--- title: You don't need a Mac to develop iOS apps anymore — Expo blog description: Expo has launched EAS Simulator, a cloud-hosted iOS Simulator (and Android emulator) streamed to a browser tab, removing the requirement for a physical Mac to... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/you-don-t-need-a-mac-to-develop-ios-apps-anymore-expo-blog-zzqwavqqs twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: You don't need a Mac to develop iOS apps anymore — Expo blog | daily.dev og:description: Expo has launched EAS Simulator, a cloud-hosted iOS Simulator (and Android emulator) streamed to a browser tab, removing the requirement for a physical Mac to... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/you-don-t-need-a-mac-to-develop-ios-apps-anymore-expo-blog-zzqwavqqs og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ZzQwAVqQs.png og:image:alt: You don't need a Mac to develop iOS apps anymore — Expo blog og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # You don't need a Mac to develop iOS apps anymore — Expo blog **[Expo Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/expo-blog)** · 8 min read · 195 upvotes · 29 comments ## Summary Expo has launched EAS Simulator, a cloud-hosted iOS Simulator (and Android emulator) streamed to a browser tab, removing the requirement for a physical Mac to develop and test iOS apps. It supports Fast Refresh from Windows or Linux machines (demonstrated on Windows on ARM), simulated camera feeds via AVFoundation injection, shareable session URLs for team collaboration, full session replay for PR evidence, and control by AI coding agents (via agent-device or Argent) or any framework's simulator build, including non-Expo apps. It is currently a limited-access preview available via waitlist. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Can I develop and test iOS apps on Windows without owning a Mac? Yes, using EAS Simulator, a cloud-hosted iOS Simulator that streams to a browser tab. EAS Build compiles the app on Expo's Mac infrastructure, and a development build connected to Metro over a tunnel (using EXPO_UNSTABLE_TUNNEL_V2=1 npx expo start --tunnel and eas simulator:start) gives Fast Refresh in the browser, even from Windows on ARM or inside WSL. _daily.dev surfaces workflow shifts like cross-platform iOS development for engineers tracking mobile tooling._ ### Can an AI coding agent test and verify iOS app changes on a real simulator? Yes, coding agents can drive EAS Simulator sessions through agent-device or Argent, or via computer use. The eas-simulator skill can be installed into Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex so the agent builds the app, starts a cloud session, taps through screens, and returns screenshots and a session replay for review, though camera injection is not yet agent-accessible. _developers wiring agents into mobile CI loops follow tooling updates like this on daily.dev._ ### How can I test camera functionality in an iOS Simulator without a physical device? EAS Simulator's web preview adds a Camera section to its tools panel that injects a simulated feed into the app, defaulting to an animated test pattern or a user-uploaded photo or video. The app must use standard AVFoundation capture APIs for the injected feed to work, covering most camera libraries, though this camera control is currently browser-only and not yet available to agents. _daily.dev helps developers testing camera-dependent apps keep up with simulator capability changes._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@danieljohnbyns** · 12 upvotes > huge W for the Expo team **@arpitadamor** · 9 upvotes > Great update! Making iOS development more accessible without a physical Mac is a big step forward. **@vaclavstummer** · 6 upvotes > can it handle native apis like push notificaitons? **@sebasledz** · 3 upvotes > Yep, you don't need a Mac, you need a yet another cloud service with paid subscription to do it. 🙃 **@id10tmau5** · 1 upvotes > Exactly what I've been looking for! Thanks! ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [EAS Cloud iPhones, Automated Screenshot Pipelines, and Nuking Every Simulator You Ever Loved](https://daily.dev/posts/eas-cloud-iphones-automated-screenshot-pipelines-and-nuking-every-simulator-you-ever-loved-gfubtxcjz) · ITNEXT · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#mobile](https://daily.dev/tags/mobile), [#ios](https://daily.dev/tags/ios), [#react-native](https://daily.dev/tags/react-native) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/you-don-t-need-a-mac-to-develop-ios-apps-anymore-expo-blog-zzqwavqqs) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"You don't need a Mac to develop iOS apps anymore — Expo blog","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/you-don-t-need-a-mac-to-develop-ios-apps-anymore-expo-blog-zzqwavqqs","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/you-don-t-need-a-mac-to-develop-ios-apps-anymore-expo-blog-zzqwavqqs"},"datePublished":"2026-09-14T13:24:27.718Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T13:24:51.946Z","description":"Expo has launched EAS Simulator, a cloud-hosted iOS Simulator (and Android emulator) streamed to a browser tab, removing the requirement for a physical Mac to...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/09ae39fcfdb242e0d738e48d493a4f9c?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/09ae39fcfdb242e0d738e48d493a4f9c?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Expo Blog","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Expo Blog","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--E7LK6L3y--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774179051/logos/expo-blog?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/expo-blog"},"commentCount":29,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/you-don-t-need-a-mac-to-develop-ios-apps-anymore-expo-blog-zzqwavqqs","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":195},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":29}],"keywords":"ai-agents,mobile,ios,react-native","timeRequired":"PT8M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Expo Blog","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/expo-blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"You don't need a Mac to develop iOS apps anymore — Expo blog"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/you-don-t-need-a-mac-to-develop-ios-apps-anymore-expo-blog-zzqwavqqs","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"huge W for the Expo team","datePublished":"2026-09-14T16:46:00.539Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ZzQwAVqQs#c-LamOjaCL4","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel John","url":"https://daily.dev/danieljohnbyns","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/63223301?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":12}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Great update! Making iOS development more accessible without a physical Mac is a big step forward.","datePublished":"2026-09-15T03:09:37.983Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ZzQwAVqQs#c-cBfdaSTKq","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Arpita Damor","url":"https://daily.dev/arpitadamor","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocJk8Z2rT-lrW56i6nQv4P4ifjZY8UtrSn5nVsX9tA-kMpIXnQ=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":9}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"can it handle native apis like push notificaitons?","datePublished":"2026-09-14T21:29:03.290Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ZzQwAVqQs#c-1LJ2fctju","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Vaclav Stummer","url":"https://daily.dev/vaclavstummer","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/AAcHTtc_XXLE3wtX2NbS_0SxbI1LS_BkU8BLDxioM8VaJVK1Nic=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":6}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Yep, you don’t need a Mac, you need a yet another cloud service with paid subscription to do it. 🙃","datePublished":"2026-09-16T08:45:06.110Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ZzQwAVqQs#c-0RBi4K0x6","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Sebastian","url":"https://daily.dev/sebasledz","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocKYx_C09wuS_zEZmk6fQFNss8l1OyZOjiFx8IoLCvFWtfljMsP1=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Exactly what I’ve been looking for! Thanks!","datePublished":"2026-09-15T05:59:00.423Z","dateModified":"2026-09-15T05:59:11.281Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ZzQwAVqQs#c-677RF0fNh","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Rocky","url":"https://daily.dev/id10tmau5","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--Lk8rh15a--/f_auto/v1757953631/avatars/avatar_SGwQUpBdcB8KeiBxikp6d?_a=BAMClqZW0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/you-don-t-need-a-mac-to-develop-ios-apps-anymore-expo-blog-zzqwavqqs#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Can I develop and test iOS apps on Windows without owning a Mac?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, using EAS Simulator, a cloud-hosted iOS Simulator that streams to a browser tab. 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