Expo & Prebuilt Quickstart

Prerequisites

• A 100ms account if you don't have one already.
• Working Expo Local App Development Environment as we need to make changes in android and ios folders
• Familiar with basics of Expo.
• VS code or any other IDE / code editor

Create a Expo app

Once you have the prerequisites, follow the steps below to create a Expo app. This guide will use VS code but you can use any code editor or IDE.

1. Open your Terminal and navigate to directory/folder where you would like to create your app.

2. Run the below command to create Expo app:

npx create-expo-app my-expo-app && cd my-expo-app

3. Install expo-dev-client lib, By installing this library, we will be able to install native libraries and modify project configuration

npx expo install expo-dev-client

4. Test run your app

npx expo run:android

npx expo run:ios

Install the Dependencies

After the Test run of your app is successful, you can install 100ms React Native Room Kit package in your app.

npx expo install @100mslive/react-native-room-kit

Install the dependencies of react-native-room-kit package

react-native-room-kit package depends upon many other packages. These packages to be your app's direct dependencies so that react-native can link them.

npx expo install @100mslive/react-native-hms \
  @100mslive/types-prebuilt \
  @react-native-community/blur \
  @react-native-masked-view/masked-view \
  @shopify/flash-list \
  lottie-react-native \
  react-native-gesture-handler \
  react-native-linear-gradient \
  react-native-modal \
  react-native-reanimated \
  react-native-safe-area-context \
  react-native-simple-toast \
  react-native-webview \
  -- --legacy-peer-deps

Setup minimum deployment targets

We need to set minSdkVersion = 24 on Android platform and have to target minimum 13.0 iOS SDK. If you meet these requirements then you can skip this step, otherwise lets continue -

1. Install expo-build-properties library, This library helps us to set minimum deployment targets using expo config

npx expo install expo-build-properties -- --save-dev --legacy-peer-deps

You can learn more about this library here

2. Add below expo-build-properties plugin config in your expo plugin file that is root level app.json file

[
  "expo-build-properties",
  {
    "android": {
      "minSdkVersion": 24
    },
    "ios": {
      "deploymentTarget": "13.4"
    }
  }
]

Example app.json with above config plugin changes:

{
  "expo": {
    "plugins": [
      [
        "expo-build-properties",
        {
          "android": {
            "minSdkVersion": 24
          },
          "ios": {
            "deploymentTarget": "13.4"
          }
        }
      ]
    ]
  }
}

Setup Permissions for App

Since the App and @100mslive/react-native-room-kit package requires Camera & Microphone permissions, a package for requesting these permissions from users should also be installed.

1. Install expo-camera library, It helps us to request Camera and Microphone permissions from user

npx expo install expo-camera -- --legacy-peer-deps

You can learn more about this library and its usage here

2. Add below expo-camera plugin config in your expo plugin file that is root level app.json file

[
  "expo-camera",
  {
    "cameraPermission": "This Example app uses the camera for video calls",
    "microphonePermission": "This Example app uses the microphone for audio and video calls",
    "recordAudioAndroid": true
  }
]

Example app.json with above config plugin changes:

{
  "expo": {
    "plugins": [
      [
        "expo-camera",
        {
          "cameraPermission": "This Example app uses the camera for video calls",
          "microphonePermission": "This Example app uses the microphone for audio and video calls",
          "recordAudioAndroid": true
        }
      ]
    ]
  }
}

3. Android platform requires some additional permissions, Add below permissions inside android in app.json config -

{
  "expo": {
    ...
    "android": {
      ...
      "permissions": [
        "android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE",
        "android.permission.CHANGE_NETWORK_STATE",
        "android.permission.MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS",
        "android.permission.BLUETOOTH",
        "android.permission.BLUETOOTH_CONNECT"
      ]
    }
    ...
  }
}

Configure Font Family

react-native-room-kit package uses 'Inter' font family for texts be default. You need to setup 'Inter' fonts in your app.

1. Install expo-font library, This library helps us to setup fonts for our app

npx expo install expo-font -- --legacy-peer-deps

You can learn more about this library and its usage here

2. Download Inter font family from Google Fonts.

3. Copy Paste downloaded Font Family variant files in <root_of_project>/assets/fonts/ directory, It should look like -

4. Add below expo-font plugin config in your expo plugin file that is root level app.json file

[
  "expo-font",
  {
    "fonts": [
      "./assets/fonts/Inter-Black.ttf",
      "./assets/fonts/Inter-Bold.ttf",
      "./assets/fonts/Inter-ExtraBold.ttf",
      "./assets/fonts/Inter-ExtraLight.ttf",
      "./assets/fonts/Inter-Light.ttf",
      "./assets/fonts/Inter-Medium.ttf",
      "./assets/fonts/Inter-Regular.ttf",
      "./assets/fonts/Inter-SemiBold.ttf",
      "./assets/fonts/Inter-Thin.ttf"
    ]
  }
]

Example app.json with above config plugin changes:

{
  "expo": {
    "plugins": [
      [
        "expo-font",
        {
          "fonts": [
            "./assets/fonts/Inter-Black.ttf",
            "./assets/fonts/Inter-Bold.ttf",
            "./assets/fonts/Inter-ExtraBold.ttf",
            "./assets/fonts/Inter-ExtraLight.ttf",
            "./assets/fonts/Inter-Light.ttf",
            "./assets/fonts/Inter-Medium.ttf",
            "./assets/fonts/Inter-Regular.ttf",
            "./assets/fonts/Inter-SemiBold.ttf",
            "./assets/fonts/Inter-Thin.ttf"
          ]
        }
      ]
    ]
  }
}

Enable Background modes for iOS

You can enable background modes for audio in iOS. so that when you minimze the app, room audio can still be heared by the users.

Paste the following in your Info.plist file -

<dict>
  ...
  <key>UIBackgroundModes</key>
  <array>
    <string>audio</string>
  </array>
  ...
</dict>

Additional Setup

You can follow ScreenShare setup and AudioShare setup guides to add ScreenShare and Audio Share features in your app.

After doing changes related to ScreenShare feature, To use screenshare feature on iOS, pass appGroup and preferredExtension options to HMSPrebuilt componnets -

<HMSPrebuilt
  roomCode="..."
  options={{
    ...
    ios: {
      appGroup: "...";
      preferredExtension: "...";
    }
  }}
/>

Apply changes in native platform folders

We have done so many changes in our project, Run below command to apply these changes in native Android and iOS folders -

npx expo prebuild

Prebuilt Properties

 <HMSPrebuilt
  roomCode={roomCode} // You can pass `roomCode` OR `token` prop, If you pass both `token` prop will be used
  token={authToken} // You can pass `roomCode` OR `token` prop, If you pass both `token` prop will be used
  options={{
    userName: "John Appleseed",
    userId: "My_Unique_UserId",
    ios: {
        appGroup: 'group.rnroomkit',
        preferredExtension: 'live.100ms.reactnative.RNExampleBroadcastUpload',
    },
  }}
  onLeave={handleRoomLeave}
  handleBackButton={isScreenFocused}
  autoEnterPipMode={true}
/>

const handleRoomLeave: OnLeaveHandler = useCallback((reason) => {
  console.log(':: Reason for Leaving the Room > ', reason);
  navigation.navigate('HomeScreen');
}, []);

Complete code example

Now that your project setup is complete, let's replace the code in the App.js file with the complete code sample below -

import 'react-native-gesture-handler';
import React, { useEffect, useState } from 'react';
import { StatusBar } from 'expo-status-bar';
import { StyleSheet, Button, View } from 'react-native';
import { HMSPrebuilt } from '@100mslive/react-native-room-kit';
import { GestureHandlerRootView } from 'react-native-gesture-handler';
import { useFonts } from 'expo-font';
import { requestCameraPermissionsAsync, requestMicrophonePermissionsAsync } from 'expo-camera';

const App = () => {
  // LOAD REQUIRED FONTS
  const [fontsLoaded, fontError] = useFonts({
    'Inter-Bold': require("./assets/fonts/Inter-Bold.ttf"),
    'Inter-Medium': require("./assets/fonts/Inter-Medium.ttf"),
    'Inter-Regular': require("./assets/fonts/Inter-Regular.ttf"),
    'Inter-SemiBold': require("./assets/fonts/Inter-SemiBold.ttf"),
  });

  const [showHMSPrebuilt, setShowHMSPrebuilt] = useState(false);

  // Asking Camera & Microphone permissions from user
  useEffect(() => {
    Promise.allSettled([
      requestCameraPermissionsAsync(),
      requestMicrophonePermissionsAsync(),
    ])
      .then((results) => {
        console.log('Permissions Result: ', results);
      })
      .catch((error) => {
        console.log('Permissions Error: ', error);
      });
  }, []);

  // If fonts are not loaded then show nothing
  if (!fontsLoaded && !fontError) {
    return null;
  }

  // If an error occurred while loading fonts, show it
  if (!!fontError) {
    return <Text>{fontError.message}: {fontError.message}</Text>
  }

  // Content
  return (
    <GestureHandlerRootView style={{ flex: 1 }}>
      <View style={styles.container}>
        <StatusBar barStyle={'dark-content'} />

        {showHMSPrebuilt ? (
          <HMSPrebuilt
            roomCode='rlk-lsml-aiy'
            options={{ userName: "John Appleseed" }}
            onLeave={() => setShowHMSPrebuilt(false)}
          />
        ) : (
          <View style={styles.joinContainer}>
            <Button title='Start' onPress={() => setShowHMSPrebuilt(true)} />
          </View>
        )}
      </View>
    </GestureHandlerRootView>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
  },
  joinContainer: {
    flex: 1,
    alignItems: 'center',
    justifyContent: 'center'
  }
});

export default App;

Test the app

Follow the instructions in one of the tabs below based on the target platform you wish to test the app.

npx expo run:android

npx expo run:ios