react-native-permissions

What is react-native-permissions?

The react-native-permissions package is a library for handling permissions in React Native applications. It provides a unified API to request and check permissions for various device features such as location, camera, microphone, and more.

What are react-native-permissions's main functionalities?

Requesting Permissions

This feature allows you to request specific permissions from the user. In this example, the code requests camera permission on an Android device.

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

async function requestCameraPermission() {
  const result = await request(PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.CAMERA);
  console.log(result);
}

Checking Permissions

This feature allows you to check the current status of a specific permission. The example checks if the camera permission is granted on an Android device.

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

async function checkCameraPermission() {
  const result = await check(PERMISSIONS.ANDROID.CAMERA);
  if (result === RESULTS.GRANTED) {
    console.log('Camera permission granted');
  } else {
    console.log('Camera permission not granted');
  }
}

Open App Settings

This feature allows you to open the app settings so the user can manually grant permissions. The example demonstrates how to open the app settings.

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

function openAppSettings() {
  openSettings().catch(() => console.warn('Cannot open settings'));
}

Other packages similar to react-native-permissions

react-native-location

The react-native-location package provides location services for React Native applications. It allows you to request and check location permissions, as well as get the current location of the device. Compared to react-native-permissions, it is more focused on location-specific functionalities.

react-native-geolocation-service

The react-native-geolocation-service package is another library for handling geolocation in React Native apps. It offers more accurate and reliable location services compared to the default React Native geolocation API. While it focuses on geolocation, react-native-permissions provides a broader range of permission management.

react-native-contacts

The react-native-contacts package allows you to access and manage the device's contact list. It includes functionalities for requesting contact permissions, reading contacts, and adding new contacts. This package is specialized for contact management, whereas react-native-permissions covers a wider array of permissions.

README

☝🏼 React Native Permissions

Request user permissions from React Native, iOS + Android

2.0.0 is on it's way! A bit of help is needed here!

Version	React Native Support
1.2.0+	0.52.0+

Setup

npm install --save react-native-permissions @react-native-community/async-storage
# --- or ---
yarn add react-native-permissions @react-native-community/async-storage

⚠️ To install @react-native-community/async-storage, please refers to the package documentation.

📌 Don't forget to add permissions to AndroidManifest.xml for android and Info.plist for iOS (Xcode >= 8). See iOS Notes or Android Notes for more details.

Additional iOS setup

Using cocoaPods

Update the following line with your path to node_modules/ and add it to your podfile:

pod 'ReactNativePermissions', :path => '../node_modules/react-native-permissions'

Using react-native link

react-native link react-native-permissions

Using manual linking

1. In the XCode's "Project navigator", right click on your project's Libraries folder ➜ Add Files to <…>
2. Go to node_modules ➜ react-native-permissions ➜ select ReactNativePermissions.xcodeproj
3. Add libReactNativePermissions.a to Build Phases -> Link Binary With Libraries

Using

import Permissions from 'react-native-permissions';
// OR const Permissions = require('react-native-permissions').default
// if you use CommonJS module system

// …

export default class extends React.Component {
  // …

  // Check the status of a single permission
  componentDidMount() {
    Permissions.check('photo').then(response => {
      // Response is one of: 'authorized', 'denied', 'restricted', or 'undetermined'
      this.setState({photoPermission: response});
    });
  }

  // Request permission to access photos
  _requestPermission = () => {
    Permissions.request('photo').then(response => {
      // Returns once the user has chosen to 'allow' or to 'not allow' access
      // Response is one of: 'authorized', 'denied', 'restricted', or 'undetermined'
      this.setState({photoPermission: response});
    });
  };

  // Check the status of multiple permissions
  _checkCameraAndPhotos = () => {
    Permissions.checkMultiple(['camera', 'photo']).then(response => {
      //response is an object mapping type to permission
      this.setState({
        cameraPermission: response.camera,
        photoPermission: response.photo,
      });
    });
  };

  // This is a common pattern when asking for permissions.
  // iOS only gives you once chance to show the permission dialog,
  // after which the user needs to manually enable them from settings.
  // The idea here is to explain why we need access and determine if
  // the user will say no, so that we don't blow our one chance.
  // If the user already denied access, we can ask them to enable it from settings.
  _alertForPhotosPermission() {
    Alert.alert(
      'Can we access your photos?',
      'We need access so you can set your profile pic',
      [
        {
          text: 'No way',
          onPress: () => console.log('Permission denied'),
          style: 'cancel',
        },
        this.state.photoPermission == 'undetermined'
          ? {text: 'OK', onPress: this._requestPermission}
          : {text: 'Open Settings', onPress: Permissions.openSettings},
      ],
    );
  }

  // …
}

API

Permissions statuses

Promises resolve into one of these statuses:

Return value	Notes
authorized	User has authorized this permission
denied	User has denied this permission at least once. On iOS this means that the user will not be prompted again. Android users can be prompted multiple times until they select 'Never ask me again'
restricted	iOS - this means user is not able to grant this permission, either because it's not supported by the device or because it has been blocked by parental controls. Android - this means that the user has selected 'Never ask me again' while denying permission
undetermined	User has not yet been prompted with a permission dialog

Supported permissions types

The current supported permissions are:

	Type	iOS	Android
Camera	camera	✔️	✔
Contacts	contacts	✔️	✔
Events	event	✔️	✔
Location	location	✔️	✔
Microphone	microphone	✔️	✔
Photos	photo	✔️	✔
Background Refresh	backgroundRefresh	✔️	❌
Bluetooth	bluetooth	✔️	❌
Media Library	mediaLibrary	✔️	❌
Motion Activity	motion	✔️	❌
Push Notifications	notification	✔️	❌
Reminders	reminder	✔️	❌
Speech Recognition	speechRecognition	✔️	❌
Coarse location	coarseLocation	❌	✔
Phone Call	callPhone	❌️	✔
Read SMS	readSms	❌️	✔
Receive SMS	receiveSms	❌️	✔
Send SMS	sendSms	❌️	✔
Storage	storage	❌️	✔

Methods

Method Name	Arguments	Notes
check()	type	- Returns a promise with the permission status. See iOS Notes for special cases
request()	type	- Accepts any permission type except backgroundRefresh. If the current status is undetermined, shows the permission dialog and returns a promise with the resulting status. Otherwise, immediately return a promise with the current status. See iOS Notes for special cases
checkMultiple()	[types]	- Accepts an array of permission types and returns a promise with an object mapping permission types to statuses
getTypes()	none	- Returns an array of valid permission types
openSettings()	none	- (iOS only - 8.0 and later) Switches the user to the settings page of your app
canOpenSettings()	none	- (iOS only) Returns a boolean indicating if the device supports switching to the settings page

iOS Notes

• Permission type bluetooth represents the status of the CBPeripheralManager. Don't use this if you only need CBCentralManager.
• Permission type location accepts a second parameter for request() and check(); the second parameter is a string, either always or whenInUse (default).
• Permission type notification accepts a second parameter for request(). The second parameter is an array with the desired alert types. Any combination of alert, badge and sound (default requests all three).
• If you are not requesting mediaLibrary then you can remove MediaPlayer.framework from the xcode project.

// example
Permissions.check('location', {type: 'always'}).then(response => {
  this.setState({locationPermission: response});
});

Permissions.request('location', {type: 'always'}).then(response => {
  this.setState({locationPermission: response});
});

Permissions.request('notification', {type: ['alert', 'badge']}).then(
  response => {
    this.setState({notificationPermission: response});
  },
);

• You cannot request microphone permissions on the simulator.
• With Xcode 8, you now need to add usage descriptions for each permission you will request. Open Xcode ➜ Info.plist ➜ Add a key (starting with "Privacy - …") with your kit specific permission.

Example: If you need Contacts permission you have to add the key Privacy - Contacts Usage Description.

App Store submission disclaimer

If you need to submit your application to the AppStore, you need to add to your Info.plist all *UsageDescription keys with a string value explaining to the user how the app uses this data. Even if you don't use them.

So before submitting your app to the App Store, make sure that in your Info.plist you have the following keys:

<key>NSBluetoothAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
<string>Some description</string>
<!-- only need peripheral if target is less than iOS 13 -->
<!-- https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/information_property_list/nsbluetoothperipheralusagedescription -->
<key>NSBluetoothPeripheralUsageDescription</key>
<string>Some description</string>
<key>NSCalendarsUsageDescription</key>
<string>Some description</string>
<key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
<string>Some description</string>
<key>NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription</key>
<string>Some description</string>
<key>NSPhotoLibraryAddUsageDescription</key>
<string>Some description</string>
<key>NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription</key>
<string>Some description</string>
<key>NSSpeechRecognitionUsageDescription</key>
<string>Some description</string>
<key>NSAppleMusicUsageDescription</key>
<string>Some description</string>
<key>NSMotionUsageDescription</key>
<string>Some description</string>

This is required because during the phase of processing in the App Store submission, the system detects that you app contains code to request the permission X but don't have the UsageDescription key and then it rejects the build.

Please note that it will only be shown to the users the usage descriptions of the permissions you really require in your app.

You can find more information about this issue in #46.

Android Notes

• Uses React Native's own PermissionsAndroid JS API.
• All required permissions also need to be included in the AndroidManifest.xml file before they can be requested. Otherwise request() will immediately return denied.
• You can request write access to any of these types by also including the appropriate write permission in the AndroidManifest.xml file. here. e.g. <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION"/>

Read more here.

• The optional rationale argument will show a dialog prompt.

// example
Permissions.request('camera', {
  rationale: {
    title: 'Cool Photo App Camera Permission',
    message:
      'Cool Photo App needs access to your camera ' +
      'so you can take awesome pictures.',
  },
}).then(response => {
  this.setState({cameraPermission: response});
});

• Permissions are automatically accepted for targetSdkVersion < 23 but you can still use check() to check if the user has disabled them from Settings.

Troubleshooting

Q: iOS - App crashes as soon as I request permission

A: Starting with Xcode 8, you need to add permission descriptions. See iOS notes for more details. Thanks to @jesperlndk for discovering this.

Q: iOS - App crashes when I change permission from settings

A: This is normal. iOS restarts your app when your privacy settings change. Just google "iOS crash permission change".