Q: Why it asks for so many permissions?
A: It's a developer application these permissions can be disabled and app should work just fine but you may need them while using this app.

Q: Why it's so heavy? Almost 100 Mb!
A: Because of inability to alter dependencies on the device I decided to add to the application maximum of various packages with dependency to native code that may be useful in development. All compiled into application and ready to use.

react-native Playground featuring code editor and ability to execute code on device where it was written internet access not required. All permissions requested by the app can be disabled(except writing to external storage) and it should run fine however you will not be able to use functionality which requires these permissions.

*IMPORTANT*: This application is not meant for full scale development its just a playground prototyping tool for developers who want to play and learn try react-native features.

It's still in alpha state so there are not much sense in error reporting. I will try weekly updates let's see how if work.