React Native Alerts Example

In this tutorial, we will learn how to implement alerts in react native. We will also learn different options present in Android and iOS to control the alerts.

Creating the project

We will be making use of Expo in order to bootstrap our project. If you haven't installed Expo earlier then run the following command to install it:

1npm install --global expo-cli

Now create a new Expo project using the following command. While creating the project, it would ask you to select a template. Choose "blank" template.

1expo init react-native-alert

Once the installation is completed run npm start and run the application on your device or on Android Studio Emulator or iOS Emulator. You should be able to see the screen as shown below:

Simple Alert

Let's first display a simple alert with one "OK" button. Update your App.js with the following code:

App.js

1import React from "react"
2import { StyleSheet, Text, View, Alert, Button } from "react-native"
3
4export default function App() {
5  const showSimpleAlert = () => {
6    Alert.alert("Alert Title", "Alert Message", [
7      { text: "OK", onPress: () => console.log("ok Pressed") },
8    ])
9  }
10  return (
11    <View style={styles.container}>
12      <Button title="Simple Alert" onPress={showSimpleAlert} />
13    </View>
14  )
15}
16
17const styles = StyleSheet.create({
18  container: {
19    flex: 1,
20    backgroundColor: "#fff",
21    alignItems: "center",
22    justifyContent: "space-around",
23  },
24})

Now if you run the app, you should be able to see a button and when pressed, will show the alert dialog:

Screenshots

Android:

iOS:

Two-Button and Three-Button alerts

You can have more than one actions in the alerts such as a Cancel button.

App.js

1import React from "react"
2import { StyleSheet, Text, View, Alert, Button } from "react-native"
3
4export default function App() {
5  const showSimpleAlert = () => {
6    Alert.alert("Alert Title", "Alert Message", [
7      { text: "OK", onPress: () => console.log("ok Pressed") },
8    ])
9  }
10  const showTwoButtonAlert = () => {
11    Alert.alert("Alert Title", "Alert Message", [
12      {
13        text: "Cancel",
14        onPress: () => console.log("Cancel Pressed"),
15        style: "cancel",
16      },
17      { text: "OK", onPress: () => console.log("ok Pressed") },
18    ])
19  }
20  const showThreeButtonAlert = () => {
21    Alert.alert("Alert Title", "Alert Message", [
22      {
23        text: "Ask me later",
24        onPress: () => console.log("Ask Me later Pressed"),
25        style: "destructive",
26      },
27      {
28        text: "Cancel",
29        onPress: () => console.log("Cancel Pressed"),
30        style: "cancel",
31      },
32      { text: "OK", onPress: () => console.log("ok Pressed") },
33    ])
34  }
35  return (
36    <View style={styles.container}>
37      <Button title="Simple Alert" onPress={showSimpleAlert} />
38      <Button title="Two Button Alert" onPress={showTwoButtonAlert} />
39      <Button title="Three Button Alert" onPress={showThreeButtonAlert} />
40    </View>
41  )
42}
43
44const styles = StyleSheet.create({
45  container: {
46    flex: 1,
47    backgroundColor: "#fff",
48    alignItems: "center",
49    justifyContent: "space-around",
50  },
51})

The style property is used to provide the styling for the buttons in the alerts in iOS. The possible values are default, cancel, and destructive.
In Android, a maximum of 3 buttons can be provided where as in iOS you can have more than 3 buttons in the alert dialog.

Screenshots

Android:

iOS:

Dismissing Alerts in Android

In Android, you can dismiss the alert by tapping outside of the box alert. You can enable it by passing {cancelable: true} in the options. You can optionally have a handler to be called when the user taps outside of the alert box, by passing it to the onDismiss callback property as shown below:

App.js

1import React from "react"
2import { StyleSheet, Text, View, Alert, Button } from "react-native"
3
4export default function App() {
5  const showSimpleAlert = () => {
6    Alert.alert(
7      "Alert Title",
8      "Alert Message",
9      [{ text: "OK", onPress: () => console.log("ok Pressed") }],
10      {
11        cancelable: true,
12        onDismiss: () => console.log("Alert was closed by clicking outside"),
13      }
14    )
15  }
16  const showTwoButtonAlert = () => {
17    Alert.alert("Alert Title", "Alert Message", [
18      {
19        text: "Cancel",
20        onPress: () => console.log("Cancel Pressed"),
21        style: "cancel",
22      },
23      { text: "OK", onPress: () => console.log("ok Pressed") },
24    ])
25  }
26  const showThreeButtonAlert = () => {
27    Alert.alert("Alert Title", "Alert Message", [
28      {
29        text: "Ask me later",
30        onPress: () => console.log("Ask Me later Pressed"),
31        style: "destructive",
32      },
33      {
34        text: "Cancel",
35        onPress: () => console.log("Cancel Pressed"),
36        style: "cancel",
37      },
38      { text: "OK", onPress: () => console.log("ok Pressed") },
39    ])
40  }
41  return (
42    <View style={styles.container}>
43      <Button title="Simple Alert" onPress={showSimpleAlert} />
44      <Button title="Two Button Alert" onPress={showTwoButtonAlert} />
45      <Button title="Three Button Alert" onPress={showThreeButtonAlert} />
46    </View>
47  )
48}
49
50const styles = StyleSheet.create({
51  container: {
52    flex: 1,
53    backgroundColor: "#fff",
54    alignItems: "center",
55    justifyContent: "space-around",
56  },
57})

Demo

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React Native Alerts Example

Table of Contents

Creating the project

Simple Alert

Screenshots

Two-Button and Three-Button alerts

Screenshots

Dismissing Alerts in Android

Demo

Tools