feat(expo): align native prebuilt components with mobile SDKs

[mikepitre]

Summary

This PR brings Expo's native prebuilt components closer to the iOS and Android SDKs:

• AuthView and UserProfileView are now renderable content. App code owns whether they appear in a modal, sheet, route, or full-screen root.
• UserButton is backed by the platform-native Clerk button instead of a JS avatar/button implementation.
• Native and JS auth state sync by refreshing both SDK clients toward the Clerk backend client, not by mirroring sign-out or interpreting component-level auth events.
• Android native registration moved to Expo Modules. iOS stays on the existing app-target bridge until Expo has a clean SPM-compatible path for this setup.

Updated Docs PR clerk/clerk-docs#3424

What Changed

Prebuilt Views Are App-Presented Content

Before: Expo owned presentation through imperative helpers and Android activities, and profile presentation used useUserProfileModal().

const { presentUserProfile } = useUserProfileModal();

<AuthView isDismissable={false} />;
<Button title="Manage account" onPress={presentUserProfile} />;

After: AuthView and UserProfileView render as content. Apps present them in their own modal, sheet, route, or root view.

<Modal visible={open} presentationStyle="pageSheet" onRequestClose={() => setOpen(false)}>
  <AuthView onDismiss={() => setOpen(false)} />
</Modal>

<UserProfileView onDismiss={() => setOpen(false)} />
<AuthView isDismissible={false} />

Motivation: This matches the native SDK model: the prebuilt component owns its content and built-in dismissal affordance, while the app owns presentation.

UserButton Is The Native Button Surface

Before: UserButton was a JS-managed avatar/profile launcher and accepted JS layout props.

<UserButton style={{ width: 40, height: 40 }} />

After: UserButton wraps the platform-native Clerk button directly.

<UserButton />

Motivation: The Expo API now mirrors the mobile SDKs: tapping the native button opens the native user profile, and Expo does not reimplement avatar/profile behavior in JS.

Native And JS Sync Through Client Refresh

Before: Native prebuilt views emitted auth-specific events such as sign-in/sign-out completion, and Expo JS interpreted those events or mirrored sign-out across SDKs.

After: Both sides refresh toward the Clerk backend client:

• Native-to-JS: iOS observes Clerk iOS client changes; Android observes Clerk.clientFlow; both emit an internal refreshClient event.
• JS-to-native: ClerkProvider observes Clerk JS resource changes, syncs the current JS client token to native when one exists, and otherwise asks the native SDK to refresh its current client.

Motivation: The backend client endpoint stays the source of truth. Expo no longer needs component-level auth semantics, duplicate sign-out calls, or one-off session syncing paths.

Android Uses Expo Modules

Before: Android used React Native package/view-manager registration plus presentation activities/factory paths for the prebuilt surfaces.

After: Android registers the Clerk module and native prebuilt views through Expo Modules. JS uses requireNativeModule and requireNativeView for Android.

Motivation: Expo Modules are the cleaner fit for Android now. iOS intentionally stays on the existing React Native bridge plus app-target native bridge because Clerk iOS is supplied to the consuming app through SPM, and the CocoaPods-backed Expo module target cannot cleanly import that app-target SPM dependency yet.

[changeset-bot]

🦋 Changeset detected

Latest commit: 4282c3d

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

This PR includes changesets to release 1 package

Name	Type
@clerk/expo	Minor

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Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated (UTC)
clerk-js-sandbox	Ready	Preview, Comment	Jun 5, 2026 4:26pm

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commit: 4282c3d

[wobsoriano]

Left minor suggestions and one bug I encountered on iOS (havent tested Android)

[wobsoriano]

Thanks for improving and fixing the native components! 👍🏼

Attaching my local testing for reference

Screen.Recording.2026-06-05.at.9.34.14.AM.mov