How to get color scheme (dark/light) of mobile system in React Native?

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  1. Code Example
    1. Live Demo
  2. Conclusion

To get system preferred color scheme in Android and iOS, we can use Appearance module of React Native.

But the question is, where it is used? Actually if you are going to provide both dark and light theme in your application then there are two ways to switch the themes –

  1. Provide an option to switch themes and let users use according to their choice.
  2. Use the mode which user has already set in their system preferences.

If you are going with 1st option then you will need to create a <Switch> and according to selection, show the theme.

In this article, we are focusing on 2nd option where system preference regarding color scheme is fetched. We do it in this way –

import { Appearance } from 'react-native';

const colorScheme = Appearance.getColorScheme();
if (colorScheme === 'dark') {
  // Use dark color scheme
}

In the above snippet we are using getColorScheme() function of Appearance module to get scheme like dark or light.

But there is a problem here. We are storing the value in colorScheme constant. What if the system color mode is automatically switched to different mode? Like auto mode change due to daylight settings? Then our code keep on showing according to previous mode.

To solve this issue, we can use useColorScheme() hook. Like this –

import { Appearance } from 'react-native';

const colorScheme = useColorScheme();

// The colorScheme value will automatically
// update according to changes in color scheme

Code Example

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

const App = () => {
  const colorScheme = useColorScheme();
  const colorSchemeAppearance = Appearance.getColorScheme();
  

  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>

      <Text style={styles.textStyle}>
        Appearance.getColorScheme() = {colorSchemeAppearance}
      </Text>

      <Text style={styles.textStyle}>
        useColorScheme() = {colorScheme}
      </Text>
    </View>
  );
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    justifyContent: "space-around",
    padding: 30
  },
  textStyle: {
    fontSize: 20
  }
});

export default App;

Output –

dark light color scheme appearance in Android iOS in React Native

The above image shows the value of currently applied color schemes in both iOS (left) and Android (right) phones.

In our code we are using both Appearance and useColorScheme() hook methods to get the value of current display mode.

Live Demo

Open Live Demo

Conclusion

To know about the current color scheme of the mobile phone, you can use getColorScheme() function of Appearance module or use useColorScheme() hook.


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

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  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
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  10. Inverted List
  11. Pull to Refresh in List
  12. Infinite Loading List

SectionList

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ScrollView

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Image

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Modal

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RefreshControl

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  5. Title under Refresh Loader
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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
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Switch

  1. Simple Switch
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  3. Change Switch Colors

Text

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  5. Selecting Text for copy-paste
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TextInput

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  6. Clear input Field when focused
  7. Change Cursor Color in Input Field
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  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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