React Native Error - TypeError: null is not an object (evaluating '_reactNative.NativeModules.RNShare.FACEBOOK')

Question

I'm working on react native project and I am using expo. I want to add the react-native-share package to my project, however I keep getting this error before I even add any code.

 TypeError: null is not an object (evaluating '_reactNative.NativeModules.RNShare.FACEBOOK')

Now I know that expo has it's own version of the share, however you can't specify where a person can share it too, which honestly makes the feature useless. It seems to be clear that the reason I can't use this package is because I am using expo and can't install pod into the project -- due to expo reject it --. So what should I do? Any suggestions on how to work around this?

Answer 1

You can't normally use dependencies with native code using Expo. At least when using the classic build system (you're using it when you run expo start in the terminal to run your project). react-native-share has native code (you can check that by going to the repo and seeing if the library has ios and android folders) and therefore can't be used with "standard" Expo.

If you want to use custom native code in your project, you either need to eject from Expo to the bare workflow or - a newer option - use Expo EAS and custom dev clients. Expo EAS allows you to stay in the managed workflow and still use native modules. You might need to write something called a config plugin for some of those native dependencies you want to use, but looking at the documentation, react-native-share should be working just fine without a config plugin.

So: Either eject to the Expo bare workflow, or use Expo EAS and custom dev clients to use native dependencies with the Expo managed workflow. Do note however that you need at least Expo SDK 41 to use EAS and custom development clients.

To learn more about migrating from the classic build system to EAS, see Expo's guide / documentation.