How to Open Settings App from React Native App

Open Settings App in React Native

In this example we will see how to open settings app from React Native App. It happens very often when you want user to enable something to use any feature of your application, for example if your app needs user location

then you can check for the permission and if not provided/restricted, you can direct user to settings app to enable the same.

Opening a settings app in React Native is so simple, we can open it directly in React Native using Linking. Linking API provides an openSettings() function which will redirect to Settings App.

To Import Linking

import { Linking } from 'react-native'

To Open Settings App

Linking.openSettings()

In this example, we will open settings app on click of a button. So let’s get started.

To Make a React Native App

Getting started with React Native will help you to know more about the way you can make a React Native project. We are going to use react native command line interface to make our React Native App.

If you have previously installed a global react-native-cli package, please remove it as it may cause unexpected issues:

npm uninstall -g react-native-cli @react-native-community/cli

Run the following commands to create a new React Native project

npx react-native init ProjectName

If you want to start a new project with a specific React Native version, you can use the --version argument:

npx react-native init ProjectName --version X.XX.X

Note If the above command is failing, you may have old version of react-native or react-native-cli installed globally on your pc. Try uninstalling the cli and run the cli using npx.

This will make a project structure with an index file named App.js in your project directory.

Code

Open App.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code

App.js

// How to Open Settings App from React Native App
// https://aboutreact.com/open-settings-app-in-react-native/

// import React in our code
import React, {useCallback} from 'react';

// import all the components we are going to use
import {
  StyleSheet,
  Text,
  SafeAreaView,
  View,
  TouchableOpacity,
  Linking,
} from 'react-native';

const App = () => {
  const _openAppSetting = useCallback(async () => {
    // Open the custom settings if the app has one
    await Linking.openSettings();
  }, []);

  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={styles.container}>
      <View style={styles.innerContainer}>
        <Text style={styles.titleText}>
          How to open Settings App in React Native
        </Text>
        <TouchableOpacity
          activeOpacity={0.5}
          style={styles.buttonStyle}
          onPress={_openAppSetting}>
          <Text style={styles.buttonTextStyle}>
            Open the Settings App
          </Text>
        </TouchableOpacity>
      </View>
      <Text style={styles.footerHeading}>
        React Native System Settings
      </Text>
      <Text style={styles.footerText}>
        www.aboutreact.com
      </Text>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    backgroundColor: '#fff',
  },
  innerContainer: {
    flex: 1,
    alignItems: 'center',
    padding: 35,
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
  titleText: {
    fontSize: 22,
    fontWeight: 'bold',
    textAlign: 'center',
    paddingVertical: 20,
  },
  buttonTextStyle: {
    color: 'white',
    fontWeight: 'bold',
  },
  buttonStyle: {
    alignItems: 'center',
    backgroundColor: 'green',
    padding: 10,
    width: '100%',
    marginTop: 16,
  },
  footerHeading: {
    fontSize: 18,
    textAlign: 'center',
    color: 'grey',
  },
  footerText: {
    fontSize: 16,
    textAlign: 'center',
    color: 'grey',
  },
});
export default App;

To Run the React Native App

Open the terminal again and jump into your project using.

cd ProjectName

1. Start Metro Bundler

First, you will need to start Metro, the JavaScript bundler that ships with React Native. To start Metro bundler run following command:

npx react-native start

Once you start Metro Bundler it will run forever on your terminal until you close it. Let Metro Bundler run in its own terminal. Open a new terminal and run the application.

2. Start React Native Application

To run the project on an Android Virtual Device or on real debugging device:

npx react-native run-android

or on the iOS Simulator by running (macOS only)

npx react-native run-ios

Output Screenshots

This is how you can open settings App from React Native App. If you have any doubts or you want to share something about the topic you can comment below or contact us here. The remaining components will be covered in the next article. Stay tuned!

Hope you liked it. 🙂