React Native Chat Components
The official React Native and Expo components for Stream Chat, a service for building chat applications.
Quick Links
- Stream Chat API product overview
- Register to get an API key for Stream Chat
- React Native Chat Tutorial
- Chat UI Kit
React Chat Tutorial
The best place to start is the React Native Chat Tutorial. It teaches you how to use this SDK and also shows how to make common changes.
Example Apps
This repo includes 2 example apps. One that's used with Expo, and one for native.
Expo example
- Make sure node version is >= v10.13.0
-
yarn global add expo-cligit clone https://github.com/GetStream/stream-chat-react-native.gitcd stream-chat-react-native/examples/ExpoMessagingyarn && yarn start
Native example
-
Please make sure you have installed necessary dependencies depending on your development OS and target OS. Follow the guidelines given on official react native documentation for installing dependencies: https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started#
-
Make sure node version is >= v10.13.0
-
Start the simulator
-
git clone https://github.com/GetStream/stream-chat-react-native.gitcd stream-chat-react-native/examples/NativeMessagingyarn install
-
- For iOSreact-native run-ios
- For androidreact-native run-android
If you run into following error on android:
Execution failedYou can generate the debug keystore by running this command in the
android/app/
directory:keytool -genkey -v -keystore debug.keystore -storepass android -alias androiddebugkey -keypass android -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000
- Reference - For iOS
Docs
The styleguidist docs for stream-chat-react-native document how all the components work.
The React Native components are created using the stream-chat-js library. If you're customizing the components it's important to learn how the Chat Server API works. You'll want to review our JS chat API docs.
Keep in mind
- Navigation between different component is something we expect consumers to implement. You can checkout the example given in this repository
Library currently exposes following components:
- Avatar
- Chat
- Channel
- MessageList
- TypingIndicator
- MessageInput
- MessageSimple
- ChannelList
- Thread
- ChannelPreviewMessenger
- CloseButton
- IconBadge
You can see detailed documentation about the components at https://getstream.github.io/stream-chat-react-native
Usage (creating an example app)
Expo package
yarn global add expo-cli# expo-cli supports following Node.js versions: # * >=8.9.0 <9.0.0 (Maintenance LTS) # * >=10.13.0 <11.0.0 (Active LTS) # * >=12.0.0 (Current Release) expo init StreamChatExpoExamplecd StreamChatExpoExampleyarn add stream-chat-expo
Please check Example to see usage of the components.
OR you can swap this file for your App.js
in the root folder with additional following steps:
yarn add react-navigation
and finally
yarn start
Native package:
For react native < 0.60
react-native init StreamChatReactNativeExamplecd StreamChatReactNativeExampleyarn add stream-chat-react-native # https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-netinfo#react-native-compatibility # For React native 0.59.x - use @react-native-community/netinfo@3.2.1 # For React native <= 0.58.x - use @react-native-community/netinfo@2.0.7 yarn add @react-native-community/netinfo@3.2.1 # https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-image-picker#react-native-compatibility yarn add react-native-image-picker@0.28.1yarn add react-native-document-picker react-native link @react-native-community/netinfo # if you are plannign to use image picker or file picker or both react-native link react-native-image-pickerreact-native link react-native-document-picker
Please check Example to see usage of components.
OR you can swap this file for your App.js
in root folder with additional following steps:
yarn add react-navigation@3.11.0yarn add react-native-gesture-handler@1.3.0 react-native-reanimatedreact-native link react-native-gesture-handlerreact-native link react-native-reanimated
If you are planning to use image picker, there are some additional steps to be done. You can find them here - https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-image-picker/blob/master/docs/Install.md
If you are planning to use file/document picker, you need to enable iCloud capability in your app - https://github.com/Elyx0/react-native-document-picker#reminder
and finally
react-native run-ios
For react native >= 0.60
react-native init StreamChatReactNativeExamplecd StreamChatReactNativeExampleyarn add stream-chat-react-nativeyarn add @react-native-community/netinfo react-native-image-picker react-native-document-pickercd ios && pod install && cd ..
Just to be sure, please verify you are using appropriate version of following packages as per your react-native version.
-
netinfo : https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-netinfo#react-native-compatibility
-
react-native-image-picker : https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-image-picker#react-native-compatibility
Please check Example to see usage of components.
OR you can swap this file for your App.js
in root folder with additional following steps:
yarn add react-navigation@3.11.0yarn add react-native-gesture-handler react-native-reanimatedcd ios && pod install && cd ..
If you are planning to use image picker, there are some additional steps to be done. You can find them here - https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-image-picker/blob/master/docs/Install.md
If you are planning to use file/document picker, you need to enable iCloud capability in your app - https://github.com/Elyx0/react-native-document-picker#reminder
and finally
iOS:
react-native run-ios
Note for Android:
If you are using androidx app:
AndroidX is a major step forward in the Android ecosystem, and the old support library artifacts are being deprecated. For 0.60, React Native has been migrated over to AndroidX. This is a breaking change, and your native code and dependencies will need to be migrated as well.
(reference: https://facebook.github.io/react-native/blog/2019/07/03/version-60#androidx-support)
In current context, dependencies such as react-native-document-picker
and (if you are using react-navigation
) react-native-gesture-handler
, react-native-reanimated
don't have androidx support. But awesome tool named jetifier is quite usefull to patch these dependencies with androidx support.
NOTE If you are planning to use file picker functionality, make sure you enable iCloud capability in your app
Upgrade
-
Upgrade from 0.1.x to 0.2.x:
-
0.2.x added support for react native 0.60. Dependencies like
react-native-image-picker
,react-native-document-picker
andnetinfo
have been taken out of hard dependencies and moved to peer dependencies and thus will have to be installed manually on consumer end (Reference) -
React native 0.60 came with autolinking functionality, that means if some native libraries are linked manually before upgrade, they will have to be unliked so that react native can autolink them (Reference)
react-native unlink react-native-image-picker react-native unlink react-native-document-picker react-native unlink @react-native-community/netinfo
-
React native 0.60 has been migrated over to AndroidX. In current context, dependencies such as
react-native-document-picker
and (if you are usingreact-navigation
)react-native-gesture-handler
,react-native-reanimated
don't have androidx support. But awesome tool named jetifier is quite usefull to patch these dependencies with androidx support. -
CocoaPods are not part of React Native's iOS project (ref). Thus make sure to install all the pod dependencies.
cd ios && pod install && cd ..
-
Common issues
While running native example, you may (not necessarily) run into following issues:
-
When you execute
react-native run-ios
for the first time, it starts a metro bundler in parallel. It can result into some errors, since build process isn't complete yet. Try the following to fix this:- Close/stop the metro bundler process.
- Let the build process finish completely, it can take usually around 2-3 minutes for the first time.
- Start the metro bundler manually by executing
yarn start
insidestream-chat-react-native/examples/two
directory.
-
When you execute
react-native run-android
, you may (not necessarily) run into following error:info Starting JS server...info Building and installing the app on the device (cd android && ./gradlew app:installDebug)...Starting a Gradle Daemon, 1 incompatible Daemon could not be reused, use --status for detailsFAILURE: Build failed with an exception.* What went wrong:A problem occurred configuring project ':@react-native-community_netinfo'.> SDK location not found. Define location with sdk.dir in the local.properties file or with an ANDROID_HOME environment variable.* Try:Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output. Run with --scan to get full insights.* Get more help at https://help.gradle.orgBUILD FAILED in 13serror Could not install the app on the device, read the error above for details.Make sure you have an Android emulator running or a device connected and haveset up your Android development environment:https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started.htmlerror Command failed: ./gradlew app:installDebug. Run CLI with --verbose flag for more details.To resolve this, do the following
- Craete a file named
local.properties
insidestream-chat-react-native/examples/two/android
directory - Put the this line in that file. Make sure sdk path is correctly mentioned as per your system:
sdk.dir=/Users/{user_name}/Library/Android/sdk/
- Rerun
react-native run-android
instream-chat-react-native/examples/two
directory
- Craete a file named