react-native-image-picker

What is react-native-image-picker?

The react-native-image-picker package allows React Native developers to access the device's camera and photo library. It provides a simple way to capture images and videos or select them from the device's gallery.

What are react-native-image-picker's main functionalities?

Launch Camera

This feature allows you to launch the device's camera to capture a photo. The `launchCamera` function takes an options object to specify the media type and camera type, and a callback function to handle the response.

import { launchCamera } from 'react-native-image-picker';

const options = {
  mediaType: 'photo',
  cameraType: 'back',
};

launchCamera(options, (response) => {
  if (response.didCancel) {
    console.log('User cancelled image picker');
  } else if (response.error) {
    console.log('ImagePicker Error: ', response.error);
  } else {
    const source = { uri: response.uri };
    console.log('Image URI: ', source.uri);
  }
});

Launch Image Library

This feature allows you to open the device's image library to select a photo. The `launchImageLibrary` function takes an options object to specify the media type and a callback function to handle the response.

import { launchImageLibrary } from 'react-native-image-picker';

const options = {
  mediaType: 'photo',
};

launchImageLibrary(options, (response) => {
  if (response.didCancel) {
    console.log('User cancelled image picker');
  } else if (response.error) {
    console.log('ImagePicker Error: ', response.error);
  } else {
    const source = { uri: response.uri };
    console.log('Image URI: ', source.uri);
  }
});

Video Recording

This feature allows you to launch the device's camera to record a video. The `launchCamera` function takes an options object to specify the media type as video and the camera type, and a callback function to handle the response.

import { launchCamera } from 'react-native-image-picker';

const options = {
  mediaType: 'video',
  cameraType: 'back',
};

launchCamera(options, (response) => {
  if (response.didCancel) {
    console.log('User cancelled video recording');
  } else if (response.error) {
    console.log('VideoPicker Error: ', response.error);
  } else {
    const source = { uri: response.uri };
    console.log('Video URI: ', source.uri);
  }
});

Other packages similar to react-native-image-picker

react-native-camera

The react-native-camera package provides a comprehensive camera module for React Native. It supports photo and video capture, barcode scanning, and text recognition. Compared to react-native-image-picker, it offers more advanced camera functionalities but requires more setup.

expo-image-picker

The expo-image-picker package is part of the Expo ecosystem and provides similar functionalities to react-native-image-picker, such as selecting images and videos from the device's library or capturing them using the camera. It is easier to set up within an Expo project but may not offer as much flexibility as react-native-image-picker in a bare React Native project.

react-native-image-crop-picker

The react-native-image-crop-picker package offers image and video picking with cropping functionality. It provides a more customizable user interface for cropping images compared to react-native-image-picker, making it a good choice if cropping is a required feature.

README

react-native-image-picker 🎆

A React Native module that allows you to select a photo/video from the device library or camera.

Installation

yarn add react-native-image-picker

New Architecture

To take advantage of the new architecture run-

iOS

RCT_NEW_ARCH_ENABLED=1 npx pod-install ios

Android

Set newArchEnabled to true inside android/gradle.properties

Pre-Fabric (AKA not using the new architecture)

npx pod-install ios

Post-install Steps

iOS

Add the appropriate keys to your Info.plist depending on your requirement:

Requirement	Key
Select image/video from photos	NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription
Capture Image	NSCameraUsageDescription
Capture Video	NSCameraUsageDescription & NSMicrophoneUsageDescription

Android

No permissions required (saveToPhotos requires permission check).

Note: This library does not require Manifest.permission.CAMERA, if your app declares as using this permission in manifest then you have to obtain the permission before using launchCamera.

Targeting Android API Levels Below 30

If your app's minSdkVersion is set to below 30 and it does not already include or depend on androidx.activity:activity:1.9.+ or a newer version, you'll need to add the following line to the dependencies section of your app/build.gradle file to ensure support for the backported AndroidX Photo Picker:

dependencies {
    ...
    implementation("androidx.activity:activity:1.9.+")
    ...
}

Additionally, you may need to update your AndroidManifest.xml to trigger the installation of the backported Photo Picker. For reference, you can check the example app's configuration in example/android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml and example/android/app/build.gradle.

For more details, consult the Android documentation on AndroidX Photo Picker: https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage/shared/photopicker

API Reference

Methods

import {launchCamera, launchImageLibrary} from 'react-native-image-picker';

launchCamera()

Launch camera to take photo or video.

launchCamera(options?, callback);

// You can also use as a promise without 'callback':
const result = await launchCamera(options?);

See Options for further information on options.

The callback will be called with a response object, refer to The Response Object.

launchImageLibrary

Launch gallery to pick image or video.

launchImageLibrary(options?, callback)

// You can also use as a promise without 'callback':
const result = await launchImageLibrary(options?);

See Options for further information on options.

The callback will be called with a response object, refer to The Response Object.

Options

Option	iOS	Android	Web	Description
mediaType	OK	OK	OK	photo or video or mixed(launchCamera on Android does not support 'mixed'). Web only supports 'photo' for now.
maxWidth	OK	OK	NO	To resize the image.
maxHeight	OK	OK	NO	To resize the image.
videoQuality	OK	OK	NO	low, medium, or high on iOS, low or high on Android.
durationLimit	OK	OK	NO	Video max duration (in seconds).
quality	OK	OK	NO	0 to 1, photos.
conversionQuality	NO	OK	NO	For conversion from HEIC to JPEG, 0 to 1. Default is 0.92
cameraType	OK	OK	NO	'back' or 'front' (May not be supported in few android devices).
includeBase64	OK	OK	OK	If true, creates base64 string of the image (Avoid using on large image files due to performance).
includeExtra	OK	OK	NO	If true, will include extra data which requires library permissions to be requested (i.e. exif data).
saveToPhotos	OK	OK	NO	(Boolean) Only for launchCamera, saves the image/video file captured to public photo.
selectionLimit	OK	OK	OK	Supports providing any integer value. Use 0 to allow any number of files on iOS version >= 14 & Android version >= 13. Default is 1.
presentationStyle	OK	NO	NO	Controls how the picker is presented. currentContext, pageSheet, fullScreen, formSheet, popover, overFullScreen, overCurrentContext. Default is currentContext.
formatAsMp4	OK	NO	NO	Converts the selected video to MP4 (iOS Only).
assetRepresentationMode	OK	OK	NO	A mode that determines which representation to use if an asset contains more than one on iOS or disables HEIC to JPEG conversion on Android if set to 'current'. Possible values: 'auto', 'current', 'compatible'. Default is 'auto'.

The Response Object

key	iOS	Android	Web	Description
didCancel	OK	OK	OK	true if the user cancelled the process
errorCode	OK	OK	OK	Check ErrorCode for all error codes
errorMessage	OK	OK	OK	Description of the error, use it for debug purpose only
assets	OK	OK	OK	Array of the selected media, refer to Asset Object

Asset Object

key	iOS	Android	Web	Photo/Video	Requires Permissions	Description
base64	OK	OK	OK	PHOTO ONLY	NO	The base64 string of the image (photos only)
uri	OK	OK	OK	BOTH	NO	The file uri in app specific cache storage. Except when picking video from Android gallery where you will get read only content uri, to get file uri in this case copy the file to app specific storage using any react-native library. For web it uses the base64 as uri.
originalPath	NO	OK	NO	BOTH	NO	The original file path.
width	OK	OK	OK	BOTH	NO	Asset dimensions
height	OK	OK	OK	BOTH	NO	Asset dimensions
fileSize	OK	OK	NO	BOTH	NO	The file size
type	OK	OK	NO	BOTH	NO	The file type
fileName	OK	OK	NO	BOTH	NO	The file name
duration	OK	OK	NO	VIDEO ONLY	NO	The selected video duration in seconds
bitrate	---	OK	NO	VIDEO ONLY	NO	The average bitrate (in bits/sec) of the selected video, if available. (Android only)
timestamp	OK	OK	NO	BOTH	YES	Timestamp of the asset. Only included if 'includeExtra' is true
id	OK	OK	NO	BOTH	YES	local identifier of the photo or video. On Android, this is the same as fileName

Note on file storage

Image/video captured via camera will be stored in temporary folder allowing it to be deleted any time, so don't expect it to persist. Use saveToPhotos: true (default is false) to save the file in the public photos. saveToPhotos requires WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission on Android 28 and below (The permission has to obtained by the App manually as the library does not handle that).

For web, this doesn't work.

ErrorCode

Code	Description
camera_unavailable	Camera not available on device
permission	Permission not satisfied
others	Other errors (check errorMessage for description)

License

MIT