React native empty project

You could use the initialized project, delete the node_modules, then go into the package. json file and specify the version you want, and run npm insall again .

A simple way to do it would be to uninstall the current react-navigation dependencies you have by running npm uninstall react-navigation . That should remove it from your package. json and package-lock. json .

React Native CLI​

If you just change it in package. json and run expo build:android / expo build:ios it will build javascript bundle using that react-native, but native code will be still from old react-native, which likely is not compatible. To change version of react-native you need to either: eject .