Sendbird UIKit for React Native: A feature-rich and customizable chat UI kit with messaging, channel management, and user authentication.

React-Native based UI kit based on sendbird javascript SDK

This section shows the prerequisites you need to check to use Sendbird UIKit for React-Native.

• Nodejs 14 or newer
• Watchman
• JDK 11 or newer
• XCode
• Android Studio

More details, please see https://reactnative.dev/docs/environment-setup

This section gives you information you need to get started with Sendbird UIKit for React-Native.

Our sample app has all the core features of Sendbird UIKit for React-Native. Download the app from our GitHub repository to get an idea of what you can build with the actual UIKit before building your own project.

You can get started by creating a project. (highly recommended to use typescript)

npx react-native init ChatApp --template=react-native-template-typescript

UIKit for React-Native can be installed through either yarn or npm

Install dependencies

npm install @sendbird/uikit-react-native \
            @sendbird/chat \
            @sendbird/react-native-scrollview-enhancer \
            date-fns \
            react-native-safe-area-context \
            @react-native-community/netinfo \
            @react-native-async-storage/async-storage

Linking native modules

npx pod-install

Client apps must acquire permission from users to get access to their media library and save files to their mobile storage. Once the permission is granted, users can send images and videos to other users and save media files.

Android

Add the following permissions to your android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml file.

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
          package="com.your.app">

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" android:maxSdkVersion="32" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" android:maxSdkVersion="28" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.POST_NOTIFICATIONS" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_MEDIA_AUDIO" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_MEDIA_VIDEO" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_MEDIA_IMAGES" />

</manifest>

iOS

Add the following permission usage descriptions to your info.plist file.

NOTE: If you use react-native-permissions, you must update permissions and run pod install

In order to use the APIs and features of the native module in the UIKit for React Native, you need to implement the platform service interfaces that Sendbird provides. After implementing all the interfaces, you can set them as props of SendbirdUIKitContainer to use the native module features across Sendbird UIKit for React-Native.

const App = () => {
  return (
    <SendbirdUIKitContainer
      appId={'APP_ID'}
      platformServices={{
        file: FileService,
        notification: NotificationService,
        clipboard: ClipboardService,
        media: MediaService,
      }}
    >
      {/* ... */}
    </SendbirdUIKitContainer>
  );
};

In order to implement the interfaces to your React Native app more easily, we provide various helper functions for each interface.

NOTE: Helper function is not required! You can implement it with native modules you're using. More details about PlatformService interfaces, please see here

Using React Native CLI

You can use createNativeClipboardService, createNativeNotificationService, createNativeFileService and createNativeMediaService helper functions with below native modules.

npm install react-native-video \
            react-native-permissions \
            react-native-file-access \
            react-native-image-picker \
            react-native-document-picker \
            react-native-create-thumbnail \
            @react-native-clipboard/clipboard \
            @react-native-camera-roll/camera-roll \
            @react-native-firebase/app \
            @react-native-firebase/messaging \
            @bam.tech/react-native-image-resizer

npx pod-install

import * as ImageResizer from '@bam.tech/react-native-image-resizer';
import { CameraRoll } from '@react-native-camera-roll/camera-roll';
import Clipboard from '@react-native-clipboard/clipboard';
import RNFBMessaging from '@react-native-firebase/messaging';
import * as CreateThumbnail from 'react-native-create-thumbnail';
import * as DocumentPicker from 'react-native-document-picker';
import * as FileAccess from 'react-native-file-access';
import * as ImagePicker from 'react-native-image-picker';
import * as Permissions from 'react-native-permissions';
import Video from 'react-native-video';

const NativeClipboardService = createNativeClipboardService(Clipboard);
const NativeNotificationService = createNativeNotificationService({
  messagingModule: RNFBMessaging,
  permissionModule: Permissions,
});
const NativeFileService = createNativeFileService({
  fsModule: FileAccess,
  permissionModule: Permissions,
  imagePickerModule: ImagePicker,
  mediaLibraryModule: CameraRoll,
  documentPickerModule: DocumentPicker,
});
const NativeMediaService = createNativeMediaService({
  VideoComponent: Video,
  thumbnailModule: CreateThumbnail,
  imageResizerModule: ImageResizer,
});

Using Expo CLI

You can use createExpoClipboardService, createExpoNotificationService, createExpoFileService and createExpoMediaService helper functions with below expo modules.

expo install expo-image-picker \
             expo-document-picker \
             expo-media-library \
             expo-file-system \
             expo-clipboard \
             expo-notifications \
             expo-av \
             expo-video-thumbnails \
             expo-image-manipulator

import * as ExpoAV from 'expo-av';
import * as ExpoClipboard from 'expo-clipboard';
import * as ExpoDocumentPicker from 'expo-document-picker';
import * as ExpoFS from 'expo-file-system';
import * as ExpoImageManipulator from 'expo-image-manipulator';
import * as ExpoImagePicker from 'expo-image-picker';
import * as ExpoMediaLibrary from 'expo-media-library';
import * as ExpoNotifications from 'expo-notifications';
import * as ExpoVideoThumbnail from 'expo-video-thumbnails';

const ExpoNotificationService = createExpoNotificationService(ExpoNotifications);
const ExpoClipboardService = createExpoClipboardService(ExpoClipboard);
const ExpoFileService = createExpoFileService({
  fsModule: ExpoFS,
  imagePickerModule: ExpoImagePicker,
  mediaLibraryModule: ExpoMediaLibrary,
  documentPickerModule: ExpoDocumentPicker,
});
const ExpoMediaService = createExpoMediaService({
  avModule: ExpoAV,
  thumbnailModule: ExpoVideoThumbnail,
  imageManipulator: ExpoImageManipulator,
  fsModule: ExpoFS,
});

You can implement Local caching easily.

npm i @react-native-async-storage/async-storage
npx pod-isntall

import AsyncStorage from '@react-native-async-storage/async-storage';

import { SendbirdUIKitContainer } from '@sendbird/uikit-react-native';

const App = () => {
  return <SendbirdUIKitContainer chatOptions={{ localCacheStorage: AsyncStorage }}>{/* ... */}</SendbirdUIKitContainer>;
};

Or you can use storage you are using instead of AsyncStorage (e.g. react-native-mmkv)

import { MMKV } from 'react-native-mmkv';

import { LocalCacheStorage, SendbirdUIKitContainer } from '@sendbird/uikit-react-native';

const mmkvStorage = new MMKV();
const localCacheStorage: LocalCacheStorage = {
  async getAllKeys() {
    return mmkvStorage.getAllKeys();
  },
  async setItem(key: string, value: string) {
    return mmkvStorage.set(key, value);
  },
  async getItem(key: string) {
    return mmkvStorage.getString(key) ?? null;
  },
  async removeItem(key: string) {
    return mmkvStorage.delete(key);
  },
};

const App = () => {
  return <SendbirdUIKitContainer chatOptions={{ localCacheStorage }}>{/* ... */}</SendbirdUIKitContainer>;
};

Now you can create a screen and integrate it with a navigation library like react-navigation. See more details on here

The example below shows how to integrate using react-navigation.

Create a fragments and screens

import { useNavigation, useRoute } from '@react-navigation/native';

import { useGroupChannel } from '@sendbird/uikit-chat-hooks';
import {
  createGroupChannelCreateFragment,
  createGroupChannelFragment,
  createGroupChannelListFragment,
} from '@sendbird/uikit-react-native';

const GroupChannelListFragment = createGroupChannelListFragment();
const GroupChannelCreateFragment = createGroupChannelCreateFragment();
const GroupChannelFragment = createGroupChannelFragment();

const GroupChannelListScreen = () => {
  const navigation = useNavigation<any>();
  return (
    <GroupChannelListFragment
      onPressCreateChannel={(channelType) => {
        // Navigate to GroupChannelCreate function.
        navigation.navigate('GroupChannelCreate', { channelType });
      }}
      onPressChannel={(channel) => {
        // Navigate to GroupChannel function.
        navigation.navigate('GroupChannel', { channelUrl: channel.url });
      }}
    />
  );
};

const GroupChannelCreateScreen = () => {
  const navigation = useNavigation<any>();

  return (
    <GroupChannelCreateFragment
      onCreateChannel={async (channel) => {
        // Navigate to GroupChannel function.
        navigation.replace('GroupChannel', { channelUrl: channel.url });
      }}
      onPressHeaderLeft={() => {
        // Go back to the previous screen.
        navigation.goBack();
      }}
    />
  );
};

const GroupChannelScreen = () => {
  const navigation = useNavigation<any>();
  const { params } = useRoute<any>();

  const { sdk } = useSendbirdChat();
  const { channel } = useGroupChannel(sdk, params.channelUrl);
  if (!channel) return null;

  return (
    <GroupChannelFragment
      channel={channel}
      onChannelDeleted={() => {
        // Navigate to GroupChannelList function.
        navigation.navigate('GroupChannelList');
      }}
      onPressHeaderLeft={() => {
        // Go back to the previous screen.
        navigation.goBack();
      }}
      onPressHeaderRight={() => {
        // Navigate to GroupChannelSettings function.
        navigation.navigate('GroupChannelSettings', { channelUrl: params.channelUrl });
      }}
    />
  );
};

Register screens to navigator

import { NavigationContainer } from '@react-navigation/native';
import { createNativeStackNavigator } from '@react-navigation/native-stack';

import { SendbirdUIKitContainer, useConnection, useSendbirdChat } from '@sendbird/uikit-react-native';

const RootStack = createNativeStackNavigator();
const SignInScreen = () => {
  const { connect } = useConnection();

  return (
    <View style={{ flex: 1, alignItems: 'center', justifyContent: 'center' }}>
      <Pressable
        style={{
          width: 120,
          height: 30,
          backgroundColor: '#742DDD',
          alignItems: 'center',
          justifyContent: 'center',
        }}
        onPress={() => connect('USER_ID', { nickname: 'NICKNAME' })}
      >
        <Text>{'Sign in'}</Text>
      </Pressable>
    </View>
  );
};

const Navigation = () => {
  const { currentUser } = useSendbirdChat();

  return (
    <NavigationContainer>
      <RootStack.Navigator screenOptions={{ headerShown: false }}>
        {!currentUser ? (
          <RootStack.Screen name={'SignIn'} component={SignInScreen} />
        ) : (
          <>
            <RootStack.Screen name={'GroupChannelList'} component={GroupChannelListScreen} />
            <RootStack.Screen name={'GroupChannelCreate'} component={GroupChannelCreateScreen} />
            <RootStack.Screen name={'GroupChannel'} component={GroupChannelScreen} />
          </>
        )}
      </RootStack.Navigator>
    </NavigationContainer>
  );
};

const App = () => {
  return (
    <SendbirdUIKitContainer
      appId={APP_ID}
      platformServices={{
        file: FileService,
        notification: NotificationService,
        clipboard: ClipboardService,
        media: MediaService,
      }}
    >
      <Navigation />
    </SendbirdUIKitContainer>
  );
};

You can use sendbird sdk using useSendbirdChat() hook, and you can connect or disconnect using useConnection() hook. for more details about hooks, please refer to our docs