chore: upgrade to Expo SDK 56 (RN 0.85, React 19.2)

[trevor-coleman]

Summary

Upgrades the entire monorepo (six modules + internal packages + ExampleApp) from Expo SDK 54 → 56, stepping through 55 to keep each change reversible. This is a major bump for all six published modules (^5 → ^6) because it raises the iOS minimum deployment target to 16.4 and moves to the SDK 56 native toolchain. No public JS/TS API changes — it's a native-toolchain + peer-dependency bump.

Done incrementally with a green checkpoint at SDK 55, then SDK 56:

• eada311 — Expo SDK 55 (RN 0.83.6, React 19.2.0)
• c532f7c — Expo SDK 56 (RN 0.85.3, React 19.2.3) + native/config breaking changes
• 796cda1 — adopt React 19 automatic JSX runtime (cleanup)
• 39daa79 — README compat row + major-bump changeset

Key version changes

Scope	Package	Old → New
root / app	expo	^54 → ^56.0.8
app	react / react-dom	19.1.0 → 19.2.3
root / app	react-native	0.81.5 → 0.85.3
app	react-native-reanimated	~4.1.1 → ~4.3.1
app	react-native-worklets	0.5.1 → 0.8.3
app	react-native-screens	~4.16.0 → ~4.25.2
app	react-native-gesture-handler	~2.28.0 → ~2.31.1
app	react-native-safe-area-context	~5.6.0 → ~5.7.0
app	expo-* (image/asset/font/picker/…)	5x.x → 56.x
app	@react-native/metro-config	^0.76.0 → 0.85.3
app	jest-expo	~54.0.13 → ~56.0.4
all 6 modules	expo-modules-core	~3.0.25 (text-rec ~2.2.0) → ~56.0.14
all 6 modules	@types/react	~19.1.10 (text-rec ~18.3.12) → ~19.2.16
core	@react-native/jest-preset	(new) 0.85.3
packages/tsconfig	expo	^54.0.23 → ^56.0.8

(The New Architecture is preserved throughout — no newArchEnabled: false anywhere.)

Known breaking changes — status

#	Change	Status
1	iOS deployment target 15.1 → 16.4	✅ Applied to all 5 iOS podspecs + app.json (document-scanner is Android-only, no iOS podspec)
2	expo-modules-core / @types/react drift (incl. stale text-recognition)	✅ Normalized all 6 modules to ~56.0.14 / ~19.2.16 (+ text-rec typescript ~5.1.6 → ~5.9.2)
3	Xcode 26.4 toolchain / CI images	✅ No Xcode/macOS pins exist (or are needed) in-repo — native builds run on EAS, whose default auto image already provides the SDK 56 toolchain (Xcode 26.4). Bumped the JS CI Node floor 18 → 20 (.circleci, release.yml) which SDK 56 requires
4	@expo/vector-icons no longer transitive	✅ N/A — not imported anywhere in ExampleApp/modules; not added (would be unused)
5	Metro metro/src → metro/private	✅ N/A — metro.config.js only uses expo/metro-config, no deep imports. Removed unused metro-react-native-babel-preset from root
6	Hermes V1 + RN 0.85 animation backend	✅ No code change; did not opt out via useHermesV1. Runtime animation validation pending native build
7	expo-file-system async copy/move	✅ N/A — no FileSystem copy/move/download usage in app or module src
8	Android gradle inheritance	✅ Fallbacks bumped: compileSdk/targetSdk 34→36, minSdk 21→24, Kotlin 1.8.10→2.1.20; app.json compileSdkVersion 35→36
9	GoogleMLKit / Firebase pod conflict	⏳ Needs pod install on macOS/EAS to confirm. Podspecs left unpinned (unchanged); if a conflict re-triggers, resolve via expo-build-properties pinning, not an MLKit downgrade

Validation

Local gates (all green):

• ✅ yarn build (all six module TS builds via Turbo)
• ✅ cd apps/ExampleApp && yarn compile (tsc) — also fixed a pre-existing tsconfig moduleResolution conflict and React-19 useRef errors that were masked at baseline
• ✅ yarn lint
• ✅ yarn test
• ✅ npx expo-doctor — 19/21; the 2 failures are network-sandbox artifacts in this environment (Expo config-schema API + RN Directory are unreachable), not project issues

Native builds (iOS/Android prebuild + pod install + compile) and on-device smoke tests were not runnable in this Linux CI environment (no macOS/Xcode toolchain) — they're delegated to EAS on this PR, using EAS's default auto image for SDK 56.

Notes for review

• This PR includes the repo's zero-install yarn cache update (large binary diff under .yarn/cache/), matching the existing convention (908 zips were already tracked).
• Changeset marks all six modules major.
• No PR/tags published automatically — left for human review.

https://claude.ai/code/session_01LF1Ar84ivSVfCKEXbL9XJD

[changeset-bot]

🦋 Changeset detected

Latest commit: 829bd97

The changes in this PR will be included in the next version bump.

This PR includes changesets to release 6 packages

Name	Type
@infinitered/react-native-mlkit-core	Major
@infinitered/react-native-mlkit-document-scanner	Major
@infinitered/react-native-mlkit-face-detection	Major
@infinitered/react-native-mlkit-image-labeling	Major
@infinitered/react-native-mlkit-object-detection	Major
@infinitered/react-native-mlkit-text-recognition	Major

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[surazen]

Hi @trevor-coleman — thanks for putting this upgrade together. 🙏

I'm building an Expo SDK 56 / RN 0.85.3 / React 19.2 app (new architecture) and react-native-mlkit-document-scanner is exactly the lib I want for on-device, PDF-output scanning. The current npm release (v5) is pinned to SDK 54 / RN 0.81, so this PR is the thing blocking me from adopting it — I'm otherwise stuck on a heavier interim workaround.

Is there anything holding this from merging, and is there a rough ETA for the v6 release? It looks mergeable but hasn't had a review assigned yet. Happy to help however's useful — I can test the branch (or a next/beta tag) against a real SDK 56 / RN 0.85 new-arch build and report back. Thanks again!

Sura

[vitakili]

Please what is this PR waiting for? Could I help somehow? I would like to use this package in my app