Snackbar

The SDK renders in-app notifications as a snackbar: a single floating card mounted by NotificationList and rendered by Notification. This cookbook walks through customizing how that snackbar looks and behaves, from the lightest touch (theme tokens) to a full replacement (your own snackbar component on top of the SDK's notification store).

If you only need to know how to emit notifications, see the In-App Notifications cookbook instead.

Best Practices

Prefer theme tokens. The vast majority of brand-matching tweaks (colors, spacing, typography) need no overrides.
Mount NotificationList once per active target. MessageList, ChannelList, and ThreadList already do this in the built-in layouts. Only mount your own when you've replaced those default child components.
When overriding Notification, provide it through WithComponents and preserve the SDK's accessibility props: live-region for errors (assertive) vs other severities (polite), accessibilityRole='alert' for errors and 'summary' otherwise, and a translatable accessibilityLabel on the close button.
Don't mix custom and built-in snackbars at the same time. Pick one extension level and stick with it per app.
If you need entirely different motion (e.g. top-of-screen banners instead of bottom snackbar), replace NotificationList rather than fighting the built-in animations.

Level 1: Theme Tokens

The fastest customization is restyling. The theme exposes per-component slots for the snackbar:

import { Chat, OverlayProvider } from "stream-chat-react-native";

const theme = {
  notification: {
    container: {
      backgroundColor: "#1f2937",
      borderRadius: 16,
      paddingHorizontal: 16,
      paddingVertical: 12,
    },
    message: {
      color: "#f9fafb",
      fontSize: 14,
    },
    actionButton: {
      backgroundColor: "#374151",
    },
    closeButton: {
      backgroundColor: "transparent",
    },
    iconContainer: {
      marginRight: 4,
    },
  },
  notificationList: {
    container: {
      // Bump the snackbar above a custom bottom toolbar
      bottom: 96,
    },
  },
};

export const App = () => (
  <OverlayProvider value={{ style: theme }}>
    <Chat client={client}>{/* ... */}</Chat>
  </OverlayProvider>
);

Available slots:

Slot	Type	What it styles
`notification.container`	`ViewStyle`	The snackbar card
`notification.contentContainer`	`ViewStyle`	Icon + message wrapper
`notification.iconContainer`	`ViewStyle`	Icon bubble
`notification.message`	`TextStyle`	Message text
`notification.actionsContainer`	`ViewStyle`	Wrapper around action buttons
`notification.actionButton`	`ViewStyle`	Each action button
`notification.closeButton`	`ViewStyle`	Dismiss button
`notificationList.container`	`ViewStyle`	The absolute-positioned host

Level 2: Override the Icon

To change the severity-to-icon mapping without touching the rest of the snackbar, override NotificationIcon via WithComponents so every Notification instance picks it up:

import { Chat, useTheme, WithComponents } from "stream-chat-react-native";
import type { NotificationIconProps } from "stream-chat-react-native";
import { CustomError, CustomCheck, CustomInfo, CustomWarning } from "./icons";

const IconBySeverity = {
  error: CustomError,
  success: CustomCheck,
  warning: CustomWarning,
  info: CustomInfo,
} as const;

const CustomNotificationIcon = ({ notification }: NotificationIconProps) => {
  const {
    theme: { semantics },
  } = useTheme();
  const severity = notification.severity;
  const Icon = severity
    ? IconBySeverity[severity as keyof typeof IconBySeverity]
    : null;

  if (!Icon) return null;

  return <Icon height={20} width={20} color={semantics.textOnInverse} />;
};

<WithComponents overrides={{ NotificationIcon: CustomNotificationIcon }}>
  <Chat client={client}>{/* ... */}</Chat>
</WithComponents>;

Level 3: Override the `Notification` Component

To restructure the snackbar, for example with a different layout, custom close gesture, or brand-specific motion, replace Notification. The component receives the notification object plus these optional props:

Prop	Type	Description
`notification`	`Notification`	The notification to render. Always present.
`Icon`	`ComponentType<NotificationIconProps>`	The resolved icon component (defaults to the `NotificationIcon` provided through `WithComponents`).
`onDismiss`	`() => void`	Call this to dismiss the active notification. `NotificationList` removes it from the store.
`showClose`	`boolean`	Whether to render the close button. `NotificationList` sets this to `true` for persistent notifications.
`entryDirection`	`'bottom' \| 'left' \| 'right' \| 'top'`	The animation direction the host picked. Useful for stacked transforms.

import { Text, View } from "react-native";
import { Pressable as GHPressable } from "react-native-gesture-handler";
import {
  Chat,
  useTheme,
  useTranslationContext,
  WithComponents,
} from "stream-chat-react-native";
import type { NotificationProps } from "stream-chat-react-native";

const CustomNotification = ({
  Icon,
  notification,
  onDismiss,
  showClose,
}: NotificationProps) => {
  const {
    theme: { semantics },
  } = useTheme();
  const { t } = useTranslationContext();

  const isError = notification.severity === "error";
  const closeVisible = showClose || !notification.duration;

  return (
    <View
      accessibilityLiveRegion={isError ? "assertive" : "polite"}
      accessibilityRole={isError ? "alert" : "summary"}
      style={{
        backgroundColor: semantics.backgroundCoreInverse,
        borderRadius: 16,
        flexDirection: "row",
        padding: 12,
      }}
    >
      {Icon ? <Icon notification={notification} /> : null}
      <Text style={{ color: semantics.textOnInverse, flex: 1, marginLeft: 8 }}>
        {t(notification.message)}
      </Text>
      {notification.actions?.map((action, i) => (
        <GHPressable
          accessibilityRole="button"
          key={`${action.label}-${i}`}
          onPress={action.handler}
          style={{ marginLeft: 8 }}
        >
          <Text style={{ color: semantics.accentPrimary }}>{action.label}</Text>
        </GHPressable>
      ))}
      {closeVisible ? (
        <GHPressable
          accessibilityLabel={t("a11y/Dismiss notification")}
          accessibilityRole="button"
          hitSlop={8}
          onPress={onDismiss}
          style={{ marginLeft: 8 }}
        >
          <Text style={{ color: semantics.textOnInverse }}>✕</Text>
        </GHPressable>
      ) : null}
    </View>
  );
};

<WithComponents overrides={{ Notification: CustomNotification }}>
  <Chat client={client}>{/* ... */}</Chat>
</WithComponents>;

Two accessibility concerns to preserve when overriding:

Live region: errors should be assertive (interrupts whatever the screen reader is reading) and other severities should be polite (queued).
Dismiss label: pull the label from the translation key a11y/Dismiss notification rather than hardcoding "Close". The SDK ships translations for 12 locales.

The built-in component translates recognized notification type values before rendering. If you replace it, translate notification.message with t(notification.message) and add any type-specific message handling your app needs.

Level 4: Replace `NotificationList`

Override NotificationList when you need a different presentation entirely, such as a multi-snackbar stack, a banner at the top of the screen, or a platform-native toast that bypasses React Native rendering. Use useNotificationListController if you only need to swap the visual shell while keeping the SDK's selection, timeout, and target-routing logic:

import Animated, { SlideInDown, SlideOutDown } from "react-native-reanimated";
import {
  Chat,
  useComponentsContext,
  useNotificationListController,
  WithComponents,
} from "stream-chat-react-native";
import type { NotificationListProps } from "stream-chat-react-native";

const TopBannerNotificationList = ({
  filter,
  hostId,
  panel,
}: NotificationListProps) => {
  const { Notification } = useComponentsContext();
  const { dismissNotification, notification } = useNotificationListController({
    filter,
    hostId,
    panel,
  });

  if (!notification) return null;

  return (
    <Animated.View
      entering={SlideInDown.duration(220)}
      exiting={SlideOutDown.duration(180)}
      style={{ left: 16, position: "absolute", right: 16, top: 16, zIndex: 20 }}
    >
      <Notification
        notification={notification}
        onDismiss={dismissNotification}
        showClose={!notification.duration}
      />
    </Animated.View>
  );
};

<WithComponents overrides={{ NotificationList: TopBannerNotificationList }}>
  <Chat client={client}>{/* ... */}</Chat>
</WithComponents>;

If you want a stacked snackbar (multiple notifications visible at once), drive the list off useNotifications directly. You're responsible for picking which notifications to show, starting their timeouts, and removing them on dismiss:

import { useEffect } from "react";
import { Pressable, Text, View } from "react-native";
import {
  useNotificationApi,
  useNotifications,
  useNotificationTargetContext,
} from "stream-chat-react-native";

const StackedNotificationList = () => {
  const target = useNotificationTargetContext();
  const notifications = useNotifications({
    filter: (n) => !n.tags?.includes("system"),
    requireTarget: true,
    target,
  });
  const { removeNotification, startNotificationTimeout } = useNotificationApi();

  useEffect(() => {
    notifications.forEach((n) => {
      if (!n.duration) return;
      startNotificationTimeout(n.id);
    });
  }, [notifications, startNotificationTimeout]);

  return (
    <View
      style={{
        bottom: 16,
        left: 16,
        position: "absolute",
        right: 16,
        zIndex: 20,
      }}
    >
      {notifications.slice(-3).map((n) => (
        <Pressable
          accessibilityLabel={n.message}
          accessibilityLiveRegion={
            n.severity === "error" ? "assertive" : "polite"
          }
          accessibilityRole={n.severity === "error" ? "alert" : "summary"}
          key={n.id}
          onPress={() => removeNotification(n.id)}
          style={{
            backgroundColor: "#111827",
            borderRadius: 12,
            marginTop: 8,
            padding: 12,
          }}
        >
          <Text style={{ color: "#f9fafb" }}>{n.message}</Text>
        </Pressable>
      ))}
    </View>
  );
};

Animations

NotificationList accepts an enterFrom prop ('bottom' | 'left' | 'right' | 'top', default 'bottom') that picks one of the SDK's bounded-zoom transitions. The same value flows into Notification.entryDirection, so a custom snackbar can mirror the host's direction.

A single notification can also override the entry direction by setting metadata.entryDirection or origin.context.entryDirection when emitted:

addNotification({
  message: "Pinned to top",
  origin: { emitter: "ChannelListItem", context: { entryDirection: "top" } },
  options: { severity: "success" },
});

For fully custom motion, replace NotificationList and use any Reanimated transition you like.

Mounting Placement

MessageList, ChannelList, and ThreadList mount a NotificationList for you in the built-in layouts. Channel and Thread provide the target context around their message lists. If you've replaced one of those defaults, mount the snackbar yourself inside the same target context:

<Channel channel={channel}>
  <CustomMessageList />
  {/* CustomMessageList doesn't render NotificationList, so mount it here */}
  <NotificationList panel="channel" />
</Channel>

NotificationList also accepts bottomOffset and topOffset props for pushing the snackbar above a floating composer or below a sticky header. The default MessageList already wires bottomOffset to the floating message-input height.

Accessibility

The built-in Notification ships with the right accessibility semantics out of the box:

Live region: assertive for severity: 'error', polite for everything else.
Role: alert for errors, summary for other severities.
The dismiss button has a translatable accessibilityLabel from the a11y/Dismiss notification translation key.
NotificationList is labelled with the a11y/Notifications key.
Action buttons have accessibilityRole='button'.

When overriding Notification or NotificationList, preserve these. Adopt the same live-region rules and use the existing translation keys rather than hardcoding strings. The SDK already translates them across 12 locales.

For animations, respect the user's reduced-motion preference. The SDK's useReducedMotionPreference hook returns true when the OS-level setting is enabled. In your custom snackbar, fall back to instant transitions:

import { useReducedMotionPreference } from "stream-chat-react-native";

const reduceMotion = useReducedMotionPreference();
const duration = reduceMotion ? 0 : 200;

Mirror these patterns when shipping a custom snackbar so screen reader and reduced-motion users get the same experience as the rest of the app.

In-App Notifications

State Overview