Enable controlling native back handling

[pmleczek]

Changes

• SwiftUI view is now created from ReactNativeViewController instead of ReactNativeHostManager.loadView() - allows for unified pop gesture control
• Removed any settings related to presentation on iOS (e.g. title bar visibility or safe area ignoring) - it should be configurable by the developer according to their project needs
• Added setNativeBackEnabled method to the Expo module:

Description

• Accepts a boolean - whether back events (pop gesture/back button) should be handled by the native (host) app.
• Platform specific behavior:
  • On iOS updates interactivePopGestureRecognizer value and modifies gestureRecognizers responsible for handling the pop gesture.
  • On Android introduces a shared brownfield navigation state which controls whether back action is handled natively or emitted to RN via DeviceEventManagerModule.
• Doesn't affect popToNative which always pops the React Native view.

Example of usage:

const Screen = () => {
    const navigation = useNavigation();
  
    useEffect(() => {
      // Native back action is enabled only if we can't go back within RN app
      const unsubscribe = navigation.addListener("state", () => {
        const shouldEnableNativeBack = navigation.canGoBack();
        ExpoBrownfield.setNativeBackEnabled(!shouldEnableNativeBack);
      });
  
      return () => {
        unsubscribe();
      };
    }, [navigation]);

Videos

Android

Screen.Recording.2025-11-28.at.19.33.18.mov

iOS (UIKit)

Screen.Recording.2025-11-28.at.19.35.34.mov

iOS (SwiftUI)

Screen.Recording.2025-11-28.at.19.38.06.mov

[pmleczek]

@gabrieldonadel

[gabrieldonadel]

Nice!

[lukmccall]

Suggested change

	val reactContext = reactHost?.currentReactContext
	if (reactContext != null) {
	val deviceEventManager = reactContext.getNativeModule(
	DeviceEventManagerModule::class.java
	)
	deviceEventManager?.emitHardwareBackPressed()
	}
	val reactContext = reactHost?.currentReactContext?.let { reactContext ->
	val deviceEventManager = reactContext.getNativeModule(
	DeviceEventManagerModule::class.java
	)
	deviceEventManager?.emitHardwareBackPressed()
	}