react-native-permissions

☝🏼 React Native Permissions

An unified permissions API for React Native on iOS and Android.

Support

version	react-native version
2.0.0+	0.60.0+
2.0.0+ & jetify -r	0.59.0 - 0.59.10

Setup

$ npm install --save react-native-permissions
# --- or ---
$ yarn add react-native-permissions

iOS

By default no permission handler is installed. Update your Podfile by choosing the ones you want to check or request, then run pod install.

target 'YourAwesomeProject' do

  # …

  permissions_path = '../node_modules/react-native-permissions/ios'

  pod 'Permission-BluetoothPeripheral', :path => "#{permissions_path}/BluetoothPeripheral.podspec"
  pod 'Permission-Calendars', :path => "#{permissions_path}/Calendars.podspec"
  pod 'Permission-Camera', :path => "#{permissions_path}/Camera.podspec"
  pod 'Permission-Contacts', :path => "#{permissions_path}/Contacts.podspec"
  pod 'Permission-FaceID', :path => "#{permissions_path}/FaceID.podspec"
  pod 'Permission-LocationAlways', :path => "#{permissions_path}/LocationAlways.podspec"
  pod 'Permission-LocationWhenInUse', :path => "#{permissions_path}/LocationWhenInUse.podspec"
  pod 'Permission-MediaLibrary', :path => "#{permissions_path}/MediaLibrary.podspec"
  pod 'Permission-Microphone', :path => "#{permissions_path}/Microphone.podspec"
  pod 'Permission-Motion', :path => "#{permissions_path}/Motion.podspec"
  pod 'Permission-Notifications', :path => "#{permissions_path}/Notifications.podspec"
  pod 'Permission-PhotoLibrary', :path => "#{permissions_path}/PhotoLibrary.podspec"
  pod 'Permission-Reminders', :path => "#{permissions_path}/Reminders.podspec"
  pod 'Permission-Siri', :path => "#{permissions_path}/Siri.podspec"
  pod 'Permission-SpeechRecognition', :path => "#{permissions_path}/SpeechRecognition.podspec"
  pod 'Permission-StoreKit', :path => "#{permissions_path}/StoreKit.podspec"

end

Then update your Info.plist with wanted permissions usage descriptions:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>

  <!-- 🚨 Keep only the permissions used in your app 🚨 -->

  <key>NSAppleMusicUsageDescription</key>
  <string>YOUR TEXT</string>
  <key>NSBluetoothAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
  <string>YOUR TEXT</string>
  <key>NSBluetoothPeripheralUsageDescription</key>
  <string>YOUR TEXT</string>
  <key>NSCalendarsUsageDescription</key>
  <string>YOUR TEXT</string>
  <key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
  <string>YOUR TEXT</string>
  <key>NSContactsUsageDescription</key>
  <string>YOUR TEXT</string>
  <key>NSFaceIDUsageDescription</key>
  <string>YOUR TEXT</string>
  <key>NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription</key>
  <string>YOUR TEXT</string>
  <key>NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
  <string>YOUR TEXT</string>
  <key>NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription</key>
  <string>YOUR TEXT</string>
  <key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key>
  <string>YOUR TEXT</string>
  <key>NSMotionUsageDescription</key>
  <string>YOUR TEXT</string>
  <key>NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription</key>
  <string>YOUR TEXT</string>
  <key>NSRemindersUsageDescription</key>
  <string>YOUR TEXT</string>
  <key>NSSpeechRecognitionUsageDescription</key>
  <string>YOUR TEXT</string>
  <key>NSSiriUsageDescription</key>
  <string>YOUR TEXT</string>

  <!-- … -->

</dict>
</plist>

⚠️ If you encounter the error Invalid RNPermission X. Should be one of: ()

1. Check that you linked at least one permission handler.
2. Clean up Xcode stale data with npx react-native-clean-project --remove-iOS-build --remove-iOS-pods
3. If you use use_frameworks!, replace it by use_modular_headers! - see this blog post for more details. Create empty Swift file in XCode. Then add “:modular_headers => false” to Pods with build errors:

pod 'glog', :podspec => '../node_modules/react-native/third-party-podspecs/glog.podspec', :modular_headers => false
pod 'Folly', :podspec => '../node_modules/react-native/third-party-podspecs/Folly.podspec', :modular_headers => false

1. If you use use_frameworks! but can’t replace it with use_modular_headers!, check the following workaround:

# Add this code at the top of Podfile right after platform definition.
# It will make all the dynamic frameworks turning into static libraries.

use_frameworks!

$dynamic_frameworks = ['RxCocoa', 'RxSwift', 'WhatEverSDKName']

pre_install do |installer|
  installer.pod_targets.each do |pod|
    if !$dynamic_frameworks.include?(pod.name)
      puts "Overriding the static_framework? method for #{pod.name}"
      def pod.build_type;
        Pod::Target::BuildType.static_library
      end
    end
  end
end

Android

Add all wanted permissions to your app android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml file:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
  package="com.myawesomeapp">

  <!-- 🚨 Keep only the permissions used in your app 🚨 -->

  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCEPT_HANDOVER" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACTIVITY_RECOGNITION" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ANSWER_PHONE_CALLS" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BODY_SENSORS" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CALL_PHONE" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.GET_ACCOUNTS" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.PROCESS_OUTGOING_CALLS" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CALENDAR" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CALL_LOG" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_NUMBERS" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_SMS" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_MMS" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_SMS" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_WAP_PUSH" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.SEND_SMS" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.USE_SIP" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_CALENDAR" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_CALL_LOG" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_CONTACTS" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
  <uses-permission android:name="com.android.voicemail.permission.ADD_VOICEMAIL" />

  <!-- … -->

</manifest>

🆘 Manual linking

Because this package targets React Native 0.60.0+, you will probably don’t need to link it manually. Otherwise if it’s not the case, follow this additional instructions:

👀 See manual linking instructions

iOS

Add this line to your ios/Podfile file, then run pod install.

target 'YourAwesomeProject' do
  # …
  pod 'RNPermissions', :path => '../node_modules/react-native-permissions'
end

Android

1. Add the following lines to android/settings.gradle:

include ':react-native-permissions'
project(':react-native-permissions').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../node_modules/react-native-permissions/android')

1. Add the implementation line to the dependencies in android/app/build.gradle:

dependencies {
  // ...
  implementation project(':react-native-permissions')
}

1. Add the import and link the package in MainApplication.java:

import com.reactnativecommunity.rnpermissions.RNPermissionsPackage; // <- add the RNPermissionsPackage import

public class MainApplication extends Application implements ReactApplication {

  // …

  @Override
  protected List<ReactPackage> getPackages() {
    @SuppressWarnings("UnnecessaryLocalVariable")
    List<ReactPackage> packages = new PackageList(this).getPackages();
    // …
    packages.add(new RNPermissionsPackage());
    return packages;
  }

  // …
}

Understanding permission flow

As permissions are not handled in the same way on iOS and Android, this library provides an abstraction over the two platforms behaviors. To understand it a little better, take a look to these two flowcharts:

iOS flow

   ┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
   ┃ check(PERMISSIONS.IOS.CAMERA) ┃
   ┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
                   │
       Is the feature available
           on this device ?
                   │           ╔════╗
                   ├───────────║ NO ║──────────────┐
                   │           ╚════╝              │
                ╔═════╗                            ▼
                ║ YES ║                 ┌─────────────────────┐
                ╚═════╝                 │ RESULTS.UNAVAILABLE │
                   │                    └─────────────────────┘
           Is the permission
             requestable ?
                   │           ╔════╗
                   ├───────────║ NO ║──────────────┐
                   │           ╚════╝              │
                ╔═════╗                            ▼
                ║ YES ║                  ┌───────────────────┐
                ╚═════╝                  │ RESULTS.BLOCKED / │
                   │                     │  RESULTS.GRANTED  │
                   ▼                     └───────────────────┘
          ┌────────────────┐
          │ RESULTS.DENIED │
          └────────────────┘
                   │
                   ▼
  ┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
  ┃ request(PERMISSIONS.IOS.CAMERA) ┃
  ┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
                   │
         Does the user accept
            the request ?
                   │           ╔════╗
                   ├───────────║ NO ║──────────────┐
                   │           ╚════╝              │
                ╔═════╗                            ▼
                ║ YES ║                   ┌─────────────────┐
                ╚═════╝                   │ RESULTS.BLOCKED │
                   │                      └─────────────────┘
                   ▼
          ┌─────────────────┐
          │ RESULTS.GRANTED │
          └─────────────────┘

Android flow

 ┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
 ┃ check(PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.CAMERA) ┃
 ┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
                   │
       Is the feature available
           on this device ?
                   │           ╔════╗
                   ├───────────║ NO ║──────────────┐
                   │           ╚════╝              │
                ╔═════╗                            ▼
                ║ YES ║                 ┌─────────────────────┐
                ╚═════╝                 │ RESULTS.UNAVAILABLE │
                   │                    └─────────────────────┘
           Is the permission
             requestable ?
                   │           ╔════╗
                   ├───────────║ NO ║──────────────┐
                   │           ╚════╝              │
                ╔═════╗                            ▼
                ║ YES ║                  ┌───────────────────┐
                ╚═════╝                  │ RESULTS.BLOCKED / │
                   │                     │  RESULTS.GRANTED  │
                   ▼                     └───────────────────┘
          ┌────────────────┐
          │ RESULTS.DENIED │◀──────────────────────┐
          └────────────────┘                       │
                   │                               │
                   ▼                               │
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓         ╔════╗
┃ request(PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.CAMERA) ┃         ║ NO ║
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛         ╚════╝
                   │                               │
         Does the user accept                      │
            the request ?                          │
                   │           ╔════╗     Does the user check
                   ├───────────║ NO ║─────"Never ask again" ?
                   │           ╚════╝              │
                ╔═════╗                         ╔═════╗
                ║ YES ║                         ║ YES ║
                ╚═════╝                         ╚═════╝
                   │                               │
                   ▼                               ▼
          ┌─────────────────┐             ┌─────────────────┐
          │ RESULTS.GRANTED │             │ RESULTS.BLOCKED │
          └─────────────────┘             └─────────────────┘

API

Supported permissions

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

// Android permissions

PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.ACCEPT_HANDOVER;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.ACTIVITY_RECOGNITION;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.ADD_VOICEMAIL;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.ANSWER_PHONE_CALLS;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.BODY_SENSORS;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.CALL_PHONE;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.CAMERA;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.GET_ACCOUNTS;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.PROCESS_OUTGOING_CALLS;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.READ_CALENDAR;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.READ_CALL_LOG;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.READ_CONTACTS;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.READ_PHONE_NUMBERS;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.READ_PHONE_STATE;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.READ_SMS;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.RECEIVE_MMS;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.RECEIVE_SMS;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.RECEIVE_WAP_PUSH;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.RECORD_AUDIO;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.SEND_SMS;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.USE_SIP;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.WRITE_CALENDAR;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.WRITE_CALL_LOG;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.WRITE_CONTACTS;
PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE;

// iOS permissions

PERMISSIONS.IOS.BLUETOOTH_PERIPHERAL;
PERMISSIONS.IOS.CALENDARS;
PERMISSIONS.IOS.CAMERA;
PERMISSIONS.IOS.CONTACTS;
PERMISSIONS.IOS.FACE_ID;
PERMISSIONS.IOS.LOCATION_ALWAYS;
PERMISSIONS.IOS.LOCATION_WHEN_IN_USE;
PERMISSIONS.IOS.MEDIA_LIBRARY;
PERMISSIONS.IOS.MICROPHONE;
PERMISSIONS.IOS.MOTION;
PERMISSIONS.IOS.PHOTO_LIBRARY;
PERMISSIONS.IOS.REMINDERS;
PERMISSIONS.IOS.SIRI;
PERMISSIONS.IOS.SPEECH_RECOGNITION;
PERMISSIONS.IOS.STOREKIT;

Permissions statuses

Permission checks and requests resolve into one of these statuses:

Return value	Notes
RESULTS.UNAVAILABLE	This feature is not available (on this device / in this context)
RESULTS.DENIED	The permission has not been requested / is denied but requestable
RESULTS.GRANTED	The permission is granted
RESULTS.BLOCKED	The permission is denied and not requestable anymore

Methods

// type used in usage examples
type PermissionStatus = 'unavailable' | 'denied' | 'blocked' | 'granted';

check

Check one permission status.

function check(permission: string): Promise<PermissionStatus>;

import {check, PERMISSIONS, RESULTS} from 'react-native-permissions';

check(PERMISSIONS.IOS.LOCATION_ALWAYS)
  .then(result => {
    switch (result) {
      case RESULTS.UNAVAILABLE:
        console.log(
          'This feature is not available (on this device / in this context)',
        );
        break;
      case RESULTS.DENIED:
        console.log(
          'The permission has not been requested / is denied but requestable',
        );
        break;
      case RESULTS.GRANTED:
        console.log('The permission is granted');
        break;
      case RESULTS.BLOCKED:
        console.log('The permission is denied and not requestable anymore');
        break;
    }
  })
  .catch(error => {
    // …
  });

---

request

Request one permission.

type Rationale = {
  title: string;
  message: string;
  buttonPositive?: string;
  buttonNegative?: string;
  buttonNeutral?: string;
};

function request(
  permission: string,
  rationale?: Rationale,
): Promise<PermissionStatus>;

import {request, PERMISSIONS} from 'react-native-permissions';

request(PERMISSIONS.IOS.LOCATION_ALWAYS).then(result => {
  // …
});

---

checkNotifications

Check notifications permission status and get notifications settings values.

interface NotificationSettings {
  // properties only availables on iOS
  // unavailable settings will not be included in the response object
  alert?: boolean;
  badge?: boolean;
  sound?: boolean;
  lockScreen?: boolean;
  carPlay?: boolean;
  notificationCenter?: boolean;
  criticalAlert?: boolean;
}

function checkNotifications(): Promise<{
  status: PermissionStatus;
  settings: NotificationSettings;
}>;

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

checkNotifications().then(({status, settings}) => {
  // …
});

---

requestNotifications

Request notifications permission status and get notifications settings values.

// only used on iOS
type NotificationOption =
  | 'alert'
  | 'badge'
  | 'sound'
  | 'criticalAlert'
  | 'carPlay'
  | 'provisional';

interface NotificationSettings {
  // properties only availables on iOS
  // unavailable settings will not be included in the response object
  alert?: boolean;
  badge?: boolean;
  sound?: boolean;
  lockScreen?: boolean;
  carPlay?: boolean;
  notificationCenter?: boolean;
  criticalAlert?: boolean;
}

function requestNotifications(
  options: NotificationOption[],
): Promise<{
  status: PermissionStatus;
  settings: NotificationSettings;
}>;

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

requestNotifications(['alert', 'sound']).then(({status, settings}) => {
  // …
});

---

openSettings

Open application settings.

function openSettings(): Promise<void>;

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

openSettings().catch(() => console.warn('cannot open settings'));

Migrating from v1.x.x

If you are currently using the version 1.x.x and would like to switch to v2.x.x, the only thing you really need to know is that it’s now required to select the wanted permission per platform.

// v1.x.x
import Permissions from 'react-native-permissions';

Permissions.request('location', {type: 'whenInUse'});

// v2.x.x
import {Platform} from 'react-native';
import {PERMISSIONS, request} from 'react-native-permissions';

request(
  Platform.select({
    android: PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION,
    ios: PERMISSIONS.IOS.LOCATION_WHEN_IN_USE,
  }),
);

Additional recipes

Check multiples permissions

import {check, PERMISSIONS} from 'react-native-permissions';

// can be done in parallel
Promise.all([
  check(PERMISSIONS.IOS.CAMERA),
  check(PERMISSIONS.IOS.CONTACTS),
  // …
]).then(([cameraStatus, contactsStatus /* … */]) => {
  console.log({cameraStatus, contactsStatus});
});

Request multiples permissions

⚠️  It’s a very bad UX pattern, avoid doing it!

import {request, PERMISSIONS} from 'react-native-permissions';

// should be done in sequence
async function requestAll() {
  const cameraStatus = await request(PERMISSIONS.IOS.CAMERA);
  const contactsStatus = await request(PERMISSIONS.IOS.CONTACTS);
  return {cameraStatus, contactsStatus};
}

requestAll().then(statuses => console.log(statuses));