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Version: 7.x

NavigationContainer

The NavigationContainer is responsible for managing your app's navigation state and linking your top-level navigator to the app environment.

The container takes care of platform specific integration and provides various useful functionality:

  1. Deep link integration with the linking prop.
  2. Notify state changes for screen tracking, state persistence etc.
  3. Handle system back button on Android by using the BackHandler API from React Native.

Usage:

When using the static API, the component returned by createStaticNavigation is equivalent to the NavigationContainer component.

import { createStaticNavigation } from '@react-navigation/native';
import { createNativeStackNavigator } from '@react-navigation/native-stack';

const Stack = createNativeStackNavigator({
  screens: {
    /* ... */
  },
});

const Navigation = createStaticNavigation(Stack);

export default function App() {
  return <Navigation />;
}

Ref​

It's possible to pass a ref to the container to get access to various helper methods, for example, dispatch navigation actions. This should be used in rare cases when you don't have access to the navigation object, such as a Redux middleware.

Example:

import {
  createStaticNavigation,
  useNavigationContainerRef,
} from '@react-navigation/native';

export default function App() {
  const navigationRef = useNavigationContainerRef(); // You can also use a regular ref with `React.useRef()`

  return (
    <View style={{ flex: 1 }}>
      <Button onPress={() => navigationRef.navigate('Home')}>Go home</Button>
      <Navigation ref={navigationRef} />
    </View>
  );
}
Try on Snack

If you're using a regular ref object, keep in mind that the ref may be initially null in some situations (such as when linking is enabled). To make sure that the ref is initialized, you can use the onReady callback to get notified when the navigation container finishes mounting.

Check how to setup ref with TypeScript here.

See the Navigating without the navigation prop guide for more details.

Methods on the ref​

The ref object includes all of the common navigation methods such as navigate, goBack etc. See docs for CommonActions for more details.

Example:

navigationRef.navigate(name, params);

All of these methods will act as if they were called inside the currently focused screen. It's important note that there must be a navigator rendered to handle these actions.

In addition to these methods, the ref object also includes the following special methods:

isReady​

The isReady method returns a boolean indicating whether the navigation tree is ready. The navigation tree is ready when the NavigationContainer contains at least one navigator and all of the navigators have finished mounting.

This can be used to determine whether it's safe to dispatch navigation actions without getting an error. See handling initialization for more details.

resetRoot​

The resetRoot method lets you reset the state of the navigation tree to the specified state object:

navigationRef.resetRoot({
  index: 0,
  routes: [{ name: 'Profile' }],
});

Unlike the reset method, this acts on the root navigator instead of navigator of the currently focused screen.

getRootState​

The getRootState method returns a navigation state object containing the navigation states for all navigators in the navigation tree:

const state = navigationRef.getRootState();

Note that the returned state object will be undefined if there are no navigators currently rendered.

getCurrentRoute​

The getCurrentRoute method returns the route object for the currently focused screen in the whole navigation tree:

const route = navigationRef.getCurrentRoute();

Note that the returned route object will be undefined if there are no navigators currently rendered.

getCurrentOptions​

The getCurrentOptions method returns the options for the currently focused screen in the whole navigation tree:

const options = navigationRef.getCurrentOptions();

Note that the returned options object will be undefined if there are no navigators currently rendered.

addListener​

The addListener method lets you listen to the following events:

state​

The event is triggered whenever the navigation state changes in any navigator in the navigation tree:

const unsubscribe = navigationRef.addListener('state', (e) => {
  // You can get the raw navigation state (partial state object of the root navigator)
  console.log(e.data.state);

  // Or get the full state object with `getRootState()`
  console.log(navigationRef.getRootState());
});

This is analogous to the onStateChange method. The only difference is that the e.data.state object might contain partial state object unlike the state argument in onStateChange which will always contain the full state object.

options​

The event is triggered whenever the options change for the currently focused screen in the navigation tree:

const unsubscribe = navigationRef.addListener('options', (e) => {
  // You can get the new options for the currently focused screen
  console.log(e.data.options);
});

Props​

initialState​

Prop that accepts initial state for the navigator. This can be useful for cases such as deep linking, state persistence etc.

Example:

<Navigation
  initialState={initialState}
/>

See Navigation state reference for more details on the structure of the state object.

Providing a custom initial state object will override the initial state object obtained via linking configuration or from browser's URL. If you're providing an initial state object, make sure that you don't pass it on web and that there's no deep link to handle.

Example:

const initialUrl = await Linking.getInitialURL();

if (Platform.OS !== 'web' && initialUrl == null) {
  // Only restore state if there's no deep link and we're not on web
}

See state persistence guide for more details on how to persist and restore state.

onStateChange​

warning

Consider the navigator's state object to be internal and subject to change in a minor release. Avoid using properties from the navigation state state object except index and routes, unless you really need it. If there is some functionality you cannot achieve without relying on the structure of the state object, please open an issue.

Function that gets called every time navigation state changes. It receives the new navigation state as the argument.

You can use it to track the focused screen, persist the navigation state etc.

Example:

<Navigation
  onStateChange={(state) => console.log('New state is', state)}
/>

onReady​

Function which is called after the navigation container and all its children finish mounting for the first time. You can use it for:

Example:

<Navigation
  onReady={() => console.log('Navigation container is ready')}
/>

This callback won't fire if there are no navigators rendered inside the container.

The current status can be obtained with the isReady method on the ref.

onUnhandledAction​

Function which is called when a navigation action is not handled by any of the navigators.

By default, React Navigation will show a development-only error message when an action is not handled. You can override the default behavior by providing a custom function.

Example:

<Navigation
  onUnhandledAction={(action) => console.error('Unhandled action', action)}
/>

linking​

Configuration for linking integration used for deep linking, URL support in browsers etc.

Example:

import { createStaticNavigation } from '@react-navigation/native';
import { createNativeStackNavigator } from '@react-navigation/native-stack';

const RootStack = createNativeStackNavigator({
  screens: {
    Home: {
      screen: Home,
      linking: {
        path: 'feed/:sort',
      },
    },
  },
});

const Navigation = createStaticNavigation(RootStack);

function App() {
  const linking = {
    prefixes: ['https://mychat.com', 'mychat://'],
  };

  return (
    <Navigation
      linking={linking}
      fallback={<Text>Loading...</Text>}
    />
  );
}

See configuring links guide for more details on how to configure deep links and URL integration.

Options​

linking.prefixes​

URL prefixes to handle. You can provide multiple prefixes to support custom schemes as well as universal links.

Only URLs matching these prefixes will be handled. The prefix will be stripped from the URL before parsing.

Example:

<Navigation
  linking={{
    prefixes: ['https://mychat.com', 'mychat://'],
  }}
  fallback={<Text>Loading...</Text>}
/>

This is only supported on iOS and Android.

linking.config​

Config to fine-tune how to parse the path.

When using dynamic API, the config object should represent the structure of the navigators in the app.

See the configuring links guide for more details on how to configure deep links and URL integration.

linking.enabled​

Optional boolean to enable or disable the linking integration. Defaults to true if the linking prop is specified.

When using the static API, it's possible to pass 'auto' to automatically generate the config based on the navigator's structure. See the configuring links guide for more details.

linking.getInitialURL​

By default, linking integrates with React Native's Linking API and uses Linking.getInitialURL() to provide built-in support for deep linking. However, you might also want to handle links from other sources, such as Branch, or push notifications using Firebase etc.

You can provide a custom getInitialURL function where you can return the link which we should use as the initial URL. The getInitialURL function should return a string if there's a URL to handle, otherwise undefined.

For example, you could do something like following to handle both deep linking and Firebase notifications:

import messaging from '@react-native-firebase/messaging';

<Navigation
  linking={{
    prefixes: ['https://mychat.com', 'mychat://'],
    async getInitialURL() {
      // Check if app was opened from a deep link
      const url = await Linking.getInitialURL();

      if (url != null) {
        return url;
      }

      // Check if there is an initial firebase notification
      const message = await messaging().getInitialNotification();

      // Get the `url` property from the notification which corresponds to a screen
      // This property needs to be set on the notification payload when sending it
      return message?.data?.url;
    },
  }}
/>;

This option is not available on Web.

linking.subscribe​

Similar to getInitialURL, you can provide a custom subscribe function to handle any incoming links instead of the default deep link handling. The subscribe function will receive a listener as the argument and you can call it with a URL string whenever there's a new URL to handle. It should return a cleanup function where you can unsubscribe from any event listeners that you have setup.

For example, you could do something like following to handle both deep linking and Firebase notifications:

import messaging from '@react-native-firebase/messaging';

<Navigation
  linking={{
    prefixes: ['https://mychat.com', 'mychat://'],
    subscribe(listener) {
      const onReceiveURL = ({ url }: { url: string }) => listener(url);

      // Listen to incoming links from deep linking
      const subscription = Linking.addEventListener('url', onReceiveURL);

      // Listen to firebase push notifications
      const unsubscribeNotification = messaging().onNotificationOpenedApp(
        (message) => {
          const url = message.data?.url;

          if (url) {
            // Any custom logic to check whether the URL needs to be handled
            //...

            // Call the listener to let React Navigation handle the URL
            listener(url);
          }
        }
      );

      return () => {
        // Clean up the event listeners
        subscription.remove();
        unsubscribeNotification();
      };
    },
  }}
/>

This option is not available on Web.

linking.getStateFromPath​

You can optionally override the way React Navigation parses links to a state object by providing your own implementation.

Example:

<Navigation
  linking={{
    prefixes: ['https://mychat.com', 'mychat://'],
    getStateFromPath(path, config) {
      // Return a state object here
      // You can also reuse the default logic by importing `getStateFromPath` from `@react-navigation/native`
    },
  }}
/>
linking.getPathFromState​

You can optionally override the way React Navigation serializes state objects to link by providing your own implementation. This is necessary for proper web support if you have specified getStateFromPath.

Example:

<Navigation
  linking={{
    prefixes: ['https://mychat.com', 'mychat://'],
    getPathFromState(state, config) {
      // Return a path string here
      // You can also reuse the default logic by importing `getPathFromState` from `@react-navigation/native`
    },
  }}
/>

fallback​

React Element to use as a fallback while we resolve deep links. Defaults to null.

<Navigation
  fallback={<Text>Loading...</Text>}
/>

If you have a native splash screen, please use onReady instead of fallback prop.

documentTitle​

By default, React Navigation automatically updates the document title on Web to match the title option of the focused screen. You can disable it or customize it using this prop. It accepts a configuration object with the following options:

documentTitle.enabled​

Whether document title handling should be enabled. Defaults to true.

documentTitle.formatter​

Custom formatter to use if you want to customize the title text. Defaults to:

(options, route) => options?.title ?? route?.name;

Example:

<Navigation
  documentTitle={{
    formatter: (options, route) =>
      `${options?.title ?? route?.name} - My Cool App`,
  }}
/>

theme​

Custom theme to use for the navigation components such as the header, tab bar etc. See theming guide for more details and usage guide.

direction​

The direction of the text configured in the app. Defaults to 'rtl' when I18nManager.getConstants().isRTL returns true, otherwise 'ltr'.

Supported values:

  • 'ltr': Left-to-right text direction for languages like English, French etc.
  • 'rtl': Right-to-left text direction for languages like Arabic, Hebrew etc.

Example:

<Navigation
  direction="rtl"
/>

This is used in various navigators to adjust the content according to the text direction, for example, the drawer in the drawer navigator is positioned on the right side in RTL languages.

This prop informs React Navigation about the text direction in the app, it doesn't change the text direction by itself. If you intend to support RTL languages, it's important to set this prop to the correct value that's configured in the app. If it doesn't match the actual text direction, the layout might be incorrect.

On the Web, it may also be necessary to set the dir attribute on the root element of the app to ensure that the text direction is correct:

<html dir="rtl">
  <!-- App content -->
</html>

The direction will be available to use in your own components via the useLocale hook:

import { useLocale } from '@react-navigation/native';

function MyComponent() {
  const { direction } = useLocale();

  // Use the direction
}
warning

This prop exists for backward compatibility reasons. It's not recommended to use it in new projects. It will be removed in a future release.

In previous versions of React Navigation, it was possible to navigate to a screen in a nested navigator without specifying the name of the parent screen, i.e. navigation.navigate(ScreenName) instead of navigation.navigate(ParentScreenName, { screen: ScreenName }).

However, it has a few issues:

  • It only works if the navigator is already mounted - making navigation coupled to other logic.
  • It doesn't work with the TypeScript types.

The navigationInChildEnabled prop allows you to opt-in to this behavior to make it easier to migrate legacy code. It's disabled by default.

For new code, see navigating to a screen in a nested navigator instead.

Independent navigation containers​

warning

This is an advanced use case. Don't use this unless you are 100% sure that you need it.

In most apps, there will be only a single NavigationContainer. Nesting multiple NavigationContainers will throw an error. However, in rare cases, it may be useful to have multiple independent navigation trees, e.g. including a mini-app inside a larger app.

You can wrap the nested NavigationContainer with the NavigationIndependentTree component to make it independent from the parent navigation tree:

import {
  createStaticNavigation,
  NavigationIndependentTree,
} from '@react-navigation/native';

/* content */

const Navigation = createStaticNavigation(RootStack);

function NestedApp() {
  return (
    <NavigationIndependentTree>
      <Navigation />
    </NavigationIndependentTree>
  );
}

Doing this disconnects any children navigators from the parent container and doesn't allow navigation between them.

Avoid using this if you need to integrate with third-party components such as modals or bottom sheets. Consider using a custom navigator instead.