How to create clickable url links in text in React Native – Code Example

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  1. Code Example
    1. Live Demo
  2. Conclusion

Suppose you are creating an app of a blog where you display articles on wildlife. In the text you have links targeting national geographic website. But the links are not clickable. How will user be able to visit them?

Similarly we need to have click action on things like phone numbers, email ids, url etc. React native provides dataDetectorType prop in <Text> component which has these values –

  • none – To highlight nothing. This is default value. No links will be automatically highlighted.
  • phoneNumber – This will only recognize phone numbers in the text and convert them to the clickable links. This link will redirect users to the call app in the phone with number already published.
  • email – To capture emails only. Clicking these links will open default email client in phones.
  • link – For website urls. This will open browser.
  • all – It will recognize all formats of clickable entities and handle them accordingly.

Code Example

import React, { useState } from "react";
import { Text, StyleSheet, View } from "react-native";

const DataDetectorComponent = () => {
  
  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Text dataDetectorType={'email'}>
        This will recognize email ([email protected]) only. Not url (https://akashmittal.com).
      </Text>

      <Text dataDetectorType={'link'}>
        This will recognize url (https://akashmittal.com) only. Not email ([email protected]).
      </Text>

      <Text dataDetectorType={'phoneNumber'}>
        This will recognize phone (+919999900000) only. Not email ([email protected]).
      </Text>

      <Text dataDetectorType={'all'}>
        This will recognize all - phone (+919999900000), email ([email protected]), url (https://akashmittal.com).
      </Text>

      <Text>
        This will recognize nothing - phone (+919999900000), email ([email protected]), url (https://akashmittal.com).
      </Text>
    </View>

  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    justifyContent: 'space-between',
    height: 300,
    marginTop: 40
  } 
});

export default DataDetectorComponent;

Output –

highlighting link, phone number, email in the text using dataDetectorType prop in React native

It is shown in the image how various values of dataDetectorType prop behaves. We are highlighting links, email ids, and phone numbers.

In the code we have created multiple text blocks with different values for dataDetectorType prop in Text component.

Live Demo

Open Live Demo

Conclusion

Converting url, phone and email ids into clickable anchors is very important for usability of an app. It provides better navigation to the users and save them from frustration of copy-pasting.


React Native Series

Alert

  1. Basic Alert
  2. Dismiss on Clicking Outside
  3. Input Fields in Alert Dialog – Prompt()
  4. Dark-Light Theme of Dialog

ActivityIndicator

  1. Basic Circular Loader
  2. Change size of Circular Loader
  3. Show/hide Circular Loader
  4. Change color of Circular Loader

Button

  1. Simple Button
  2. Change Button Color
  3. Disable Button Click
  4. Disable touch sound on Button click

FlatList

  1. Simple List
  2. Single Item Selection from List
  3. Multiple Item Selection from List
  4. Adding separator between list items
  5. Multiple columns List
  6. Showing Message in Empty List
  7. Add Footer to the List
  8. Add Header to the List
  9. Horizontal List
  10. Inverted List
  11. Pull to Refresh in List
  12. Infinite Loading List

SectionList

  1. Section List

ScrollView

  1. ScrollView
  2. Stick Single Item at Header
  3. Stick Multiple Items at Header
  4. Stick Item at Footer
  5. Hide Sticky Element on Scroll

Image

  1. Display Image from remote url
  2. Display local storage image
  3. Display Base64 Image
  4. Display Gif & Webp Images
  5. Adding Blur to Image
  6. Displaying loader for Image
  7. Resizemode for Images
  8. Setting Default Placeholder Image
  9. Background Image

Modal

  1. Basic Modal
  2. Slide from bottom Modal
  3. Fade In Modal
  4. Transparent Overlay Modal

RefreshControl

  1. RefreshControl
  2. Change Refresh Loader Color
  3. Change Refresh Loader Size
  4. Change Refresh Loader Background Color
  5. Title under Refresh Loader
  6. Change color of title under refresh loader

StatusBar

  1. Get StatusBar Size
  2. Change StatusBar Background Color
  3. Display StatusBar icons & text in While Color
  4. Display StatusBar icons & text in Dark Color
  5. Hiding StatusBar
  6. Translucent StatusBar

Switch

  1. Simple Switch
  2. Disable Switch
  3. Change Switch Colors

Text

  1. Adding Text
  2. Bold Text
  3. Italic Text
  4. Underline Text
  5. Selecting Text for copy-paste
  6. Changing Highlight Color of Text Selection
  7. Fit text in View box
  8. Clickable anchors in text
  9. Truncate Lengthy Text

TextInput

  1. Simple Input Field
  2. Auto Capitalize Text in Input Field
  3. Multiline Input Field
  4. Hide Cursor in Input Field
  5. Clear input Field using X
  6. Clear input Field when focused
  7. Change Cursor Color in Input Field
  8. Disable input field
  9. Icon at the left of Input Field
  10. Dark-Light Keyboard
  11. Avoid Overlapping of Keyboard
  12. Limiting Characters in Input Field
  13. Numeric Keyboard
  14. Email Id Keyboard
  15. Phone number Keyboard
  16. Url Keyboard
  17. Placeholder in input field
  18. Placeholder Color in Input Field
  19. Password Input Field
  20. Programmatically select text in Input Field
  21. Change Text Selection Color in Input Field
  22. Select Whole text in Input Field on Focus
  23. Write text from center in input field
  24. Changing underline color of input field

TouchableWithoutFeedback

  1. TouchableWithoutFeedback

TouchableHighlight

  1. TouchableHighlight

TouchableOpacity

  1. TouchableOpacity

Pressable

  1. Pressable
  2. Creating Ripple Effect

Appearance

  1. Dark-Light System Color Scheme

AppState

  1. AppState – Foreground/Background State of App

ToastAndroid

  1. Creating Android Toast Message

Dimensions

  1. Getting Screen & Window Dimensions

Keyboard

  1. Dismiss Keyboard Programmatically

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