Chat Bubble in React Native

Question

I am currently making a chat bubble in react-native. Since I am new to react-native I first tried to make the chat bubble on a browser and then tried to replicate the same in react-native. I am struggling to replicate the arrow in react-native. Any ideas/suggestions?

Normal HTML/CSS:

<div>
  <p class="to-me">Hey!</p>
</div>

div {
  padding:20px;
  justify-self: center;
  align-self: center;
  text-align: left;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  width: 450px;
}
div p {
  font-size: 16px;
  line-height: 1.4;
  margin: 1px 0;
  padding: 8px 17px 6px 13px;
  max-width: 380px;
  position: relative;
  border-radius: 18px;
}
div p:after {
  position: absolute;
  content: "";
  top: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  right: 0;
  left: 0;
  z-index: -1;
}
div p.to-me {
  color: black;
  align-self: flex-start;
  background-color: #E5E5EA;
}
div p.to-me:after {
  background: url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' x='0px' y='0px' width='15.515px' height='17.5px' viewBox='32.484 17.5 15.515 17.5' enable-background='new 32.484 17.5 15.515 17.5'><path fill='#E5E5EA' d='M38.484,17.5c0,8.75,1,13.5-6,17.5C51.484,35,52.484,17.5,38.484,17.5z'/></svg>") left bottom no-repeat;
  left: -6px;
}

The result:

React-Native Version:

<View style={[styles.balloon, {backgroundColor: '#1084ff'}]}>
      <Text style={{paddingTop: 5, color: 'white'}}>Hey!</Text>
      <View
      style={[
        styles.arrowContainer,
        styles.arrowLeftContainer,
      ]}
    >
      <View style={styles.arrowLeft} />
    </View>
    </View>
  </View>


item: {
   marginVertical: 14,
   flexDirection: 'row'
},
itemIn: {
    marginLeft: 10
},
itemOut: {
   alignSelf: 'flex-end',
   marginRight: 10
},
balloon: {
   maxWidth: scale(250),
   paddingHorizontal: 15,
   paddingTop: 10,
   paddingBottom: 15,
   borderRadius: 20,
},
arrowContainer: {
    position: 'absolute',
    top: 0,
    left: 0,
    right: 0,
    bottom: 0,
    zIndex: -1
    // backgroundColor: 'red'
},
arrowLeftContainer: {
    justifyContent: 'center',
    alignItems: 'flex-start',
    // backgroundColor: 'green'
},

arrowLeft: {
    left: -20,
}

The result:

I have almost replicated the bubble. Just struggling on the arrow part. Any ideas/suggestions?

Answer 1

Making the arrows appear was harder than I thought it would be, especially when you consider different screen sizes, different platforms (iOS and android). Yes, @Panagiotis Vrs is correct when he mentioned that it won't look 100% same on both platforms. Nevertheless, I tried to achieve the same using react-native-svg and react-native-size-matters.

I am sharing my code, maybe someone can improvise this and make this even better.

The HTML Part

<View style={[styles.item, styles.itemIn]}>
        <View style={[styles.balloon, {backgroundColor: 'grey'}]}>
          <Text style={{paddingTop: 5, color: 'white'}}>Hey! How are you?</Text>
          <View
          style={[
            styles.arrowContainer,
            styles.arrowLeftContainer,
          ]}
        >

           <Svg style={styles.arrowLeft} width={moderateScale(15.5, 0.6)} height={moderateScale(17.5, 0.6)} viewBox="32.484 17.5 15.515 17.5"  enable-background="new 32.485 17.5 15.515 17.5">
                <Path
                    d="M38.484,17.5c0,8.75,1,13.5-6,17.5C51.484,35,52.484,17.5,38.484,17.5z"
                    fill="grey"
                    x="0"
                    y="0"
                />
            </Svg>
        </View>
        </View>
      </View>


      <View style={[styles.item, styles.itemOut]}>
        <View style={[styles.balloon, {backgroundColor: '#1084ff'}]}>
          <Text style={{paddingTop: 5, color: 'white'}}>Hey! I am good. How are you?</Text>
          <View
          style={[
            styles.arrowContainer,
            styles.arrowRightContainer,
          ]}
        >
           <Svg style={styles.arrowRight} width={moderateScale(15.5, 0.6)} height={moderateScale(17.5, 0.6)} viewBox="32.485 17.5 15.515 17.5"  enable-background="new 32.485 17.5 15.515 17.5">
                <Path
                    d="M48,35c-7-4-6-8.75-6-17.5C28,17.5,29,35,48,35z"
                    fill="#1084ff"
                    x="0"
                    y="0"
                />
            </Svg>
        </View>
        </View>
      </View>





       <View style={[styles.item, styles.itemOut]}>
        <View style={[styles.balloon, {backgroundColor: '#1084ff'}]}>
          <Text style={{paddingTop: 5, color: 'white'}}>Check this Image out !!!</Text>
          <View
          style={[
            styles.arrowContainer,
            styles.arrowRightContainer,
          ]}
        >
           <Svg style={styles.arrowRight} width={moderateScale(15.5, 0.6)} height={moderateScale(17.5, 0.6)} viewBox="32.485 17.5 15.515 17.5"  enable-background="new 32.485 17.5 15.515 17.5">
                <Path
                    d="M48,35c-7-4-6-8.75-6-17.5C28,17.5,29,35,48,35z"
                    fill="#1084ff"
                    x="0"
                    y="0"
                />
            </Svg>
        </View>
        </View>
      </View>


       <View style={[styles.item, styles.itemOut]}>
        <View style={[styles.balloon, {backgroundColor: '#1084ff'}]}>

        <Image
            styleName="small"
            borderRadius={5}
            source={{ uri: 'https://shoutem.github.io/img/ui-toolkit/examples/image-3.png'}}
            />
          <View
          style={[
            styles.arrowContainer,
            styles.arrowRightContainer,
          ]}
        >
           <Svg style={styles.arrowRight} width={moderateScale(15.5, 0.6)} height={moderateScale(17.5, 0.6)} viewBox="32.485 17.5 15.515 17.5"  enable-background="new 32.485 17.5 15.515 17.5">
                <Path
                    d="M48,35c-7-4-6-8.75-6-17.5C28,17.5,29,35,48,35z"
                    fill="#1084ff"
                    x="0"
                    y="0"
                />
            </Svg>
        </View>
        </View>
      </View>


     <View style={[styles.item, styles.itemIn]}>
        <View style={[styles.balloon, {backgroundColor: 'grey'}]}>
          <Text style={{paddingTop: 5, color: 'white'}}>Nice Picture</Text>
          <View
          style={[
            styles.arrowContainer,
            styles.arrowLeftContainer,
          ]}
        >

           <Svg style={styles.arrowLeft} width={moderateScale(15.5, 0.6)} height={moderateScale(17.5, 0.6)} viewBox="32.484 17.5 15.515 17.5"  enable-background="new 32.485 17.5 15.515 17.5">
                <Path
                    d="M38.484,17.5c0,8.75,1,13.5-6,17.5C51.484,35,52.484,17.5,38.484,17.5z"
                    fill="grey"
                    x="0"
                    y="0"
                />
            </Svg>
        </View>
        </View>
      </View>

The CSS Part

 item: {
       marginVertical: moderateScale(7, 2),
       flexDirection: 'row'
    },
    itemIn: {
        marginLeft: 20
    },
    itemOut: {
       alignSelf: 'flex-end',
       marginRight: 20
    },
    balloon: {
       maxWidth: moderateScale(250, 2),
       paddingHorizontal: moderateScale(10, 2),
       paddingTop: moderateScale(5, 2),
       paddingBottom: moderateScale(7, 2),
       borderRadius: 20,
    },
    arrowContainer: {
        position: 'absolute',
        top: 0,
        left: 0,
        right: 0,
        bottom: 0,
        zIndex: -1,
        flex: 1
    },
    arrowLeftContainer: {
        justifyContent: 'flex-end',
        alignItems: 'flex-start'
    },

    arrowRightContainer: {
        justifyContent: 'flex-end',
        alignItems: 'flex-end',
    },

    arrowLeft: {
        left: moderateScale(-6, 0.5),
    },

    arrowRight: {
        right:moderateScale(-6, 0.5),
    }

Now scaling it on different device screens was just trial and error for me. The output right now is good enough for me. Maybe when I have time I will try to improve on this current design.

This is how it looks on iOS:

iPhone 7:

iPhone X:

Now on android unfortunately I wasn't able to make the curve of the arrow appear. Maybe I am doing something wrong. This is how it looks in the end.

Pixel 2:

Nexus 6:

Maybe we can use flex to make the arrow curves look good on android.

In case someone has made a better version of this. Do share. :)

Answer 2

You can use the react-native-gifted-chat library to make the perfect bubble or if you wan to make a customer bubble then use the flat-list of react-native in flat list render item make bubble align bubble according to id sender id or receiver id