Expo

This guide discusses how to add push notifications for ringing calls to your project. It will discuss both Android and iOS and go through all the necessary steps.

The normal user experience in a ringing app, when a user receives a call, is to show a push notification. The user can then interact with the notification to accept or reject the call. In this guide, you will learn how to set up your Expo app to get push notifications from Stream for the incoming calls that your user will receive.

Android preview	iOS preview

Add push provider credentials to Stream

Please follow the below guides for adding appropriate push providers to Stream:

• Android - Firebase Cloud Messaging
• iOS - Apple Push Notification Service (APNs)

Install Dependencies

npx expo install @react-native-firebase/app
npx expo install @react-native-firebase/messaging
npx expo install @notifee/react-native
npx expo install react-native-voip-push-notification
npx expo install react-native-callkeep @config-plugins/react-native-callkeep

So what did we install precisely?

• @react-native-firebase/app and @react-native-firebase/messaging for handling incoming Firebase Cloud Messaging notifications on Android.
• @notifee/react-native - is used to customize and display push notifications.
• react-native-voip-push-notification for handling incoming PushKit notifications on iOS.
• react-native-callkeep and @config-plugins/react-native-callkeep for reporting incoming calls to iOS CallKit.

Add Firebase credentials

1. To create a Firebase project, go to the Firebase console and click on Add project.

2. In the console, click the setting icon next to Project overview and open Project settings. Then, under Your apps, click the Android icon to open Add Firebase to your Android app and follow the steps. Make sure that the Android package name you enter is the same as the value of android.package from your app.json.

3. After registering the app, download the google-services.json file and place it in your project’s root directory.

4. In app.json, add an android.googleServicesFile field with the relative path to the downloaded google-services.json file. If you placed it in the root directory, the path is:

{
  "android": {
    "googleServicesFile": "./google-services.json"
  }
}

5. Similarly, for iOS, in the console, click the setting icon next to Project overview and open Project settings. Then, under Your apps, click the iOS icon to open Add Firebase to your Apple app and follow the steps. Make sure that the Apple bundle ID you enter is the same as the value of ios.bundleIdentifier from your app.json.

6. After registering the app, download the GoogleService-Info.plist file and place it in your project’s root directory.

7. In app.json, add an ios.googleServicesFile field with the relative path to the downloaded GoogleService-Info.plist file. If you placed it in the root directory, the path is:

{
    "ios": {
      "googleServicesFile": "./GoogleService-Info.plist",
    },
}

Add the config plugin properties

In app.json, in the plugins field, add the ringingPushNotifications property to the @stream-io/video-react-native-sdk plugin. Also, add the @config-plugins/react-native-callkeep plugin.

{
 "plugins": [
      [
        "@stream-io/video-react-native-sdk",
        {
          "ringingPushNotifications": {
            "disableVideoIos": false,
            "includesCallsInRecentsIos": false,
            "showWhenLockedAndroid": true
          },
        }
      ],
      "@config-plugins/react-native-callkeep",
      [
        "@config-plugins/react-native-webrtc",
        {
          "cameraPermission": "$(PRODUCT_NAME) requires camera access in order to capture and transmit video",
          "microphonePermission": "$(PRODUCT_NAME) requires microphone access in order to capture and transmit audio"
        }
      ],
      "@react-native-firebase/app",
      [
        "expo-build-properties",
        {
          "ios": {
            "useFrameworks": "static"
          }
        }
      ]
      // your other plugins
  ]
}

If Expo EAS build is not used, please do npx expo prebuild --clean to generate the native directories again after adding the config plugins.

Optional: Disable Firebase initialisation on iOS

React Native Firebase Messaging automatically registers the device with APNs to receive remote messages. But since we do not use Firebase on iOS, we can disable it via the firebase.json file that we can newly create:

/firebase.json">{
  "react-native": {
    "messaging_ios_auto_register_for_remote_messages": false
  }
}

Add Firebase message handlers

To process the incoming push notifications, the SDK provides the utility functions that you must add to your existing or new Firebase notification listeners. Below is the snippet of how to add the firebase listeners:

import messaging from '@react-native-firebase/messaging';
import notifee from '@notifee/react-native';
import {
  isFirebaseStreamVideoMessage,
  firebaseDataHandler,
  onAndroidNotifeeEvent,
  isNotifeeStreamVideoEvent,
} from '@stream-io/video-react-native-sdk';

export const setFirebaseListeners = () => {
  // Set up the background message handler
  messaging().setBackgroundMessageHandler(async (msg) => {
    if (isFirebaseStreamVideoMessage(msg)) {
      await firebaseDataHandler(msg.data);
    } else {
      // your other background notifications (if any)
    }
  });

  // on press handlers of background notifications
  notifee.onBackgroundEvent(async (event) => {
    if (isNotifeeStreamVideoEvent(event)) {
      await onAndroidNotifeeEvent({ event, isBackground: true });
    } else {
      // your other background notifications (if any)
    }
  });

  // Optionally: set up the foreground message handler
  messaging().onMessage((msg) => {
    if (isFirebaseStreamVideoMessage(msg)) {
      firebaseDataHandler(msg.data);
    } else {
      // your other foreground notifications (if any)
    }
  });
  //  Optionally: on press handlers of foreground notifications
  notifee.onForegroundEvent((event) => {
    if (isNotifeeStreamVideoEvent(event)) {
      onAndroidNotifeeEvent({ event, isBackground: false });
    } else {
      // your other foreground notifications (if any)
    }
  });
};

The Firebase message handlers

• The onMessage handler should not be added if you do not want notifications to show up when the app is in the foreground. When the app is in foreground, you would automatically see the incoming call screen.
• The isFirebaseStreamVideoMessage method is used to check if this push message is a video related message. And only this needs to be processed by the SDK.
• The firebaseDataHandler method is the callback to be invoked to process the message. This callback reads the message and uses the @notifee/react-native library to display push notifications.

The Notifee event handlers

• The onForegroundEvent handler should not be added if you did not add foreground notifications above.
• The isNotifeeStreamVideoEvent method is used to check if the event was a video related notifee event. And only this needs to be processed by the SDK.
• The onAndroidNotifeeEvent method is the callback to be invoked to process the event. This callback reads the event and makes sure that the call is accepted or declined.

setFirebaseListeners.android.ts
setFirebaseListeners.ts

export const setFirebaseListeners = () => {
  // do nothing
};

Setup the push notifications configuration for the SDK

The SDK automatically processes the incoming push notifications once the setup above is done if the push notifications configuration has been set using StreamVideoRN.setPushConfig. Below is an example of how this method can be called,

import {
  StreamVideoClient,
  StreamVideoRN,
} from '@stream-io/video-react-native-sdk';
import { AndroidImportance } from '@notifee/react-native';
import AsyncStorage from '@react-native-async-storage/async-storage';
import { STREAM_API_KEY } from '../../constants';

export function setPushConfig() {
  StreamVideoRN.setPushConfig({
    // pass true to inform the SDK that this is an expo app
    isExpo: true,
    ios: {
      // add your push_provider_name for iOS that you have setup in Stream dashboard
      pushProviderName: __DEV__ ? 'apn-video-staging' : 'apn-video-production',
    },
    android: {
      // add your push_provider_name for Android that you have setup in Stream dashboard
      pushProviderName: __DEV__
        ? 'firebase-video-staging'
        : 'firebase-video-production',
      // configure the notification channel to be used for incoming calls for Android.
      incomingCallChannel: {
        id: 'stream_incoming_call',
        name: 'Incoming call notifications',
        // This is the advised importance of receiving incoming call notifications.
        // This will ensure that the notification will appear on-top-of applications.
        importance: AndroidImportance.HIGH,
        // optional: if you dont pass a sound, default ringtone will be used
        // sound: <your sound url>
      },
      // configure the functions to create the texts shown in the notification
      // for incoming calls in Android.
      incomingCallNotificationTextGetters: {
        getTitle: (createdUserName: string) =>
          `Incoming call from ${createdUserName}`,
        getBody: (_createdUserName: string) => 'Tap to answer the call',
      },
    },
    // add the async callback to create a video client
    // for incoming calls in the background on a push notification
    createStreamVideoClient: async () => {
      // note that since the method is async,
      // you can call your server to get the user data or token or retrieve from offline storage.
      const userId = await AsyncStorage.getItem('@userId');
      const userName = await AsyncStorage.getItem('@userName');
      if (!userId) return undefined;
      // an example promise to fetch token from your server
      const tokenProvider = () => yourServer.getTokenForUser(userId).then((auth) => auth.token);
      const user = { id: userId, name: userName };
      return StreamVideoClient.getOrCreateInstance({
        apiKey: STREAM_API_KEY, // pass your stream api key
        user,
        tokenProvider,
      });
    },
  });
}

Call the created methods outside of the application lifecycle

Call the methods we have created outside of your application cycle. That is inside index.js or the equivalent entry point file. This is because the app can be opened from a dead state through a push notification and in that case, we need to use the configuration and notification callbacks as soon as the JS bridge is initialized.

Following is an example,

import 'expo-router/entry';
import { setPushConfig } from 'src/utils/setPushConfig';
import { setFirebaseListeners } from 'src/utils/setFirebaseListeners';

// Set push config
setPushConfig();
// Set the firebase listeners
setFirebaseListeners();

Request for notification permissions in Android

At an appropriate place in your app, request for notification permissions from the user on Android. Below is a small example of how to request permissions in Expo:

import {PermissionsAndroid} from 'react-native';

PermissionsAndroid.request(PermissionsAndroid.PERMISSIONS.POST_NOTIFICATIONS);

Disabling push - usually on logout

In some cases you would want to disable push from happening. For example, if user logs out of your app. Or if the user switches. You can disable push like below:

import { StreamVideoRN } from '@stream-io/video-react-native-sdk';

await StreamVideoRN.onPushLogout();

Optional: On Android show full-screen incoming call view when phone is locked

Passing true to ringingPushNotifications.showWhenLockedAndroid will add the USE_FULL_SCREEN_INTENT permission to the android app and add the necessary configurations to the MainActivity.

Show the incoming and outgoing call UI when app is on the foreground

The last part of the setup for ringing calls is to show the incoming and outgoing call UIs in the app whenever there is a ringing call. If this was not implemented before, please headover to this page of our documentation to implement that.

Troubleshooting

• During development, you may be facing a situation where push notification is shown but its events like accepting or rejecting a call don’t work. This is because, during hot module reloading the global event listeners may get de-registered. To properly test during development, make sure that you fully restart the app or test in release mode without the metro packager.
• You can check the “Webhook & Push Logs” section in the Stream Dashboard to see if Notifications were sent by Stream.
• If you are still having trouble with Push Notifications, please submit a ticket to us at support.

Closed notification behavior on Android

On Android, users can set certain OS-level settings, usually revolving around performance and battery optimization, that can prevent notifications from being delivered when the app is in a killed state. For example, one such setting is the Deep Clear option on OnePlus devices using Android 9 and lower versions.