# Initial Setup

<admonition type="warning">

This documentation is legacy. For the current docs, see the guide in the [React Native UI Components Docs](/chat/docs/sdk/react-native/guides/push-notifications-v2/).

</admonition>

To try out push notifications on an actual device, you can use React Native to quickly build an app that just receives notifications.

<admonition type="info">

This tutorial is not supported in Expo applications. We need access to the native code to get the device tokens required to send push notifications for Stream Chat. If you are hoping to integrate this into an existing Expo application, you will need to eject.

</admonition>

#### Shortcut

If you don't want to jump through all the hoops described in the following sections, we have a mostly preconfigured repository with everything described in this doc [on GitHub](https://github.com/GetStream/react-native-chat-example-push). Just follow the instructions in the  `README`  to get started.

Before getting down to business with React Native, a few things need to be setup first:

#### Step 1 - Create a Development App

Make sure you’ve created a  **development**  app within the [dashboard](https://getstream.io/dashboard).

![undefined](https://getstream.imgix.net/images/docs/chat_push/new_app.png?auto=compress&fit=clip&w=800&h=600)

#### Step 2 - Disable Auth

To make things easier, we are going to  **disable auth**  so that we can easily test push messages. Please note that this only suitable for test/dev environments.

From your app's dashboard, navigate to the  `Chat`  tab and then scroll down to  `Chat Events` . Make sure the  **Disable Auth Checks**  toggle is On and click on  `Save` .

![undefined](https://getstream.imgix.net/images/docs/chat_push/disable_auth.png?auto=compress&fit=clip&w=800&h=600)

#### Step 3 - XCode Setup

Install  `XCode`  and the  `Command Line Tools` . More info on that [here](https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started#xcode).

#### Step 4 - Create the Test Project

Install dependencies and initialize your test project (for this tutorial we'll use the name  `chat-push-example` )

<admonition type="info">

If you are adding this to an existing React Native project created with Expo or CRNA, you will need to [eject](https://docs.expo.io/versions/latest/expokit/eject/). Please note that this ejecting is irreversible ; however, it is required to access native iOS and Android capabilities.

</admonition>

<codetabs>

<codetabs-item value="bash" label="Bash">

```bash
yarn global add react-native-cli
```

</codetabs-item>

</codetabs>

<codetabs>

<codetabs-item value="bash" label="Bash">

```bash
react-native init chat-push-example
```

</codetabs-item>

</codetabs>

<codetabs>

<codetabs-item value="bash" label="Bash">

```bash
cd chat-push-example
yarn add stream-chat react-native-push-notification
```

</codetabs-item>

</codetabs>

---

This page was last updated at 2025-08-15T14:15:16.841Z.

For the most recent version of this documentation, visit [https://getstream.io/chat/docs/react-native/rn_push_initial/](https://getstream.io/chat/docs/react-native/rn_push_initial/).