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Version: 7.x

Bottom Tabs Navigator

A simple tab bar on the bottom of the screen that lets you switch between different routes. Routes are lazily initialized -- their screen components are not mounted until they are first focused.

Installation​

To use this navigator, ensure that you have @react-navigation/native and its dependencies (follow this guide), then install @react-navigation/bottom-tabs:

npm install @react-navigation/bottom-tabs

Usage​

To use this navigator, import it from @react-navigation/bottom-tabs:

import { createBottomTabNavigator } from '@react-navigation/bottom-tabs';

const MyTabs = createBottomTabNavigator({
  screens: {
    Home: HomeScreen,
    Profile: ProfileScreen,
  },
});
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API Definition​

Props​

In addition to the common props shared by all navigators, the bottom tab navigator accepts the following additional props:

backBehavior​

This controls what happens when goBack is called in the navigator. This includes pressing the device's back button or back gesture on Android.

It supports the following values:

  • firstRoute - return to the first screen defined in the navigator (default)
  • initialRoute - return to initial screen passed in initialRouteName prop, if not passed, defaults to the first screen
  • order - return to screen defined before the focused screen
  • history - return to last visited screen in the navigator; if the same screen is visited multiple times, the older entries are dropped from the history
  • none - do not handle back button

detachInactiveScreens​

Boolean used to indicate whether inactive screens should be detached from the view hierarchy to save memory. This enables integration with react-native-screens. Defaults to true.

tabBar​

Function that returns a React element to display as the tab bar.

The function receives an object containing the following properties as the argument:

  • state - The state object for the tab navigator.
  • descriptors - The descriptors object containing options for the tab navigator.
  • navigation - The navigation object for the tab navigator.

The state.routes array contains all the routes defined in the navigator. Each route's options can be accessed using descriptors[route.key].options.

Example:

import { View, Platform } from 'react-native';
import { useLinkBuilder, useTheme } from '@react-navigation/native';
import { Text, PlatformPressable } from '@react-navigation/elements';
import { createBottomTabNavigator } from '@react-navigation/bottom-tabs';

function MyTabBar({ state, descriptors, navigation }) {
  const { colors } = useTheme();
  const { buildHref } = useLinkBuilder();

  return (
    <View style={{ flexDirection: 'row' }}>
      {state.routes.map((route, index) => {
        const { options } = descriptors[route.key];
        const label =
          options.tabBarLabel !== undefined
            ? options.tabBarLabel
            : options.title !== undefined
              ? options.title
              : route.name;

        const isFocused = state.index === index;

        const onPress = () => {
          const event = navigation.emit({
            type: 'tabPress',
            target: route.key,
            canPreventDefault: true,
          });

          if (!isFocused && !event.defaultPrevented) {
            navigation.navigate(route.name, route.params);
          }
        };

        const onLongPress = () => {
          navigation.emit({
            type: 'tabLongPress',
            target: route.key,
          });
        };

        return (
          <PlatformPressable
            href={buildHref(route.name, route.params)}
            accessibilityState={isFocused ? { selected: true } : {}}
            accessibilityLabel={options.tabBarAccessibilityLabel}
            testID={options.tabBarButtonTestID}
            onPress={onPress}
            onLongPress={onLongPress}
            style={{ flex: 1 }}
          >
            <Text style={{ color: isFocused ? colors.primary : colors.text }}>
              {label}
            </Text>
          </PlatformPressable>
        );
      })}
    </View>
  );
}

const MyTabs = createBottomTabNavigator({
  tabBar: (props) => <MyTabBar {...props} />,
  screens: {
    Home: HomeScreen,
    Profile: ProfileScreen,
  },
});
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This example will render a basic tab bar with labels.

Note that you cannot use the useNavigation hook inside the tabBar since useNavigation is only available inside screens. You get a navigation prop for your tabBar which you can use instead:

function MyTabBar({ navigation }) {
  return (
    <Button
      onPress={() => {
        // Navigate using the `navigation` prop that you received
        navigation.navigate('SomeScreen');
      }}
    >
      Go somewhere
    </Button>
  );
}

Options​

The following options can be used to configure the screens in the navigator. These can be specified under screenOptions prop of Tab.navigator or options prop of Tab.Screen.

title​

Generic title that can be used as a fallback for headerTitle and tabBarLabel.

tabBarLabel​

Title string of a tab displayed in the tab bar or a function that given { focused: boolean, color: string } returns a React.Node, to display in tab bar. When undefined, scene title is used. To hide, see tabBarShowLabel.

tabBarShowLabel​

Whether the tab label should be visible. Defaults to true.

tabBarLabelPosition​

Whether the label is shown below the icon or beside the icon.

By default, the position is chosen automatically based on device width.

  • below-icon: the label is shown below the icon (typical for iPhones)

    Tab bar label position - below

  • beside-icon the label is shown next to the icon (typical for iPad)

    Tab bar label position - beside

tabBarLabelStyle​

Style object for the tab label.

Tab bar label style

Example:

    tabBarLabelStyle: {
      fontSize: 16,
      fontFamily: 'Georgia',
      fontWeight: 300,
    },

tabBarIcon​

Function that given { focused: boolean, color: string, size: number } returns a React.Node, to display in the tab bar.

tabBarIconStyle​

Style object for the tab icon.

tabBarBadge​

Text to show in a badge on the tab icon. Accepts a string or a number.

Tab bar badge

tabBarBadgeStyle​

Style for the badge on the tab icon. You can specify a background color or text color here.

Tab bar badge style

Example:

    tabBarBadgeStyle: {
      color: 'black',
      backgroundColor: 'yellow',
    },

tabBarAccessibilityLabel​

Accessibility label for the tab button. This is read by the screen reader when the user taps the tab. It's recommended to set this if you don't have a label for the tab.

tabBarButton​

Function which returns a React element to render as the tab bar button. It wraps the icon and label. Renders Pressable by default.

You can specify a custom implementation here:

tabBarButton: (props) => <TouchableOpacity {...props} />;

tabBarButtonTestID​

ID to locate this tab button in tests.

tabBarActiveTintColor​

Color for the icon and label in the active tab.

Tab bar active tint color

tabBarInactiveTintColor​

Color for the icon and label in the inactive tabs.

Tab bar inactive tint color

tabBarActiveBackgroundColor​

Background color for the active tab.

tabBarInactiveBackgroundColor​

Background color for the inactive tabs.

tabBarHideOnKeyboard​

Whether the tab bar is hidden when the keyboard opens. Defaults to false.

tabBarItemStyle​

Style object for the tab item container.

tabBarStyle​

Style object for the tab bar. You can configure styles such as background color here.

To show your screen under the tab bar, you can set the position style to absolute:

<Tab.Navigator
  screenOptions={{
    tabBarStyle: { position: 'absolute' },
  }}
>

You also might need to add a bottom margin to your content if you have an absolutely positioned tab bar. React Navigation won't do it automatically. See useBottomTabBarHeight for more details.

tabBarBackground​

Function which returns a React Element to use as background for the tab bar. You could render an image, a gradient, blur view etc.:

import { BlurView } from 'expo-blur';

// ...

<Tab.Navigator
  screenOptions={{
    tabBarStyle: { position: 'absolute' },
    tabBarBackground: () => (
      <BlurView tint="light" intensity={100} style={StyleSheet.absoluteFill} />
    ),
  }}
>

When using BlurView, make sure to set position: 'absolute' in tabBarStyle as well. You'd also need to use useBottomTabBarHeight to add bottom padding to your content.

Tab bar background

tabBarPosition​

Position of the tab bar. Available values are:

  • bottom (Default)
  • top
  • left
  • right

When the tab bar is positioned on the left or right, it is styled as a sidebar. This can be useful when you want to show a sidebar on larger screens and a bottom tab bar on smaller screens:

const Tabs = createBottomTabNavigator({
  screenOptions: {
    tabBarPosition: isLargeScreen ? 'left' ? 'bottom',
  },

  // ...
});
Sidebar

You can also render a compact sidebar by placing the label below the icon. This is only supported when the tabBarVariant is set to material:

const Tabs = createBottomTabNavigator({
  screenOptions: {
    tabBarPosition: isLargeScreen ? 'left' ? 'bottom',
    tabBarVariant: isLargeScreen ? 'material' : 'uikit',
    tabBarLabelPosition: 'below-icon',
  },

  // ...
});

Compact sidebar

tabBarVariant​

Variant of the tab bar. Available values are:

  • uikit (Default) - The tab bar will be styled according to the iOS UIKit guidelines.
  • material - The tab bar will be styled according to the Material Design guidelines.

The material variant is currently only supported when the tabBarPosition is set to left or right.

Material sidebar

lazy​

Whether this screen should render only after the first time it's accessed. Defaults to true. Set it to false if you want to render the screen on the initial render of the navigator.

freezeOnBlur​

Boolean indicating whether to prevent inactive screens from re-rendering. Defaults to false. Defaults to true when enableFreeze() from react-native-screens package is run at the top of the application.

Only supported on iOS and Android.

popToTopOnBlur​

Boolean indicating whether any nested stack should be popped to the top of the stack when navigating away from this tab. Defaults to false.

It only works when there is a stack navigator (e.g. stack navigator or native stack navigator) nested under the tab navigator.

sceneStyle​

Style object for the component wrapping the screen content.

You can find the list of header related options here. These options can be specified under screenOptions prop of Tab.navigator or options prop of Tab.Screen. You don't have to be using @react-navigation/elements directly to use these options, they are just documented in that page.

In addition to those, the following options are also supported in bottom tabs:

Custom header to use instead of the default header.

This accepts a function that returns a React Element to display as a header. The function receives an object containing the following properties as the argument:

  • navigation - The navigation object for the current screen.
  • route - The route object for the current screen.
  • options - The options for the current screen
  • layout - Dimensions of the screen, contains height and width properties.

Example:

import { getHeaderTitle } from '@react-navigation/elements';

// ..

header: ({ navigation, route, options }) => {
  const title = getHeaderTitle(options, route.name);

  return <MyHeader title={title} style={options.headerStyle} />;
};

To set a custom header for all the screens in the navigator, you can specify this option in the screenOptions prop of the navigator.

Specify a height in headerStyle​

If your custom header's height differs from the default header height, then you might notice glitches due to measurement being async. Explicitly specifying the height will avoid such glitches.

Example:

headerStyle: {
  height: 80, // Specify the height of your custom header
};

Note that this style is not applied to the header by default since you control the styling of your custom header. If you also want to apply this style to your header, use options.headerStyle from the props.

headerShown​

Whether to show or hide the header for the screen. The header is shown by default. Setting this to false hides the header.

Events​

The navigator can emit events on certain actions. Supported events are:

tabPress​

This event is fired when the user presses the tab button for the current screen in the tab bar. By default a tab press does several things:

  • If the tab is not focused, tab press will focus that tab
  • If the tab is already focused:
    • If the screen for the tab renders a scroll view, you can use useScrollToTop to scroll it to top
    • If the screen for the tab renders a stack navigator, a popToTop action is performed on the stack

To prevent the default behavior, you can call event.preventDefault:

React.useEffect(() => {
  const unsubscribe = navigation.addListener('tabPress', (e) => {
    // Prevent default behavior
    e.preventDefault();

    // Do something manually
    // ...
  });

  return unsubscribe;
}, [navigation]);

If you have a custom tab bar, make sure to emit this event.

tabLongPress​

This event is fired when the user presses the tab button for the current screen in the tab bar for an extended period. If you have a custom tab bar, make sure to emit this event.

Example:

React.useEffect(() => {
  const unsubscribe = navigation.addListener('tabLongPress', (e) => {
    // Do something
  });

  return unsubscribe;
}, [navigation]);

Helpers​

The tab navigator adds the following methods to the navigation object:

jumpTo​

Navigates to an existing screen in the tab navigator. The method accepts following arguments:

  • name - string - Name of the route to jump to.
  • params - object - Screen params to use for the destination route.
navigation.jumpTo('Profile', { owner: 'Michaś' });

Hooks​

The bottom tab navigator exports the following hooks:

useBottomTabBarHeight​

This hook returns the height of the bottom tab bar. By default, the screen content doesn't go under the tab bar. However, if you want to make the tab bar absolutely positioned and have the content go under it (e.g. to show a blur effect), it's necessary to adjust the content to take the tab bar height into account.

Example:

import { useBottomTabBarHeight } from '@react-navigation/bottom-tabs';

function MyComponent() {
  const tabBarHeight = useBottomTabBarHeight();

  return (
    <ScrollView contentStyle={{ paddingBottom: tabBarHeight }}>
      {/* Content */}
    </ScrollView>
  );
}

Alternatively, you can use the BottomTabBarHeightContext directly if you are using a class component or need it in a reusable component that can be used outside the bottom tab navigator:

import { BottomTabBarHeightContext } from '@react-navigation/bottom-tabs';

// ...

<BottomTabBarHeightContext.Consumer>
  {tabBarHeight => (
    /* render something */
  )}
</BottomTabBarHeightContext.Consumer>

Animations​

By default, switching between tabs doesn't have any animation. You can specify the animation option to customize the transition animation.

Supported values for animation are:

  • fade - Cross-fade animation for the screen transition where the new screen fades in and the old screen fades out.

  • shift - Shifting animation for the screen transition where the screens slightly shift to left/right.

  • none - The screen transition doesn't have any animation. This is the default value.

const RootTabs = createBottomTabNavigator({
  screenOptions: {
    animation: 'fade',
  },
  screens: {
    Home: HomeScreen,
    Profile: ProfileScreen,
  },
});
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If you need more control over the animation, you can customize individual parts of the animation using the various animation-related options:

Bottom Tab Navigator exposes various options to configure the transition animation when switching tabs. These transition animations can be customized on a per-screen basis by specifying the options in the options for each screen, or for all screens in the tab navigator by specifying them in the screenOptions.

  • transitionSpec - An object that specifies the animation type (timing or spring) and its options (such as duration for timing). It contains 2 properties:

    • animation - The animation function to use for the animation. Supported values are timing and spring.
    • config - The configuration object for the timing function. For timing, it can be duration and easing. For spring, it can be stiffness, damping, mass, overshootClamping, restDisplacementThreshold and restSpeedThreshold.

    A config that uses a timing animation looks like this:

    const config = {
      animation: 'timing',
      config: {
        duration: 150,
        easing: Easing.inOut(Easing.ease),
      },
    };

    We can pass this config in the transitionSpec option:

    {
      Profile: {
        screen: Profile,
        options: {
          transitionSpec: {
            animation: 'timing',
            config: {
              duration: 150,
              easing: Easing.inOut(Easing.ease),
            },
          },
        },
      },
    }

  • sceneStyleInterpolator - This is a function that specifies interpolated styles for various parts of the scene. It currently supports style for the view containing the screen:

    • sceneStyle - Style for the container view wrapping the screen content.

    The function receives the following properties in its argument:

    • current - Animation values for the current screen:
      • progress - Animated node representing the progress value of the current screen.

    A config that fades the screen looks like this:

    const forFade = ({ current }) => ({
      sceneStyle: {
        opacity: current.progress.interpolate({
          inputRange: [-1, 0, 1],
          outputRange: [0, 1, 0],
        }),
      },
    });

    The value of current.progress is as follows:

    • -1 if the index is lower than the active tab,
    • 0 if they're active,
    • 1 if the index is higher than the active tab

    We can pass this function in sceneStyleInterpolator option:

    {
      Profile: {
        screen: Profile,
        options: {
          sceneStyleInterpolator: ({ current }) => ({
            sceneStyle: {
              opacity: current.progress.interpolate({
                inputRange: [-1, 0, 1],
                outputRange: [0, 1, 0],
              }),
            },
          }),
        },
      },
    }

Putting these together, you can customize the transition animation for a screen:

const RootTabs = createBottomTabNavigator({
  screenOptions: {
    transitionSpec: {
      animation: 'timing',
      config: {
        duration: 150,
        easing: Easing.inOut(Easing.ease),
      },
    },
    sceneStyleInterpolator: ({ current }) => ({
      sceneStyle: {
        opacity: current.progress.interpolate({
          inputRange: [-1, 0, 1],
          outputRange: [0, 1, 0],
        }),
      },
    }),
  },
  screens: {
    Home: HomeScreen,
    Profile: ProfileScreen,
  },
});
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Pre-made configs​

We also export various configs from the library with ready-made configs that you can use to customize the animations:

TransitionSpecs​

  • FadeSpec - Configuration for a cross-fade animation between screens.
  • ShiftSpec - Configuration for a shifting animation between screens.

Example:

import { TransitionSpecs } from '@react-navigation/bottom-tabs';

// ...

{
  Profile: {
    screen: Profile,
    options: {
      transitionSpec: TransitionSpecs.CrossFadeSpec,
    },
  },
}

SceneStyleInterpolators​

  • forFade - Cross-fade animation for the screen transition where the new screen fades in and the old screen fades out.
  • forShift - Shifting animation for the screen transition where the screens slightly shift to left/right.

Example:

import { SceneStyleInterpolators } from '@react-navigation/bottom-tabs';

// ...

{
  Profile: {
    screen: Profile,
    options: {
      sceneStyleInterpolator: SceneStyleInterpolators.forFade,
    },
  },
}

TransitionPresets​

We export transition presets that bundle various sets of these options together. A transition preset is an object containing a few animation-related screen options exported under TransitionPresets. Currently the following presets are available:

  • FadeTransition - Cross-fade animation for the screen transition where the new screen fades in and the old screen fades out.
  • ShiftTransition - Shifting animation for the screen transition where the screens slightly shift to left/right.

You can spread these presets in options to customize the animation for a screen:

Example:

import { TransitionPresets } from '@react-navigation/bottom-tabs';

// ...

{
  Profile: {
    screen: Profile,
    options: {
      ...TransitionPresets.FadeTransition,
    },
  },
}