Share.open

The open() method allows a user to share a premade message via a social medium they choose. In other words, code specifies the message that will be sent and the user chooses to whom and the social medium through which the message will be sent. This shared message may contain text, one or more files, or both.

Calling this method will return a promise that will fulfill or be rejected as soon as ther user successfully open the share action sheet or cancel/fail. Because of that, you will need to handle the rejection while necessary.

Using a promise implementation:

Share.open(options)
  .then((res) => {
    console.log(res);
  })
  .catch((err) => {
    err && console.log(err);
  });

Or with async/await:

const fun = async () => {
  const shareResponse = await Share.open(options);
};

*Keep in mind that using a async/await approach you will still need to handle the error response.

Supported Options

You can customize the call to Share.open passing the following parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Optional	Android	iOS	Windows
message	string	Message sent to the share activity	✅	✅	✅	❓
title	string	Title sent to the share activity	✅	✅	✅	❓
url	string	URL you want to share (only support base64 string in iOS & Android).	✅	✅	✅	❓
urls	Array[string]	Array of base64 string you want to share.	✅	✅	✅	❓
type	string	File mime type	✅	✅	✅	❓
subject	string	Subject sent when sharing to email	✅	✅	✅	❓
email	string	Email of addressee	✅	✅	✅	❓
recipient	string	Phone number of SMS recipient	✅	✅	🚫	🚫
excludedActivityTypes	Array[string]	Activity types that won't show in the Share dialog	✅	✅	✅	❓
failOnCancel	boolean	(defaults to true) Specifies whether promise should reject if user cancels share dialog	✅	✅	✅	❓
showAppsToView	boolean	only android	✅	✅	🚫	❓
filename	string	Filename for base64 in iOS & Android	✅	✅	✅	❓
saveToFiles	boolean	Open only `Files` app (supports only urls (base64 string or path), requires iOS 11 or later)	✅	🚫	✅	❓
filenames	Array[string]	Array of filename for base64 urls array in Android & iOS	✅	✅	✅	❓
activityItemSources	Array[Object]	Array of activity item sources. Each items should conform to ActivityItemSource specification. Example.	✅	🚫	✅	❓
useInternalStorage	boolean	Store the temporary file in the internal storage cache (Android only)	✅	✅	🚫	🚫
isNewTask	boolean	Open intent as a new task. "failOnCancel" will not work.	✅	✅	🚫	❓
disableOverlay	boolean	Disable dimming/dismissible overlay of share activity	✅	🚫	✅	❓

When sharing a base64 file, you will need to follow the format below:

url: "data:<data_type>/<file_extension>;base64,<base64_data>"

Android Configuration

⚠️ Important for Android API 30+ (Android 11+):

For apps targeting Android API 30 or higher, you must use the useInternalStorage: true option when sharing base64 files. This is the recommended approach for all modern Android apps.

Share.open({
  url: 'data:image/png;base64,<base64_data>',
  useInternalStorage: true, // Required for Android API 30+
});

Note for Android API 29 and below (deprecated):

If your application still targets Android API 29 or lower, you can add the following permission to your AndroidManifest.xml:

<!-- Only works on Android API 29 (Android 10) and below - DEPRECATED -->
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

However, please note that:

This permission does nothing on Android API 30+ (Android 11+)
Google Play Store requires apps to target at least API 34 as of current policies
Using useInternalStorage: true is the recommended solution for all apps

When sharing a local file directly, you can use the following format:

url: "file://<file_path>"

ActivityItemSources (iOS only)

In order to share different data according to activities or to customize the share sheet, you can provide the data by using activityItemSources .

See here for more information about UIActivityItemSource.

Example ActivityItemSources

import { Platform } from 'react-native';
import Share from 'react-native-share';

const url = 'https://awesome.contents.com/';
const title = 'Awesome Contents';
const message = 'Please check this out.';
const icon = 'data:<data_type>/<file_extension>;base64,<base64_data>';
const options = Platform.select({
  ios: {
    activityItemSources: [
      {
        // For sharing url with custom title.
        placeholderItem: { type: 'url', content: url },
        item: {
          default: { type: 'url', content: url },
        },
        subject: {
          default: title,
        },
        linkMetadata: { originalUrl: url, url, title },
      },
      {
        // For sharing text.
        placeholderItem: { type: 'text', content: message },
        item: {
          default: { type: 'text', content: message },
          message: null, // Specify no text to share via Messages app.
        },
        linkMetadata: {
          // For showing app icon on share preview.
          title: message,
        },
      },
      {
        // For using custom icon instead of default text icon at share preview when sharing with message.
        placeholderItem: {
          type: 'url',
          content: icon,
        },
        item: {
          default: {
            type: 'text',
            content: `${message} ${url}`,
          },
        },
        linkMetadata: {
          title: message,
          icon: icon,
        },
      },
      {
        // For using custom icon using Base64 image data instead of default text icon.
        placeholderItem: {
          type: 'url',
          content: icon,
        },
        item: {
          default: {
            type: 'text',
            content: `${message} ${url}`,
          },
        },
        linkMetadata: {
          title: message,
          base64Icon: icon,
        },
      },
    ],
  },
  default: {
    title,
    subject: title,
    message: `${message} ${url}`,
  },
});

Share.open(options);

ActivityItemSource

Structure used when the option activityItemSources is being used:

Name	Type	Description
placeholderItem	Object	An object to use as a placeholder for the actual data. This should comform to ActivityItem type.
item	Object	An object that contains the final data object to be acted on for each activity types. This should be `{ [ActivityType]: ?ActivityItem }` .
subject	Object	(optional) An object that contains a string to use as the contents of the subject field for each activity types. This should be `{ [ActivityType]: string }` .
dataTypeIdentifier	Object	(optional) An object that contains the UTI for the item for each activity types. This should be `{ [ActivityType]: string }` . See here for more information.
thumbnailImage	Object	(optional) An object that contains the URL to the image to use as a preview for the item for each activity types. This should be `{ [ActivityType]: string }` . The URL should begin with `data:` and contain the data as base 64 encoded string.
linkMetadata	Object	(optional) An object that contains the metadata about a URL, including its title, icon, images, and video. See LinkMetadata.

ActivityType

addToReadingList
airDrop
assignToContact
copyToPasteBoard
mail
message
openInIBooks (iOS 9+)
postToFacebook
postToFlickr
postToTencentWeibo
postToTwitter
postToVimeo
postToWeibo
print
saveToCameraRoll
markupAsPDF (iOS 11+)

Also you can use default in order to specify default behavior.

ActivityItem

Name	Type	Description
type	`text` \| `url`	Type of the content.
content	string	Text or URL to share. You can specify image with URL that begins with `data` and contains the data as base 64 encoded string.

LinkMetadata

Name	Type	Description
originalUrl	string	(optional) The original URL of the metadata request.
url	string	(optional) The URL that returns the metadata, taking server-side redirects into account.
title	string	(optional) A representative title for the URL.
icon	string	(optional) A URL of the file corresponding to a representative icon for the URL.
image	string	(optional) A URL of the file corresponding to a representative image for the URL.
remoteVideoUrl	string	(optional) A remote URL corresponding to a representative video for the URL.
video	string	(optional) A URL of the file corresponding to a representative video for the URL.
base64Icon	string	(optional) To display icon using Base64 image data.

LSApplicationQueriesSchemes (iOS only)

If you want to share Whatsapp, Mailto or some applications on iOS, you should write LSApplicationQueriesSchemes in info.plist:

  <key>LSApplicationQueriesSchemes</key>
  <array>
    <string>whatsapp</string>
    <string>mailto</string>
  </array>

Also, to save photos your gallery you will need setting the following permission on your Info.plist:

  <key>NSPhotoLibraryAddUsageDescription</key>
  <string>$(PRODUCT_NAME) wants to save photos</string>

Supported Options​

Sharing a base64 file format​

Android Configuration​

Sharing a file directly​

ActivityItemSources (iOS only)​

Example ActivityItemSources​

ActivityItemSource​

ActivityType​

ActivityItem​

LinkMetadata​

LSApplicationQueriesSchemes (iOS only)​