diff --git a/React/React.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj b/React/React.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj
index ba6ec3aab..0702a5dd8 100644
--- a/React/React.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj
+++ b/React/React.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj
@@ -445,7 +445,7 @@
 			);
 			runOnlyForDeploymentPostprocessing = 0;
 			shellPath = /bin/sh;
-			shellScript = "nc -w 5 -z localhost 8081 > /dev/null 2>&1 || open $SRCROOT/../packager/launchPackager.command || echo \"Can't start packager automatically\"";
+			shellScript = "if nc -w 5 -z localhost 8081 ; then\n  if ! curl -s \"http://localhost:8081/status\" | grep -q \"packager-status:running\" ; then\n    echo \"Port 8081 already in use, packager is either not running or not running correctly\"\n    exit 2\n  fi\nelse\n  open $SRCROOT/../packager/launchPackager.command || echo \"Can't start packager automatically\"\nfi";
 		};
 /* End PBXShellScriptBuildPhase section */
 
diff --git a/packager/packager.js b/packager/packager.js
index 9503df6ea..ad47d1d99 100644
--- a/packager/packager.js
+++ b/packager/packager.js
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ function getDevToolsLauncher(options) {
   };
 }
 
+// A status page so the React/project.pbxproj build script
+// can verify that packager is running on 8081 and not 
+// another program / service.
+function statusPageMiddleware(req, res, next) {
+  if (req.url === '/status') {
+    res.end('packager-status:running');
+  } else {
+    next();   
+  }
+}
+
 function getAppMiddleware(options) {
   return ReactPackager.middleware({
     projectRoots: options.projectRoots,
@@ -168,6 +179,7 @@ function runServer(
     .use(loadRawBody)
     .use(openStackFrameInEditor)
     .use(getDevToolsLauncher(options))
+    .use(statusPageMiddleware)
     .use(getAppMiddleware(options));
 
   options.projectRoots.forEach(function(root) {