Migration from 5.x to 6.x

New architecture support

If you want to be using the React Native new architecture, please refer to this guide on how to do that.

Dependency changes

The following are the crucial changes of the Stream Chat React Native SDK from version 5.x to 6.x:

Change react-native-fs to react-native-blob-util

The react-native-fs package has been replaced to react-native-blob-util in favour of the former not being actively maintained. You can replace it by running the following commands:

yarn remove react-native-fs
yarn add react-native-blob-util

Remove react-native-image-resizer dependency

The react-native-image-resizer package has been moved to the SDK so you can uninstall it from your app.

You can remove it by running the following commands:

yarn remove react-native-image-resizer

Change react-native-image-crop-picker to react-native-image-picker

The react-native-image-crop-picker package has been replaced with react-native-image-picker. This is a better alternative, and can help us with our new architecture endeavors.

You can replace it by running the following commands:

yarn remove react-native-image-crop-picker
yarn add react-native-image-picker

Also, the dependency is made optional now, so if you don’t want to use the image picker, you can remove it from your project and the camera selector icon on the Attachment picker will be simply hidden for you.

Change react-native-quick-sqlite to op-sqlite

The react-native-quick-sqlite package has been replaced with op-sqlite. This is a faster alternative, and can help us with our new architecture endeavors.

You can replace it by running the following commands:

yarn remove react-native-quick-sqlite
yarn add op-sqlite

Made @stream-io/flat-list-mvcp optional

The dependency on @stream-io/flat-list-mvcp package has been made optional in favour of React Native’s FlatList component supporting maintainVisibleContentPosition from React Native version >=0.72. If the package is installed it takes up the package or the default React Native FlatList.

yarn remove @stream-io/flat-list-mvcp

SDK changes

Introduce new Message Menu design

The Message Menu design has been revamped to provide a better user experience. The new design is more intuitive and provides a better user experience.

Introduce new ReactionList design

We have introduced a new ReactionList design that is more intuitive and provides a better user experience.

You can switch to bottom reaction list design by setting the reactionListPosition prop to bottom in the Channel component. The Reaction list component can be completely customized by providing a custom component to the ReactionListTop prop in the Channel component for top reactions list and ReactionListBottom prop for bottom reactions list. The default mode is top as it was in the previous version.

Remove StreamChatRN and introduce ChatConfigContext

The StreamChatRN global config is removed in favour of the ChatConfigContext. The ChatConfigContext is a more versatile and feature-rich context that can be used to provide any global configuration to the chat application.

The resizableCDNHosts can be configured by wrapping the root of your Chat application with ChatConfigProvider as follows:

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

const App = () => {
  return (
    <ChatConfigProvider
      value={{
        resizableCDNHosts: ["cdn.example.com"],
      }}
    >
      <OverlayProvider>
        <Chat client={client}>
          <ChannelList />
        </Chat>
      </OverlayProvider>
    </ChatConfigProvider>
  );
};

Removed MessageOverlayContext and MessageOverlayProvider

The MessageOverlayContext and MessageOverlayProvider have been removed.

Removed props from OverlayProvider

The following props have been removed from the OverlayProvider:

• MessageActionList
• MessageActionListItem
• OverlayReactions
• OverlayReactionsAvatar
• OverlayReactionsItem
• messageTextNumberOfLines
• error
• isMyMessage
• isThreadMessage
• message
• messageReactions

New Channel props

The props from the OverlayProvider have been moved to the Channel component. The following props have been added to the Channel component:

• MessageActionList
• MessageActionListItem
• OverlayReactions is changed to MessageUserReactions
• OverlayReactionsAvatar is changed to MessageUserReactionsAvatar
• OverlayReactionsItem is changed to MessageUserReactionsItem
• messageTextNumberOfLines

Additionally, the following Channel prop has been removed as well.

• disableIfFrozenChannel

Removed MessageOverlay in favour of MessageMenu

The MessageOverlay component has been removed in favour of MessageMenu. The MessageMenu component is a more versatile and feature-rich component that can be used to show more than just reactions and actions.

The MessageOverlay component is removed from top level OverlayProvider and is replaced with MessageMenu in the level of the Message component.

Remove props from Message component

The following props have been removed from the Message component:

• setData
• setOverlay
• onLongPress
• onPress
• onPressIn

The later 3 props are removed in favour of similar props on MessagesContext and is therefore not needed. The setData prop is removed in favour of the removal of MessageOverlayContext and the setOverlay is not needed as we don’t set the message overlay in OverlayProvider.

Removed props from MessageContent component

The following props have been removed from the MessageContent component:

• hasReactions, lastGroupMessage, members, onlyEmojis, showMessageStatus imported from the MessageContext
• addtionalTouchableProps is changed to additionalPressableProps
• MessageFooter, MessageHeader, MessageDeleted, MessagePinnedHeader, MessageReplies, MessageStatus, onPressInMessage imported from the MessagesContext

The props were redundant as per the new fixes in the Reaction Design and message simple component’s improvements.

Add props to MessageSimple component

The components from the MessageContent components are rendered now in MessageSimple component so few of the props that were removed from MessageContent are added to MessageSimple component(as mentioned above).

• isMyMessage, lastGroupMessage, members, onlyEmojis, otherAttachments, showMessageStatus imported from the Message Context.
• MessageDeleted, MessageFooter, MessageHeader, MessagePinnedHeader, MessageReplies, MessageStatus, ReactionListBottom, reactionListPosition and ReactionListTop imported from the MessagesContext.

Added BottomSheetModal component

The version introduces a very basic BottomSheetModal component that can be used to show a modal at the bottom of the screen. This can be used to show the message actions and reactions.

Remove NetInfo from the native handlers

The NetInfo package has been removed from the native handlers. This also involves not passing the NetInfo utility as a handler to registerNativeHandlers anymore.

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

registerNativeHandlers({
  NetInfo: NetInfo, 
});

Change the type of quotedMessage in MessageInputContext

The type of quotedMessage is changed from MessageType | boolean to MessageType | undefined for better type safety in the MessageInputContext.

Refactor of theme object

The color of the sender and receiver messages are now changed to light_blue and light_gray keys respectively.

The default theme object has been refactored to provide a better customization experience. The theme object is now more organized and provides better control over the customization. You can check the object here.

Remove the deprecated code

• We have removed loadChannelAtMessage from channel context because it was no more used.
• We have removed the handleDeleteMessage, handleEditMessage, handleQuotedReplyMessage, handleResendMessage, handleToggleBanUser and handleToggleMuteUser from the message context because it was no more used. To customize the message actions follow the customization documentation.
• Remove the onMessageNew prop from the ChannelList component. Use the onNewMessage prop instead.
• Remove the handleBlock prop from the Channel component. Use handleBan instead.

Other changes

• The useMessageActions hook doesn’t take setOverlay anymore but takes in dismissOverlay.
• The MessageContext has a new prop - dismissOverlay. The definition of showMessageOverlay is changed to (showMessageReactions?: boolean) => void.
• The isMessageActionsVisible is changed to showMessageReactions in messageAction.ts.
• Removed the useMessageActionAnimation hook.
• Removed alignment prop from MessagePinnedHeader component.