React Native TextInput background color looks double layered when it's set to color with transparence

Question

I have a TextInput with backgroundColor of 'rgba(255,255,255,0.16)' as below:

example on snack: https://snack.expo.io/rkEhXn6Nr

import * as React from 'react';
import { TextInput, View, StyleSheet } from 'react-native';

export default class App extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <View style={styles.container}>
        <TextInput
          style={styles.paragraph}
          value={"bleep bleep bleep bleep"}
        />
      </View>
    );
  }
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    justifyContent: 'center',
    backgroundColor: 'green',
  },
  paragraph: {
    padding: 24,
    margin: 24,
    fontSize: 24,
    textAlign: 'center',
    backgroundColor: 'rgba(255,255,255,0.16)',
  },
});

It looks like as if there's a view (THERE ISN'T) with that background color and a text element also with that background color wrapped inside. How can I only have the "view" to have that background color? It looks fine on android:

Answer 1

Problem/Explanation:

This issue only occurs on iOS, because there it is used as performace tweak to avoid alpha blending. On iOS devices, a <Text/> automatically gets the same backgroundColor as the parent view. For more information about color inheritance you can have a look this issue on github.

In your specific case, your are applying a background color to the text container and by accident also to the text itself. That's why you get an "highlighted" Text. I could easily recreate this behavior with a simple Text Component. See the following mage:

Solution:

To overcome this issue and have a cross-platform working solution, you need to add a View which surrounds your TextInput and apply the backgroundColor (and the other container styles) there.

Code:

<View style={styles.container}>
     <View style={styles.textContainer}>
        <TextInput
          style={styles.paragraph}
          value={"bleep bleep bleep bleep"}
        />
     </View>
</View>

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    justifyContent: 'center',
    backgroundColor: 'green',
  },
  textContainer: {
    margin: 24,
    padding: 24,
    backgroundColor: 'rgba(255,255,255,0.16)',
  },
  paragraph: {
    fontSize: 24,
    textAlign: 'center',
  },
});

Working Example:

https://snack.expo.io/ByOzRyHHr

Output: