@myatthirikhin/chat-expo

Media capture for @myatthirikhin/chat-react-native: photos, documents and voice messages, built on Expo modules.

Optional. Skip it and the composer renders without attach or mic buttons — which is exactly what a bare React Native app with no media modules should get.

pnpm add @myatthirikhin/chat-expo
npx expo install expo-image-picker expo-document-picker expo-image-manipulator expo-audio

Use

import { createExpoFilePicker, useExpoAudioRecorder } from '@myatthirikhin/chat-expo';

const filePicker = createExpoFilePicker();

function App() {
  // A HOOK, unlike the picker — see below.
  const recorder = useExpoAudioRecorder();

  return (
    <ChatProvider client={chat} filePicker={filePicker} recorder={recorder}>
      <ChatScreen conversationId={id} myId={me} />
    </ChatProvider>
  );
}

Why one is a factory and the other is a hook

IAudioRecorder is an imperative interface precisely so implementations aren't forced to be hooks. This one has to be anyway: expo-audio exports AudioRecorder as a type only, and useAudioRecorder() is the only runtime way to obtain an instance.

A future recorder built on something else can be a plain factory without changing the port.

Why this is a separate package

peerDependenciesMeta.optional is a package-manager contract that Metro does not read. An unresolvable static import is a hard bundling failure, not a runtime undefined, and even a try/catch require emits resolution warnings. Splitting the Expo-dependent code into its own package is the only way to make attachments genuinely optional.

It also matters for adoption: installing expo in a bare React Native CLI app requires npx install-expo-modules and an iOS deployment target of 16.4. That's a real cost, and no consumer should pay it just to render text messages.

Bare React Native CLI

These are ordinary Expo modules, so they work outside Expo — you just have to install the runtime first:

npx install-expo-modules@latest

See Expo's guide. Note the iOS 16.4 floor.

Peers

expo-image-picker · expo-document-picker · expo-image-manipulator · expo-audio · react

Deliberately loose version ranges (*): Expo module versions are pinned to the consumer's SDK, and a narrow range here would block every SDK upgrade.

License

MIT