Notification

React Native · Reference cheat sheet

📋 Overview

Local and push notifications need OS permission, device tokens, and a service (FCM / APNs). In Expo, use expo-notifications + EAS credentials; in bare RN, @react-native-firebase/messaging or Notifee are common.

🔧 Core concepts

• Permission — request before scheduling / registering.
• Channels (Android) — create notification channels for importance.
• Handlers — foreground presentation; response (tap) → navigate / deep link.
• Push tokens — Expo push token or native FCM/APNs token → your backend.
• EAS — credentials for FCM / APNs managed via eas credentials.

💡 Examples

import * as Notifications from "expo-notifications";
import { useEffect } from "react";
import { Platform } from "react-native";

Notifications.setNotificationHandler({
  handleNotification: async () => ({
    shouldShowAlert: true,
    shouldPlaySound: false,
    shouldSetBadge: false,
  }),
});

export function useNotificationSetup() {
  useEffect(() => {
    (async () => {
      const { status } = await Notifications.requestPermissionsAsync();
      if (status !== "granted") return;
      if (Platform.OS === "android") {
        await Notifications.setNotificationChannelAsync("default", {
          name: "default",
          importance: Notifications.AndroidImportance.DEFAULT,
        });
      }
      const token = (await Notifications.getExpoPushTokenAsync()).data;
      // send token to backend
      console.log(token);
    })();
  }, []);
}

⚠️ Pitfalls

• Testing push on simulators — limited; use physical devices.
• Missing Android channels → silent / wrong importance.
• Not handling notification taps when app is killed (use last response API).

🔗 Related

• permissions.md — permission flow
• deeplinking.md — open screens from taps
• Expo/config.md — plugins / entitlements
• Expo/build.md — store builds with push