Windsurf is an editor, not a mobile build, and it is not called Windsurf any more.
Two things to settle before you plan anything. Windsurf ships code to the web and nowhere else: the one deployment feature in the product sends web applications and sites to Netlify at a public URL under windsurf.build, and the supported framework list is Next.js, React, Vue, Svelte and static sites. And the product was renamed. On 2 June 2026 Windsurf became Devin Desktop, owned by Cognition, which is why windsurf.com now redirects to devin.ai/desktop and the documentation lives at docs.devin.ai. Every claim about the product on this page comes from that documentation, read on 22 October 2026. If you are here because you want the thing on a phone, the plain version of that problem is build mobile app without coding.
None of this makes the editor a bad tool. It makes it a tool for a different part of the job than the one most people searching for this think they are buying. The rest of this page is what the documentation says it produces, what the rename changes on your machine, what happens when you look for mobile support in it, and what still has to happen between a folder of code and an app someone can install.
Start hereThe short version
The editor writes the code. Someone still has to ship it.
An AI IDE and an app builder answer different questions. The IDE question is how do I write this faster, and Windsurf has a good answer to it. The builder question is how does this become something on the App Store, and Windsurf has no answer to that at all, because it was never trying to. Nothing in the documentation pretends otherwise. There is simply no page about iOS, no page about Android, and no page about building a native binary.
So the useful framing is not whether Windsurf can export to mobile. It cannot, and that is a fact about its scope rather than a flaw. The question is which of the two jobs you are stuck on. If you can already write React Native and you want a faster editor, you are in the right product. If you have an idea and no project, the editor hands you an empty folder and an agent, and the toolchain is still yours to learn. People hit the same wall coming from other directions, which is why notion to mobile app ends up in the same place from a tool that is nothing like an IDE.
What does Windsurf actually produce?
Files on your computer, and one web deployment. The product describes itself as a next-generation AI IDE, it is derived from VS Code, and it offers to import your VS Code or Cursor configuration during onboarding. Everything it does happens to a folder you already have open. Tab completes lines, Command edits the file you are in, and the agent can create, edit and delete files, run terminal commands and install dependencies. At the end of all that you have a working directory, which is exactly what you have at the end of a day in any other editor.
The one feature that sends your work somewhere is App Deploys, and it is worth reading closely because it is the closest thing in the product to a publish button. It deploys web applications and sites through agent tool calls, to one provider, Netlify. The public URL it gives you is a subdomain of windsurf.build. It writes a windsurf_deployment.yaml file at the root of your project so it can redeploy to the same address. The documented framework list is Next.js, React, Vue, Svelte and static HTML, CSS and JavaScript sites. The feature is in beta and the documentation says it is intended primarily for preview purposes.
Three limits on that deploy matter more than people expect. Your code is uploaded to their server and deployed under their umbrella account, so the site is not yours until you follow the claim link. On the Free plan you get one deployment a day and one unclaimed site, and on Pro five of each. And the documentation warns that unclaimed deployments may be deleted after a certain period. For showing a client a draft on Thursday, all of that is fine. For anything you intend to point an app at, none of it is.
Devin Desktop documentation, App Deploys, read 22 October 2026
Check yours
What each part of the editor does for a phone build
Tick the features you actually use. The description on the left is the one in the product's own documentation, read on 22 October 2026. The note on the right is what that feature contributes once the target is an iPhone rather than a browser tab.
Nothing ticked yet. Tick App Deploys first if you are here to find out where the output goes, because that is the only feature in the list with a destination attached to it.
Is it still called Windsurf, and who owns it now?
It is called Devin Desktop, and Cognition owns it. The Devin Desktop FAQ at docs.devin.ai opens by saying that on June 2, 2026, Windsurf is becoming Devin Desktop, and answers the obvious question directly: Devin Desktop is the new name for Windsurf, the same IDE and the same editor with the same features, unified under the Devin brand. The stated reason is that Cognition is bringing everything together as Devin Cloud, Devin Desktop, Devin CLI and Devin Review.
You can verify the whole lineage from a terminal in about ten seconds, which is a nicer kind of evidence than a press release. Request codeium.com and you get a 301 to windsurf.com. Request windsurf.com and you get a 308 to devin.ai/desktop. Request the old documentation at docs.windsurf.com and you land on docs.devin.ai. Three names, one product, and the redirects tell the story in order. Checked on 22 October 2026.
Four things changed on your machine rather than in the marketing. The application itself is now called Devin, so it appears as Devin.app on macOS and Devin.exe on Windows, and the FAQ asks enterprise admins to add Devin to their device management allowlists before the update arrives. The surf shell command has been replaced by devin-desktop, with surf and windsurf still shipping as legacy binaries. Your rules keep working, because .windsurfrules is still read while .devin/rules takes precedence. And the agent is being renamed too: Cascade becomes Devin Local, and the FAQ says the existing Cascade agent remains available through July.
None of that changes what the product outputs, which is the only reason it appears on this page. It matters for a smaller reason: if you are searching for whether Windsurf supports React Native, you are now searching the wrong documentation site, and the old one will not tell you so. It will quietly redirect you.
Does the documentation mention React Native or Expo at all?
It does not mention them once. We pulled the documentation index for Devin Desktop, which lists 104 pages with a one line description of each, and then eight of the pages in full. React Native, Expo, iOS, Android, Xcode, Flutter, TestFlight, APK and App Store appear zero times across all of it. The only hits in the raw page source turned out to be furniture: the word Export inside an API type name, a favicon file called android-chrome, and a mobile breakpoint in the stylesheet. Checked 22 October 2026.
The App Deploys framework list is the clearest statement of scope in the product. Next.js, React, Vue, Svelte, static sites. Every entry on it renders in a browser. The nearest thing to a device feature is Previews, which opens the local deployment of your app in the editor or in a browser, and the documentation notes it is optimised for Chrome, Arc and Chromium. That is a browser pane. There is no simulator, no connected device, and no mobile equivalent of it anywhere.
Now the part people get wrong in the other direction. An absence of mobile documentation is not a prohibition. The editor opens any folder, so a React Native project opens fine, your extensions work, and the agent can edit a screen as readily as it edits a web component. People do ship mobile apps while working in this editor every day. They do it by running the build themselves in the built in terminal, which the agent can also drive. The editor is the room the work happens in. It is not the thing that does the work, and the documentation has never said it was.
Devin Desktop documentation, App Deploys, supported frameworks and providers, read 22 October 2026
A windsurf.build deploy and an installed app, side by side
The left column is what the documentation describes App Deploys as giving you. The right column is what an installed build gives you. Read it as a list of jobs rather than a scoreboard, because for showing work in progress to somebody the left column wins on effort by a wide margin.
| The job | An App Deploys site | An app you build and ship |
|---|---|---|
| Opens at a URL in any browser | Yes | No |
| Listed on the App Store or Google Play | No | Yes |
| Sits as an icon on the home screen | No | Yes |
| The code runs on the device | No | Yes |
| The address is yours | Not at first. It is a subdomain of windsurf.build until you claim the project on your own Netlify account | Your own store listing and your own bundle identifier |
| Survives being left alone | Unclaimed deployments may be deleted after a certain period | Yes |
| How many you can ship in a day | One on the Free plan, five on Pro | Whatever your store accounts allow |
| Goes through App Review | No | Yes |
What still has to happen to get an app on a phone?
The gap between a folder of React Native code and an app someone can install is a pipeline, and it is the part no editor does for you. You need a native project configured with its own identifier. You need a signed build for each platform, which means certificates on the Apple side and a keystore on the Android side. You need somewhere to put the build so testers can reach it. Then you need a store listing, with screenshots, a privacy declaration and a review. Each of those steps has its own failure modes, and none of them are code problems the agent in your editor can see.
The shortcut everybody tries first is wrapping the deployed URL in a web view and submitting that. Apple wrote the sentence that stops it. Guideline 4.2 says your app should include features, content and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website, and that an app which is not particularly useful, unique or app-like does not belong on the App Store. Guideline 4.2.2 adds that other than catalogs, apps should not primarily be marketing materials, advertisements, web clippings, content aggregators or a collection of links. There is a second problem here that is specific to this route: the deploy you wrapped may be deleted if you never claimed it, so your shipped app can end up pointing at an address that has stopped resolving.
Newly is built for the pipeline rather than the typing. You describe the app in plain English and it writes a real React Native and Expo project you own, with two-way GitHub sync, so the code stays somewhere you can open in whichever editor you prefer. It uploads iOS builds to TestFlight, publishes to Google Play internal testing and builds a standalone Android APK. It is $25 a month and there is no free tier. What it will not do is press submit on the App Store for you. Apple guideline 4.2.6 says apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service will be rejected unless they are submitted directly by the provider of the app's content, so that step stays yours. The mechanics of it are in publish to app store.
One honest recommendation to close on. If you are already fluent in React Native, keep the editor and do not read this as a reason to change tools. Add a build pipeline next to it and you have the whole job covered. The case for starting somewhere else is for the person who has an idea, no project, and no appetite for learning certificates before they learn whether anyone wants the thing. If your starting point was an automation rather than an editor, the same decision from that angle is in zapier to mobile app.
Questions people ask about Windsurf and mobile apps
Not on its own, no. Windsurf is a code editor with AI agents in it, so it can write React Native files the same way it writes any other files, but the product documents exactly one way to ship something, and that way is the web. App Deploys sends web applications and sites to Netlify at a public URL under windsurf.build. There is no iOS build, no Android build, no simulator and no store step documented anywhere in it. Read on 22 October 2026.
Keep the editor. Get the pipeline.
Write down the screens you want, the one thing a browser tab cannot do for you, and who is going to hold the Apple account. That list is the brief, and the first two items are the only ones an editor can help with.
Start building