React Native

This guide discusses how to set up your React Native app to get push notifications from Stream for the non-ringing calls that your user will receive.

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

Terminal

yarn add @react-native-firebase/app
yarn add @react-native-firebase/messaging
yarn add @react-native-community/push-notification-ios
yarn add @notifee/react-native
npx pod-install

So what did we install precisely?

• @react-native-firebase/app and @react-native-firebase/messaging for handling incoming Firebase Cloud Messaging notifications on Android.
• @react-native-community/push-notification-ios for handling Apple Push Notification service (APNs) notifications on iOS.

Android-specific setup

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 inside of your project at the following location: /android/app/google-services.json.

4. To allow Firebase on Android to use the credentials, the google-services plugin must be enabled on the project. This requires modification to two files in the Android directory. Add the highlighted lines in the relevant files:

/android/build.gradle

buildscript {
  dependencies {
    // ... other dependencies
    classpath 'com.google.gms:google-services:4.3.15'
  }
}

/android/build.gradle

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services'

note

The google-services.json file contains unique and non-secret identifiers of your Firebase project. For more information, see Understand Firebase Projects.

iOS-specific setup

Disable Firebase installation

We don't use Firebase cloud messaging for iOS in the SDK. Unless Firebase is used for other purposes in your app, you can safely remove it from being installed by iOS and avoid the auto-linking. To do that create a file named react-native.config.js in the root of your project and add the following contents:

react-native.config.js

module.exports = {
  dependencies: {
    '@react-native-firebase/app': {
      platforms: {
        ios: null,
      },
    },
    '@react-native-firebase/messaging': {
      platforms: {
        ios: null,
      },
    },
  },
};

Once this is done, pod install must be run again to remove the installed pods.

Add background modes

In Xcode: Open Info.plist file and add the following in UIBackgroundModes. By editing this file with the text editor, you should see:

<key>UIBackgroundModes</key>
<array>
  <string>remote-notification</string>
</array>

Update AppDelegate.h

At the top of the file, add:

#import <UserNotifications/UNUserNotificationCenter.h>

Then, add the UNUserNotificationCenterDelegate:

For React-Native v0.71 and above:

@interface AppDelegate : RCTAppDelegate <UNUserNotificationCenterDelegate>

For React-Native v0.70 and below:

@interface AppDelegate : UIResponder <UIApplicationDelegate, RCTBridgeDelegate, UNUserNotificationCen

Update AppDelegate.m or AppDelegate.mm

Add headers

At the top of the file, add:

#import <UserNotifications/UserNotifications.h>
#import <RNCPushNotificationIOS.h>

Add methods

Then add the following methods:

// Required for the register event.
- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken:(NSData *)deviceToken
{
 [RNCPushNotificationIOS didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken:deviceToken];
}
// Required for the notification event. You must call the completion handler after handling the remote notification.
- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didReceiveRemoteNotification:(NSDictionary *)userInfo
fetchCompletionHandler:(void (^)(UIBackgroundFetchResult))completionHandler
{
  [RNCPushNotificationIOS didReceiveRemoteNotification:userInfo fetchCompletionHandler:completionHandler];
}
// Required for the registrationError event.
- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didFailToRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithError:(NSError *)error
{
 [RNCPushNotificationIOS didFailToRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithError:error];
}
// Required for localNotification event
- (void)userNotificationCenter:(UNUserNotificationCenter *)center
didReceiveNotificationResponse:(UNNotificationResponse *)response
         withCompletionHandler:(void (^)(void))completionHandler
{
  [RNCPushNotificationIOS didReceiveNotificationResponse:response];
}
//Called when a notification is delivered to a foreground app.
-(void)userNotificationCenter:(UNUserNotificationCenter *)center willPresentNotification:(UNNotification *)notification withCompletionHandler:(void (^)(UNNotificationPresentationOptions options))completionHandler
{
  completionHandler(UNNotificationPresentationOptionSound | UNNotificationPresentationOptionAlert | UNNotificationPresentationOptionBadge);
}

Then add the following lines to didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
  UNUserNotificationCenter *center = [UNUserNotificationCenter currentNotificationCenter];
  center.delegate = self;
  // ...rest
}

Enable push notifications

To receive push notifications, enable the Push Notifications capability in the Xcode Project > Signing & Capabilities pane.

Setup the push config for the SDK

The SDK automatically processes the incoming push notifications once the setup above is done if the push config has been set using StreamVideoRN.setPushConfig. To do this follow the steps below,

Add the ability to statically navigate to screens in your app

When a user taps on the push notification and the JS engine is not ready, they should still be able to navigate to the screen that shows the active call. You can achieve this by adding the ability to navigate without the navigation property in the react-navigation library.

The following is an example implementation of a utility file that has helpers to statically navigate in the app:

src/utils/staticNavigation.ts

import { createNavigationContainerRef } from '@react-navigation/native';

import { RootStackParamList } from '../navigation/types';

export const navigationRef = createNavigationContainerRef<RootStackParamList>();

/**
 * This is used to run the navigation logic from root level even before the navigation is ready
 */
export const staticNavigate = (
  ...navigationArgs: Parameters<typeof navigationRef.navigate>
) => {
  // note the use of setInterval, it is responsible for constantly checking if requirements are met and then navigating
  const intervalId = setInterval(async () => {
    // run only when the navigation is ready and add any other requirements (like authentication)
    if (navigationRef.isReady() && GlobalState.hasAuthentication) {
      clearInterval(intervalId);
      navigationRef.navigate(...navigationArgs);
    }
  }, 300);
};

When doing this it is very important to set the navigationRef in your navigation container as shown below:

import { navigationRef } from './src/utils/staticNavigationUtils';

<NavigationContainer ref={navigationRef}>
  <MyAppNavigator />
</NavigationContainer>;

Setup the push config

Once we have set up the methods to navigate the app from a static method we are ready to call the StreamVideoRN.setPushConfig method. Below is an example of how this method can be called,

src/utils/setPushConfig.ts

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';
import { staticNavigate } from './staticNavigationUtils';

export function setPushConfig() {
  StreamVideoRN.setPushConfig({
    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 non ringing calls for Android.
      callChannel: {
        id: 'stream_call_notifications',
        name: 'Call notifications',
        // This importance will ensure that the notification will appear on-top-of applications.
        importance: AndroidImportance.HIGH,
        sound: "default",
      },
      // configure the functions to create the texts shown in the notification
      // for non ringing calls in Android.
      callNotificationTextGetters: {
        getTitle(type, createdUserName) {
          if (type === 'call.live_started') {
            return `Call went live, it was started by ${createdUserName}`;
          } else {
            return `${createdUserName} is notifying you about a call`;
          }
        },
        getBody(_type, createdUserName) {
          return 'Tap to open the call';
        },
      },
    },
    // optional: add the callback to be executed when a non ringing call notification is tapped
    onTapNonRingingCallNotification: () => {
      const [callType, callId] = call_cid.split(':');
      if (callType === 'livestream') {
        staticNavigate({ name: 'LiveStreamCallScreen', params: undefined });
      } else {
        staticNavigate({ name: 'ActiveCallScreen', params: undefined });
      }
    },
    // 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,
      });
    },
  });
}

Now, call the method outside of your application cycle. That is, alongside your AppRegistry.registerComponent() method call at the entry point of your application code. 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 config as soon as the JS bridge is initialized. Following is an example,

index.js

import { AppRegistry } from 'react-native';
import { setPushConfig } from 'src/utils/setPushConfig';
import App from './App';

// Set push config
setPushConfig();
AppRegistry.registerComponent('app', () => App);

Request for notification permissions

At an appropriate place in your app, request for notification permissions from the user. Below is a small example of how to request permissions using react-native-permissions library:

import { requestNotifications } from 'react-native-permissions';

await requestNotifications(['alert', 'sound']);

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();

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.