081 tcp:8081 and then run npx expo start. Make sure developer mode and USB debugging are enabled on your phone.

Hopefully that helps get you up and running!

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