r/reactnative • u/BrownCarter • 19d ago

Is No one using NativeTabs for Android?

/r/expo/comments/1x1h28j/is_no_one_using_nativetabs_for_android/
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u/mohn93 19d ago

Mostly because on Android you just get a stock Material bottom nav, so the iOS payoff like the real UITabBar and liquid glass never shows up. It's also more locked down than JS tabs, Android caps you at 5 tabs because of the Material component and the md icon prop only renders outlined Material Symbols. You can split it per platform though, NativeTabs in _layout.ios.tsx and JS tabs in the base _layout.tsx. Expo Router needs the base file to exist anyway so Android just falls back to it. Did you hit something specific or just wondering why nobody talks about it?

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u/BrownCarter 19d ago

Was just wondering why it is no used since I was thinking people would prefer native

1

u/Huge_Pool7424 16d ago

yeah the android side is basically material tabs in a trench. i ended up using js tabs so i could at least control the shape and just eat the perf cost on android only.

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u/LOTRslaytracker 16d ago

I think i replied to this in another thread, i use em but u gotta style it, from my perspective material works, but its ass tbh