Expo Camera (legacy)

A React component that renders a preview for the device's front or back camera.

This is the legacy version of the expo-camera package which will no longer be receiving updates. If you are starting a new project, we recommend using the latest version of expo-camera.

expo-camera provides a React component that renders a preview of the device's front or back camera. The camera's parameters such as zoom, auto focus, white balance and flash mode are adjustable. Using Camera, you can take photos and record videos that are saved to the app's cache. The component is also capable of detecting faces and bar codes appearing in the preview. Run the example on your device to see all these features working together.

Android devices can use one of two available Camera APIs: you can opt-in to using Camera2 with the useCamera2Api prop.

Installation

If you are installing this in an existing React Native app, make sure to install expo in your project.

Configuration in app config

You can configure expo-camera using its built-in config plugin if you use config plugins in your project (EAS Build or npx expo run:[android|ios]). The plugin allows you to configure various properties that cannot be set at runtime and require building a new app binary to take effect.

Example app.json with config plugin

{
  "expo": {
    "plugins": [
      [
        "expo-camera",
        {
          "cameraPermission": "Allow $(PRODUCT_NAME) to access your camera",
          "microphonePermission": "Allow $(PRODUCT_NAME) to access your microphone",
          "recordAudioAndroid": true
        }
      ]
    ]
  }
}

Configurable properties

Usage

Only one Camera preview can be active at any given time. If you have multiple screens in your app, you should unmount Camera components whenever a screen is unfocused.

import { Camera, CameraType } from 'expo-camera/legacy';
import { useState } from 'react';
import { Button, StyleSheet, Text, TouchableOpacity, View } from 'react-native';

export default function App() {
  const [type, setType] = useState(CameraType.back);
  const [permission, requestPermission] = Camera.useCameraPermissions();

  if (!permission) {
    // Camera permissions are still loading
    return <View />;
  }

  if (!permission.granted) {
    // Camera permissions are not granted yet
    return (
      <View style={styles.container}>
        <Text style={{ textAlign: 'center' }}>We need your permission to show the camera</Text>
        <Button onPress={requestPermission} title="grant permission" />
      </View>
    );
  }

  function toggleCameraType() {
    setType(current => (current === CameraType.back ? CameraType.front : CameraType.back));
  }

  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Camera style={styles.camera} type={type}>
        <View style={styles.buttonContainer}>
          <TouchableOpacity style={styles.button} onPress={toggleCameraType}>
            <Text style={styles.text}>Flip Camera</Text>
          </TouchableOpacity>
        </View>
      </Camera>
    </View>
  );
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
  camera: {
    flex: 1,
  },
  buttonContainer: {
    flex: 1,
    flexDirection: 'row',
    backgroundColor: 'transparent',
    margin: 64,
  },
  button: {
    flex: 1,
    alignSelf: 'flex-end',
    alignItems: 'center',
  },
  text: {
    fontSize: 24,
    fontWeight: 'bold',
    color: 'white',
  },
});

Web support

Most browsers support a version of web camera functionality, you can check out the web camera browser support here. Image URIs are always returned as base64 strings because local file system paths are unavailable in the browser.

Chrome iframe usage

When using Chrome versions 64+, if you try to use a web camera in a cross-origin iframe nothing will render. To add support for cameras in your iframe simply add the attribute allow="microphone; camera;" to the iframe element:

<iframe src="..." allow="microphone; camera;">
  <!-- <Camera /> -->
</iframe>

API

import { Camera } from 'expo-camera/legacy';

No API data file found, sorry!

Permissions

Android

This package automatically adds the CAMERA permission to your app. If you want to record videos with audio, you have to include the RECORD_AUDIO in your app.json inside the expo.android.permissions array.

iOS

The following usage description keys are used by this library: