npm package: @livekit/react-native
Description: LiveKit for React Native
Author: LiveKit
Latest version: 2.10.0

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  <img style="width:100%;" alt="The LiveKit icon, the name of the repository and some sample code in the background." src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/livekit/client-sdk-react-native/main/.github/banner_light.png">
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# React Native client SDK for LiveKit

<!--BEGIN_DESCRIPTION-->
Use this SDK to add realtime video, audio and data features to your React Native app. By connecting to <a href="https://livekit.io/">LiveKit</a> Cloud or a self-hosted server, you can quickly build applications such as multi-modal AI, live streaming, or video calls with just a few lines of code.
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> [!NOTE]
> This is v2 of the React-Native SDK. When migrating from v1.x to v2.x you might encounter a small set of breaking changes.
> Read the [migration guide](https://docs.livekit.io/recipes/migrate-from-v1/) for a detailed overview of what has changed.

## Installation

### NPM

```sh
npm install @livekit/react-native @livekit/react-native-webrtc livekit-client
```

### Yarn

```sh
yarn add @livekit/react-native @livekit/react-native-webrtc livekit-client
```

This library depends on `@livekit/react-native-webrtc`, which has additional installation instructions found here:

- [iOS Installation Guide](https://github.com/livekit/react-native-webrtc/blob/master/Documentation/iOSInstallation.md)
- [Android Installation Guide](https://github.com/livekit/react-native-webrtc/blob/master/Documentation/AndroidInstallation.md)

---

Once the `@livekit/react-native-webrtc` dependency is installed, one last step is needed to finish the installation:

### Android

<details>

<summary>Java</summary>

In your [MainApplication.java](https://github.com/livekit/client-sdk-react-native/blob/main/example/android/app/src/main/java/com/example/livekitreactnative/MainApplication.java) file:

```java
import com.livekit.reactnative.LiveKitReactNative;
import com.livekit.reactnative.audio.AudioType;

public class MainApplication extends Application implements ReactApplication {

  @Override
  public void onCreate() {
    // Place this above any other RN related initialization
    // When AudioType is omitted, it'll default to CommunicationAudioType.
    // Use MediaAudioType if user is only consuming audio, and not publishing.
    LiveKitReactNative.setup(this, new AudioType.CommunicationAudioType());

    //...
  }
}
```

</details>

<details>

<summary>Kotlin</summary>

In your **MainApplication.kt** file:

```kotlin
import com.livekit.reactnative.LiveKitReactNative
import com.livekit.reactnative.audio.AudioType

class MainApplication : Application, ReactApplication() {
  override fun onCreate() {
    // Place this above any other RN related initialization
    // When AudioType is omitted, it'll default to CommunicationAudioType.
    // Use MediaAudioType if user is only consuming audio, and not publishing.
    LiveKitReactNative.setup(this, AudioType.CommunicationAudioType())

    //...
  }
}
```

</details>

### iOS

<details>

<summary>Objective-C</summary>

In your [AppDelegate.m](https://github.com/livekit/client-sdk-react-native/blob/main/example/ios/LivekitReactNativeExample/AppDelegate.mm) file:

```objc
#import "LivekitReactNative.h"
#import "WebRTCModuleOptions.h"

@implementation AppDelegate

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
  // Place this above any other RN related initialization
  [LivekitReactNative setup];

  // Uncomment the following lines if you want to use the camera in the background
  // Requires voip background mode and iOS 18+.

  // WebRTCModuleOptions *options = [WebRTCModuleOptions sharedInstance];
  // options.enableMultitaskingCameraAccess = YES;

  //...
}
```

</details>

<details>

<summary>Swift</summary>

In your **AppDelegate.swift** file:
```swift
import livekit_react_native
import livekit_react_native_webrtc

@main
class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {
  func application(
    _ application: UIApplication,
    didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]? = nil
  ) -> Bool {

    // Place this above any other RN related initialization
    LivekitReactNative.setup()

    // Uncomment the following lines if you want to use the camera in the background
    // Requires voip background mode and iOS 18+.

    // let options = WebRTCModuleOptions.sharedInstance()
    // options.enableMultitaskingCameraAccess = true

    // ...
  }
}

```

</details>

### Expo

LiveKit is available on Expo through development builds. You can find our Expo plugin and setup instructions [here](https://github.com/livekit/client-sdk-react-native-expo-plugin).

## Example app

You can try our standalone example app [here](https://github.com/livekit-examples/react-native-meet/).

## Usage

In your `index.js` file, setup the LiveKit SDK by calling `registerGlobals()`.
This sets up the required WebRTC libraries for use in Javascript, and is needed for LiveKit to work.

```js
import { registerGlobals } from '@livekit/react-native';

// ...

registerGlobals();
```

In your app, wrap your component in a `LiveKitRoom` component, which manages a
Room object and allows you to use our hooks to create your own real-time video/audio app.

```js
import * as React from 'react';
import {
  StyleSheet,
  View,
  FlatList,
  ListRenderItem,
} from 'react-native';
import { useEffect } from 'react';
import {
  AudioSession,
  LiveKitRoom,
  useTracks,
  TrackReferenceOrPlaceholder,
  VideoTrack,
  isTrackReference,
  registerGlobals,
} from '@livekit/react-native';
import { Track } from 'livekit-client';

const wsURL = "wss://example.com"
const token = "your-token-here"

export default function App() {
  // Start the audio session first.
  useEffect(() => {
    let start = async () => {
      await AudioSession.startAudioSession();
    };

    start();
    return () => {
      AudioSession.stopAudioSession();
    };
  }, []);

  return (
    <LiveKitRoom
      serverUrl={wsURL}
      token={token}
      connect={true}
      options={{
        // Use screen pixel density to handle screens with differing densities.
        adaptiveStream: { pixelDensity: 'screen' },
      }}
      audio={true}
      video={true}
    >
      <RoomView />
    </LiveKitRoom>
  );
};

const RoomView = () => {
  // Get all camera tracks.
  // The useTracks hook grabs the tracks from LiveKitRoom component
  // providing the context for the Room object.
  const tracks = useTracks([Track.Source.Camera]);

  const renderTrack: ListRenderItem<TrackReferenceOrPlaceholder> = ({item}) => {
    // Render using the VideoTrack component.
    if(isTrackReference(item)) {
      return (<VideoTrack trackRef={item} style={styles.participantView} />)
    } else {
      return (<View style={styles.participantView} />)
    }
  };

  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <FlatList
        data={tracks}
        renderItem={renderTrack}
      />
    </View>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    alignItems: 'stretch',
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
  participantView: {
    height: 300,
  },
});
```

[API documentation is located here.](https://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://raw.githubusercontent.com/livekit/client-sdk-react-native/main/docs/modules.html)

Additional documentation for the LiveKit SDK can be found at https://docs.livekit.io/

## Audio sessions

As seen in the above example, we've introduced a class `AudioSession` that helps
to manage the audio session on native platforms. This class wraps either [AudioManager](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/AudioManager) on Android, or [AVAudioSession](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfaudio/avaudiosession) on iOS.

You can customize the configuration of the audio session with `configureAudio`.

### Android
#### Media playback

By default, the audio session is set up for bidirectional communication. In this mode, the audio framework exhibits the following behaviors:

- The volume cannot be reduced to 0.
- Echo cancellation is available and is enabled by default.
- A microphone indicator can be displayed, depending on the platform.

If you're leveraging LiveKit primarily for media playback, you have the option to reconfigure the audio session to better suit media playback. Here's how:

```js
useEffect(() => {
  let connect = async () => {
    // configure audio session prior to starting it.
    await AudioSession.configureAudio({
      android: {
        // currently supports .media and .communication presets
        audioTypeOptions: AndroidAudioTypePresets.media,
      },
    });
    await AudioSession.startAudioSession();
    await room.connect(url, token, {});
  };
  connect();
  return () => {
    room.disconnect();
    AudioSession.stopAudioSession();
  };
}, [url, token, room]);
```

#### Customizing audio session

Instead of using our presets, you can further customize the audio session to suit your specific needs.

```js
await AudioSession.configureAudio({
  android: {
    preferredOutputList: ['earpiece'],
    // See [AudioManager](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/AudioManager)
    // for details on audio and focus modes.
    audioTypeOptions: {
      manageAudioFocus: true,
      audioMode: 'normal',
      audioFocusMode: 'gain',
      audioStreamType: 'music',
      audioAttributesUsageType: 'media',
      audioAttributesContentType: 'unknown',
    },
  },
});
await AudioSession.startAudioSession();
```

### iOS

For iOS, the most appropriate audio configuration may change over time when local/remote
audio tracks publish and unpublish from the room. To adapt to this, the [`useIOSAudioManagement`](https://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://raw.githubusercontent.com/livekit/client-sdk-react-native/main/docs/functions/useIOSAudioManagement.html)
hook is advised over just configuring the audio session once for the entire audio session.

## Screenshare

Enabling screenshare requires extra installation steps:

### Android

Android screenshare requires a foreground service with type `mediaProjection` to be present.

From version 2.4.0 onwards, the foreground service is handled internally,
but you must declare the permission yourself in your app's AndroidManifest.xml file.

```
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MEDIA_PROJECTION" />
```

### iOS

iOS screenshare requires adding a Broadcast Extension to your iOS project. Follow the integration instructions here:

https://jitsi.github.io/handbook/docs/dev-guide/dev-guide-ios-sdk/#screen-sharing-integration

It involves copying the files found in this [sample project](https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet-sdk-samples/tree/18c35f7625b38233579ff34f761f4c126ba7e03a/ios/swift-screensharing/JitsiSDKScreenSharingTest/Broadcast%20Extension)
to your iOS project, and registering a Broadcast Extension in Xcode.

It's also recommended to use [CallKeep](https://github.com/react-native-webrtc/react-native-callkeep),
to register a call with CallKit (as well as turning on the `voip` background mode).
Due to background app processing limitations, screen recording may be interrupted if the app is restricted
in the background. Registering with CallKit allows the app to continue processing for the duration of the call.

Once setup, iOS screenshare can be initiated like so:

```js
const screenCaptureRef = React.useRef(null);
const screenCapturePickerView = Platform.OS === 'ios' && (
  <ScreenCapturePickerView ref={screenCaptureRef} />
);
const startBroadcast = async () => {
  if (Platform.OS === 'ios') {
    const reactTag = findNodeHandle(screenCaptureRef.current);
    await NativeModules.ScreenCapturePickerViewManager.show(reactTag);
    room.localParticipant.setScreenShareEnabled(true);
  } else {
    room.localParticipant.setScreenShareEnabled(true);
  }
};

return (
  <View style={styles.container}>
    /*...*/ // Make sure the ScreenCapturePickerView exists in the view tree.
    {screenCapturePickerView}
  </View>
);
```

### Note

You will not be able to publish camera or microphone tracks on iOS Simulator.

## Background Processing

### Android

To support staying connected to LiveKit in the background, you will need a foreground service on Android.

The example app uses [@supersami/rn-foreground-service](https://github.com/Raja0sama/rn-foreground-service) for this.

Add the following permissions to your `AndroidManifest.xml` file:

```xml
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE_CAMERA" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MICROPHONE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MEDIA_PLAYBACK" />
```

Declare the the service and ensure it's labelled a `mediaProjection` service like so:

```xml
<service android:name="com.supersami.foregroundservice.ForegroundService" android:foregroundServiceType="camera|microphone|mediaPlayback" />
<service android:name="com.supersami.foregroundservice.ForegroundServiceTask" />
```

The camera and microphone permissions/foreground service types can be omitted if you are not using those.

Once setup, [start the foreground service](https://github.com/livekit/client-sdk-react-native/blob/main/example/src/callservice/CallService.android.ts) to keep the app alive in the background.

### iOS

By default, simple background processing can be enabled by selecting the `audio` and `voip`
[UIBackgroundModes](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/information_property_list/uibackgroundmodes)
in your XCode project. In your project, select your app target -> Signing & Capabilities -> Add Capability -> Background Modes.

These background modes will keep the app alive in the background as long as a mic or audio track is playing.

For a more robust background that isn't sensitive to the above conditions, we suggest using
[CallKit](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/callkit/) to maintain the
connection while in the background. The example uses
[react-native-callkeep](https://github.com/react-native-webrtc/react-native-callkeep)
for simple integration with CallKit.

Our example code can be found [here](https://github.com/livekit/client-sdk-react-native/blob/main/example/src/callservice/CallService.ios.ts).

For apps planning to use CallKit to handle incoming calls in the background, [it is important to call
`RTCAudioSession.audioSessionDidActivate/Deactivate` when the call provider activates/deactivates
the audio session.](https://github.com/livekit/react-native-webrtc/blob/master/Documentation/iOSInstallation.md#callkit)

## Troubleshooting

#### Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'split')

This error could happen if you are using yarn and have incompatible versions of dependencies with livekit-client.

To fix this, you can either:

- use another package manager, like npm
- use [yarn-deduplicate](https://www.npmjs.com/package/yarn-deduplicate) to deduplicate dependencies

## Contributing

See the [contributing guide](CONTRIBUTING.md) to learn how to contribute to the repository and the development workflow.

## License

Apache License 2.0

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<br/><table>
<thead><tr><th colspan="2">LiveKit Ecosystem</th></tr></thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>Agents SDKs</td><td><a href="https://github.com/livekit/agents">Python</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/agents-js">Node.js</a></td></tr><tr></tr>
<tr><td>LiveKit SDKs</td><td><a href="https://github.com/livekit/client-sdk-js">Browser</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/client-sdk-swift">Swift</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/client-sdk-android">Android</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/client-sdk-flutter">Flutter</a> · <b>React Native</b> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/rust-sdks">Rust</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/node-sdks">Node.js</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/python-sdks">Python</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/client-sdk-unity">Unity</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/client-sdk-unity-web">Unity (WebGL)</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/client-sdk-esp32">ESP32</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/client-sdk-cpp">C++</a></td></tr><tr></tr>
<tr><td>Starter Apps</td><td><a href="https://github.com/livekit-examples/agent-starter-python">Python Agent</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit-examples/agent-starter-node">TypeScript Agent</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit-examples/agent-starter-react">React App</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit-examples/agent-starter-swift">SwiftUI App</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit-examples/agent-starter-android">Android App</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit-examples/agent-starter-flutter">Flutter App</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit-examples/agent-starter-react-native">React Native App</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit-examples/agent-starter-embed">Web Embed</a></td></tr><tr></tr>
<tr><td>UI Components</td><td><a href="https://github.com/livekit/components-js">React</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/components-android">Android Compose</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/components-swift">SwiftUI</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/components-flutter">Flutter</a></td></tr><tr></tr>
<tr><td>Server APIs</td><td><a href="https://github.com/livekit/node-sdks">Node.js</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/server-sdk-go">Golang</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/server-sdk-ruby">Ruby</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/server-sdk-kotlin">Java/Kotlin</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/python-sdks">Python</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/rust-sdks">Rust</a> · <a href="https://github.com/agence104/livekit-server-sdk-php">PHP (community)</a> · <a href="https://github.com/pabloFuente/livekit-server-sdk-dotnet">.NET (community)</a></td></tr><tr></tr>
<tr><td>Resources</td><td><a href="https://docs.livekit.io">Docs</a> · <a href="https://docs.livekit.io/mcp">Docs MCP Server</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/livekit-cli">CLI</a> · <a href="https://cloud.livekit.io">LiveKit Cloud</a></td></tr><tr></tr>
<tr><td>LiveKit Server OSS</td><td><a href="https://github.com/livekit/livekit">LiveKit server</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/egress">Egress</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/ingress">Ingress</a> · <a href="https://github.com/livekit/sip">SIP</a></td></tr><tr></tr>
<tr><td>Community</td><td><a href="https://community.livekit.io">Developer Community</a> · <a href="https://livekit.io/join-slack">Slack</a> · <a href="https://x.com/livekit">X</a> · <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@livekit_io">YouTube</a></td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
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