Reception for React Native

Native support chat, with replies managed in the Reception dashboard. The chat runs entirely in the official Reception iOS SDK.

Requires Expo SDK 54+ (verified 54–57), React Native 0.81+, React 19.1+, iOS 17+, and Xcode 26. Use the React Native and React versions selected by Expo. Use a development build; Expo Go cannot load the native SDK.

1. Install

npx expo install react-native-reception

Add "react-native-reception" to expo.plugins in your app config. Apply plugins even if a generated ios/ directory already exists, then build:

npx expo prebuild --platform ios
npx expo run:ios

The plugin sets iOS 17 as the minimum. If you use expo-build-properties, set its ios.deploymentTarget to 17.0 or higher too. No Podfile edits or use_frameworks! are needed for generated projects.

2. Configure

Configure once in your existing startup, before showing Support:

import { Reception } from 'react-native-reception';

await Reception.configure({ appId: 'app_YOUR_APP_ID' });

3. Open chat

Call this from your app’s Support button:

await Reception.openChat();

Report app events for automations set up in the dashboard with await Reception.track('paywall_declined', { opensChat: true }).

Follow the React Native guide to match your app’s theme, add unread badges, identify customers, and connect paywalls, links or embedded chat.

Push

Install expo-notifications, add its plugin, apply prebuild and rebuild. After Reception is configured, start the optional helper in your root component:

import { startReceptionPush } from 'react-native-reception/expo-notifications';
useEffect(() => startReceptionPush(), []);

Import useEffect from React. The helper registers when already authorized and routes receipts and taps, including cold starts. It never requests permission. After your app’s permission request, call await refreshReceptionPush() from the same optional entry to register immediately, including for provisional permission. Compose receptionNotificationBehavior(notification) into your existing notification handler; see the push setup. The main package import does not load expo-notifications.

Compatibility

Android and web have no Reception native code. Calls do nothing, warn once, and return default state.

For native projects you maintain by hand, follow the guide’s manual target and capability steps instead of prebuild. Bare React Native needs Expo Modules. npx install-expo-modules was verified on RN 0.83.10 with Expo 55. For newer stacks the installer does not recognize yet, follow Expo’s manual installation guide.

Verified with fresh iOS development builds and live message/reply delivery:

| Expo | React Native | React | | ------- | ------------ | ------ | | 54.0.37 | 0.81.5 | 19.1.0 | | 55.0.31 | 0.83.10 | 19.2.0 | | 56.0.23 | 0.85.3 | 19.2.3 | | 57.0.28 | 0.86.3 | 19.2.3 |

License: MIT.