how to update android target API level

Hello, my app is on SDK 38.0.0 ejected to bare workflow and I am not sure of the steps to update the target android API level from 28 to 29 ([android] Bump targetSdkVersion to 29. by mczernek · Pull Request #9446 · expo/expo · GitHub). I realize that the issue was fixed back in August for later versions of SDK 38. Would I have to run expo upgrade and re-eject to bare workflow? Editing the target level in the gradle file directly caused the build to fail.

You can change the Android SDK version directly in android/gradle.build. Once you’re in the bare workflow, you start managing the native build yourself so you update exactly the same way you’d do in a pure Android (or React Native). Expo just expects some native libraries to be in place but in fact, you might upgrade even to Android SDK 30, and the app should still work fine.