Enhance Your React Native App with Vector Icons

Want to supercharge your React Native app's design and user experience? Look no further than react-native-vector-icons, a powerful library that lets you seamlessly integrate a wide variety of icons.

Getting Started: A 3-Step Process

1. Installation: Add the library using npm or yarn:

npm install react-native-vector-icons

or

yarn add react-native-vector-icons

2. Font Configuration: This crucial step ensures your icons display correctly. The process differs slightly for Android and iOS:

Android Setup

In android/app/build.gradle, specify the font files to include:

react {
  ...
  project.ext.vectoricons = [
      iconFontNames: ['MaterialCommunityIcons.ttf', 'FontAwesome.ttf', 'AntDesign.ttf'] // Add other font files as needed
  ]
apply from: "../../node_modules/react-native-vector-icons/fonts.gradle"
  ...
}

iOS Setup

In Info.plist, add your fonts under UIAppFonts:

<key>UIAppFonts</key>
<array>
    <string>MaterialCommunityIcons.ttf</string>
    <string>FontAwesome.ttf</string>
    <string>AntDesign.ttf</string>
</array>

Also configure react-native.config.js to prevent automatic linking on iOS and add custom assets (if needed):

// react-native.config.js
module.exports = {
  project: {
    ios: {},
    android: {},
  },
  dependencies: {
    'react-native-vector-icons': {
      platforms: {
        ios: null, // Disable auto-linking for iOS
      },
    },
  },
};

Finally, run npx react-native-asset in your terminal.

3. Icon Integration: Now you can easily use icons in your components:

import Icon from 'react-native-vector-icons/MaterialCommunityIcons';

const MyComponent = () => ( <Icon name="home" size={30} color="#900" /> );

Replace `MaterialCommunityIcons` with your chosen icon set.

Icon Sets Galore!

react-native-vector-icons boasts support for many popular icon sets, including:

• AntDesign
• Entypo
• EvilIcons
• Feather
• FontAwesome 5
• Ionicons
• MaterialIcons
• MaterialCommunityIcons

Explore more in the icon gallery.