Expo SDK 56: `expo` no longer depends on @expo/vector-icons — add it explicitly or move to @react-native-vector-icons/*
Keep the current code working:
npx expo install @expo/vector-icons
Or migrate to the scoped packages with the codemod:
npx @react-native-vector-icons/codemod
The codemod rewrites the imports to per-icon-set packages, for example @react-native-vector-icons/material-design-icons. Review the diff, because some icon names change between the bundled and the latest icon sets. Run tsc afterwards.
Symptom
After upgrading to Expo SDK 56, imports like import { Ionicons } from '@expo/vector-icons' fail to resolve in projects that never listed @expo/vector-icons in package.json. Until SDK 55 it came in transitively through expo, so templates and generated code never added it.
Cause
Expo SDK 56 (2026-05-21, React Native 0.85) deprecated @expo/vector-icons in favour of the scoped @react-native-vector-icons/* packages (one per icon set), and the expo package no longer depends on it. SDK 56 also made expo/fetch the default globalThis.fetch (opt out with EXPO_PUBLIC_USE_RN_FETCH=1), raised the minimum iOS to 16.4 and Xcode to 26.4, and pulls in TypeScript 6.0.3 through npx expo install --fix.
Verify
npx expo start -c bundles without unresolved-module errors, and icons render on iOS and Android.
Sources
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