TalkJS React Native SDK (Expo)

Official TalkJS SDK for React Native (Expo)

Note: This module is NOT compatible with the Expo GO app since it relies on dependencies that have native modules.

What is TalkJS?

TalkJS is a developer friendly chat API with a pre-built UI that is highly customisable. You can build a chat feature in minutes instead of months.

With TalkJS, you can create chat features that boost user engagement, retention, and conversion rate.

Don't hesitate to let us know if you have any questions about TalkJS.

Installation

expo install @talkjs/expo @notifee/react-native @react-native-firebase/app @react-native-firebase/messaging react-native-webview

Usage

You can import the library in one of the following ways:

ES6 / TypeScript:

import * as TalkjsRn from '@talkjs/expo';

CommonJS:

const TalkjsRn = require('@talkjs/expo');

Then follow our React Native guide to start using TalkJS in your project.

TalkJS is fully forward compatible

We promise to never break API compatibility. We may at times deprecate methods or fields, but we will never remove them. If something that used to work stops working, then that's a bug. Please report it and we'll fix it asap.

The package is being released in a beta state. The reason for this is that there are things that one can do with the TalkJS JavaScript SDK that aren't possible with the React Native SDK. We will release v1.0.0 of this package once the two SDKs are similar in terms of features. This however does not take away from our commitment to always maintain backward compatibility. So you can be assured that the package is stable for production use.

Changelog

Note: These are only the changes that have an effect on the React Native package and its interface. TalkJS gets many improvements and fixes all the time. Consider subscribing to our changelog if you want to stay updated.

0.11.0

New Features

• Add scrollToMessage prop to the Chatbox component.
• Add support for Apple Push Notification service (APNs).

Changes

• Make Firebase optional. You can opt to use either expo-notifications or @react-native-firebase/messaging for push notifications on both Android and iOS.

Fixes

• Fix registering of device tokens when a Session is used immediately after the app launches

0.10.1

Changes

• Improved error reporting.

Fixes

• Fix issue that prevented having multiple Sessions active at the same time.

0.10.0

New Features

• Add token and tokenFetcher props to Session. These props are part of our efforts at impoving identity verification and authentication.

See the reference documentation for full details on the technical requirements for the JSON Web Token(JWT).

Deprecated

• Due to the above new props, we have deprecated the signature prop on the Session component.

0.9.1

Fixes

• Fix a regression with messages not getting marked as read when loading the Chatbox.

0.9.0

New Features

• Add disableZoom prop to Chatbox and ConversationList. This allows you to choose whether the user can pinch to zoom in and out of the UI. By default its value is false and the usr can zoom into the UI.

Changes

• Upgraded dependencies

Fixes

• Fix unnecessary warnings in iOS when calling MessageField methods.

0.8.4

Fixes

• Fix bug in Android with push notifications not showing when sender's photo is not defined.

0.8.3

Fixes

• Fix issue with getNotificationHandler being undefined.

0.8.2

Fixes

• Fix errors not showing up in debug mode.

0.8.1

Changes

• The ConversationList no longer highlights the first conversation by default.

0.8.0

New Features

• Add push notification support. Note: For push notifications to iOS on Expo, we currently only support using Firebase.
• Add onMessage and unreadsOnChange props to Session component.
• Add hasValidCredentials, clearPushRegistration, setPushRegistation and unsetPushRegistration methods to Session component.

Changes

• Upgraded dependencies.
• Removed bounce in iOS when the UI reached the edge of the content.

Fixes

• Fix bug in Session when user synchronization is disabled.
• Fix bug with MessageField.setText and MessageField.typeText that would cause a crash given certain strings.
• Fix bug with HTMLPanel not loading.

0.7.1

Changes

• Update dependencies.
• Changed behaviour when onSelectConversation prop is not given. Previously, in this scenario, clicking on a conversation would result in nothing happening. Now, the conversation will be selected and the TalkJS Inbox Mobile view will be shown.

Fixes

• Fix a regression with onSelectConversation in ConversationList.

0.7.0

New Features

• Added onLeaveConversation, onCustomMessageAction and onCustomConversationAction props. These are intended to replace the methods with the same names. The methods have hence been deprecated. This change was made to ensure that this SDK's interface matched the React SDK's.

Changes

• Deprecated the off method in both Chatbox and ConversationList.

Fixes

• (iOS) Fixed a bug with videos in link previews automatically playing in fullscreen mode. The videos will now play inline instead.

0.6.0

New Features

• Make the WebView transparent. This means that whatever background colour you have applied to the parent View will be used in the empty areas around the TalkJS UI.
• Add getCurrentConversation, onCustomConversationAction, onLeaveConversation and sendLocation methods to Chatbox.
• Add leave method to ConversationBuilder.
• Add support for passing data to themes in both Chatbox and ConversationList.

Changes

• Upgraded dependencies.
• Changes the type of the conversation property in SelectConversationEvent from ConversationBuilderto ConversationData.

Fixes

• Fix zooming on iOS. A previous workaround to prevent the UI from zooming in when clicking the MessageField on iOS resulted in zooming being disabled entirely. This update removes the workaround. Should you encounter the issue, set the MessageField's font size to 16px to fix it. The default TalkJS theme already uses a font size of 16px.

0.5.1

Fixes

• Fix bug in Android that caused the errors: Cannot assign to property '_injectJavaScript' which has only a getter or Attempted to assign to readonly property when using React Native version 0.70 and below.

0.5.0

New Features

• Added support for Custom Message Actions.
• A loading component can now be passed as a prop to Chatbox and ConversationList and it will be shown when the respective components are loading the UI. This is mostly useful on first load. Subsequent loads of the UI components are much faster.

Changes

• Upgraded dependencies.

Fixes

• Fix bug in sendMessage where a message would get sent multiple times in certain scenarios.
• Fix bug with captureKeyboardEvents prop in Chatbox not working.
• Fix slow scrolling performance on the UI for Android devices.
• Fix bug when handling active notifications.

0.4.2

This is a minor update ensuring a great user experience when using voice messages, particularly on iOS.

To enable voice messages, you'll need to first enable it per role in the TalkJS dashboard. Then you'll need to specify the necessary permissions for both Android and iOS.

For Android, add the following to your AndroidManifest.xml file:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO" />

For iOS, add the following to your Info.plist file:

<key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key>
<string>Messages shown to your user when the microphone is accessed for the first time</string>

Added

• Improved UX on iOS when using audio messages.

0.4.1

Fixes

• Fix mark as read. This release ensures that messages are marked as read reliably as long as the chat is visible. If the app is in the background, or the chat is covered by the System UI (example: when receiving a call) then the messages won't be marked as read.

• Fix rare crash on Android for SDK 28+ when the @react-navigation/native library is used.

0.4.0

With this release, we have updated the package's dependencies and peer dependencies to keep them up to date and also fix bugs in some of them.

As of npm v7, peer dependencies are installed by default so updating the TalkJS SDK should also update the peer dependencies accordingly. For yarn users, you may have to update the packages individually.

0.3.4

• Fix "Chat not found" error when joining as Guest.

0.3.3

• Fix regression in the support of devices with iOS 14 and lower.

0.3.1

• Fix "Chat not found" bug when creating a new conversation.

0.3.0

New Features

• Improved Error Reporting.
• Add support for Guest Access through the addition of asGuest prop in Chatbox.
• Enable capturing of keyup events in Chatbox through the captureKeyboardEvents and onKeyup props.
• Added the methods: getText and typeText to MessageField.

Changes

• Changed oneOnOneId to also accept User Objects.
• Changed showFeedHeader default to false.

Fixes

• Fix bug when user and/or conversation synchronization were disabled.

Deprecated

• The following props in ConversationList: feedConversationTitleMode, thirdParties, onBlur and onFocus.
• The following props in Chatbox: chatSubtitleMode, chatTitleMode, thirdParties, translateConversations, onBlur and onFocus.

0.2.1

• Fix bug in Chatbox when conversation synchronization was disabled.

0.2.0

• Added a ConversationList component.
• Added the messageField property to the Chatbox component
• Fix bug in ConversationBuilder.setAttributes that prevented setting a value to null or undefined after previously having given it a value.
• (iOS): Fix push notification registration token not getting received.
• (iOS): Fix zooming when messageField is clicked.

0.1.0

• Added the following components: Session, Chatbox and HtmlPanel.
• First release