Mobile App

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The Rocket.Chat Mobile App is built using React Native, allowing you to develop Android and iOS applications from a single codebase. Setting up the development environment requires you to download and install some dependencies.

Please maintain an active internet connection throughout the installation process.

Prerequisites

Before setting up, confirm that these tools are installed and running correctly on your device:

  • Git

  • Node.js

  • Yarn (recommended instead of npm)

  • macOS with XCode Command Line Tools to run the iOS version,

  • Android Studio to run the Android version.

Follow the React Native CLI quickstart documentation for your operating system to set up your React Native environment. This is necessary as Rocket.Chat does not support Expo-managed flow.

Set up the codebase

Clone the GitHub repository and install the required dependencies by running these commands:

git clone https://github.com/RocketChat/Rocket.Chat.ReactNative.git
cd Rocket.Chat.ReactNative
yarn

For iOS

Run the app by executing these commands:

npx pod-install
yarn ios

For Android

Open the project in Android Studio and launch an emulator using the Android Studio Device Manager, or connect a physical device.

Navigate to the application's root folder, locate the “android” folder, and create a local.properties. In this file, add your Android SDK. Like so:

  • For Mac users:

    sdk.dir=/Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/Library/Android/sdk

  • For Windows users:

    sdk.dir=C:\\Users\\YOUR_USER_NAME\\AppData\\Local\\Android\\Sdk

    Mac and Windows handle file paths differently. While Mac uses the forward slash (/), Windows uses the backslash (\).

Now, run the following command to start the application:

yarn android

The app is now running on the emulator or your device.

Your application may take longer to set up depending on your internet connection.

Refer to the frequently asked questions for solutions to any problems you may encounter.

Contributing

To contribute or make a feature request, see the help wanted section on GitHub or the good first issue labels. Triaging issues is a great way to contribute if you can't code.

To learn more about Rocket.Chat contribution process, see participate in Rocket.Chat development.

You can share your ongoing work before completion by adding [WIP] to your pull request (PR) title. This allows others to review your code and offer assistance if you encounter challenges while solving a problem.