refactor: rn 0.87 compatibility

[isekovanic]

🎯 Goal

Support React Native 0.87.

0.87 makes the Strict TypeScript API the default and drops several types from the root react-native export, which breaks our type-check. Its Babel preset also miscompiles one of our shipped files.

The SDK now builds, type-checks and runs on both 0.86 and 0.87. Peer range (>= 0.76.0) naturally remains unchanged, no public API removed.

🛠 Implementation details

Strict TypeScript API - new src/types/react-native-compat.ts exporting ViewRef/TextInputRef/ScrollViewRef/FlatListRef etc. as React.ComponentRef<typeof X>. The "fix" is in the semantics, as it resolves to the old class-instance types on <= 0.86 and the new ones on 0.87, so we keep the 0.76 floor. Using RN's own *Instance names would have dropped everything below 0.87. Same file redeclares KeyboardEventListener, ViewToken and ViewabilityConfig, which 0.87 no longer exports.

API shape changes - useColorScheme() and findNodeHandle() have become nullable, AppState.currentState widened to string | null | undefined, FlatList's data and ListFooterComponent have stopped accepting null, style objects have become Readonly, NativeEventEmitter has become generic. onAccessibilityAction moved to ViewProps.

Type leaks - explicit annotations on Input, useAnimatedGalleryStyle, SafeAreaViewWrapper and ImageGalleryFooter, plus a ThemeStyle union, to stop RN-internal names leaking into lib/typescript.

SqliteClient runtime fix - statics were arrow class fields calling this.foo(). 0.87's Babel preset hoists that to a module-level var _this = this, so lib/commonjs shipped calls against the wrong object and threw. Now references the class explicitly.

Build config - both wrappers' tsconfig.json opt into legacy deep-import types (the codegen spec must keep the deep codegenNativeComponent import; the root export only exists from 0.80). Android: Java 1.8 => 17, Kotlin 1.7 => 2.2, minSdk 21 => 24, compileSdk fallback 31 => 34.

compileSdk is 34 rather than 37 on purpose, as 0.87's react-android declares minCompileSdk=34 and a library's compileSdk caps what we may call, it isn't a floor on integrators. It's only reached when the app doesn't set rootProject.ext.compileSdkVersion, which basically any app always does.

Jest - two moduleNameMapper shims, both third-party:

For our integration tests to work I had to do some mental gymnastics to get everything off the ground.

• react-native-svg (<= 15.15.5) reads Touchable.Mixin off the RN root. 0.87 keeps that export alive for exactly this call site but installs it late and non-enumerably, so Babel's ESM interop drops it under Jest.
• reanimated 4.6.0's initializeReanimatedModule() calls setCSSEventHandler() unconditionally, which throws on the JS only backend Jest uses.

moduleNameMapper rather than jest.mock('react-native', …) because it's resolver-level, so it also covers the separate registry Jest builds for automocks and it doesn't shadow per suite RN mocks.

Example apps - SampleApp gets the AGP 9 proguard fix (proguard-android-optimize.txt; AGP 9 rejects proguard-android.txt outright and since it's evaluated at configuration time it breaks the debug build too), AGP 9 opt-outs, SDK 37/36, and 13 strict-API fixes in its own code. ExpoMessaging deliberately stays on Expo 57 / RN 0.86 for now, while Expo 58 remains canary only and holding it back doubles as backwards-compat coverage for now. Once 58 ships we can likely bump that too pretty easily.

Native source - no changes. None of 0.87's removed native APIs are used, headers already use the namespaced <React/...> form, and StreamShimmerViewComponentView already sets _props = defaultProps in initWithFrame — the thing 0.87 now asserts on.

🎨 UI Changes

🧪 Testing

☑️ Checklist

• I have signed the Stream CLA (required)
• PR targets the develop branch
• Documentation is updated
• New code is tested in main example apps, including all possible scenarios
  • SampleApp iOS and Android
  • Expo iOS and Android

[Stream-SDK-Bot]

SDK Size

title	develop	branch	diff	status
js_bundle_size	1997 KB	2031 KB	+34472 B	🔴