What is the best way to design the unique curly arrow/tail for a chat bubble in a React Native project?

Being new to react-native, I decided to create a chat bubble by first attempting it on a browser and then trying to replicate it in react-native. The challenge I'm facing is replicating the arrow in react-native. Do you have any ideas or suggestions?

Original HTML/CSS Code:

<div>
  <p class="to-me">Hey!</p>
</div>

div {
  padding:20px;
  justify-self: center;
  align-self: center;
  text-align: left;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  width: 450px;
}
div p {
  font-size: 16px;
  line-height: 1.4;
  margin: 1px 0;
  padding: 8px 17px 6px 13px;
  max-width: 380px;
  position: relative;
  border-radius: 18px;
}
div p:after {
  position: absolute;
  content: "";
  top: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  right: 0;
  left: 0;
  z-index: -1;
}
div p.to-me {
  color: black;
  align-self: flex-start;
  background-color: #E5E5EA;
}
div p.to-me:after {
  background: url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' x='0px' y='0px' width='15.515px' height='17.5px' viewBox='32.484 17.5 15.515 17.5' enable-background='new 32.484 17.5 15.515 17.5'><path fill='#E5E5EA' d='M38.484,17.5c0,8.75,1,13.5-6,17.5C51.484,35,52.484,17.5,38.484,17.5z'/></svg>") left bottom no-repeat;
  left: -6px;
}

The outcome:

https://i.sstatic.net/PLZq0.png

React-Native Approach:

<View style={[styles.balloon, {backgroundColor: '#1084ff'}]}>
      <Text style={{paddingTop: 5, color: 'white'}}>Hey!</Text>
      <View
      style={[
        styles.arrowContainer,
        styles.arrowLeftContainer,
      ]}
    >
      <View style={styles.arrowLeft} />
    </View>
    </View>
  </View>


item: {
   marginVertical: 14,
   flexDirection: 'row'
},
itemIn: {
    marginLeft: 10
},
itemOut: {
   alignSelf: 'flex-end',
   marginRight: 10
},
balloon: {
   maxWidth: scale(250),
   paddingHorizontal: 15,
   paddingTop: 10,
   paddingBottom: 15,
   borderRadius: 20,
},
arrowContainer: {
    position: 'absolute',
    top: 0,
    left: 0,
    right: 0,
    bottom: 0,
    zIndex: -1
    // backgroundColor: 'red'
},
arrowLeftContainer: {
    justifyContent: 'center',
    alignItems: 'flex-start',
    // backgroundColor: 'green'
},

arrowLeft: {
    left: -20,
}

The result: https://i.sstatic.net/a8L14.png

I've managed to recreate most of the bubble design but struggle with incorporating the arrow. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Answer №1

Coming up with a solution to display the arrows proved to be more challenging than anticipated, especially when accounting for varying screen sizes and different platforms such as iOS and Android. As @Panagiotis Vrs pointed out, achieving an identical appearance on both platforms is not guaranteed. Despite this, I attempted to attain consistency using react-native-svg along with react-native-size-matters.

Here is my code; perhaps someone can enhance it further and make it even more efficient.

The HTML Section

<View style={[styles.item, styles.itemIn]}>
        <View style={[styles.balloon, {backgroundColor: 'grey'}]}>
          <Text style={{paddingTop: 5, color: 'white'}}>Hey! How are you?</Text>
          <View
          style={[
            styles.arrowContainer,
            styles.arrowLeftContainer,
          ]}
        >
        
           <Svg style={styles.arrowLeft} width={moderateScale(15.5, 0.6)} height={moderateScale(17.5, 0.6)} viewBox="32.484 17.5 15.515 17.5"  enable-background="new 32.485 17.5 15.515 17.5">
                <Path
                    d="M38.484,17.5c0,8.75,1,13.5-6,17.5C51.484,35,52.484,17.5,38.484,17.5z"
                    fill="grey"
                    x="0"
                    y="0"
                />
            </Svg>
        </View>
        </View>
      </View>

      [similar code snippets follow]

     <View style={[styles.item, styles.itemIn]}>
        <View style={[styles.balloon, {backgroundColor: 'grey'}]}>
          <Text style={{paddingTop: 5, color: 'white'}}>Nice Picture</Text>
          <View
          style={[
            styles.arrowContainer,
            styles.arrowLeftContainer,
          ]}
        >
        
           <Svg style={styles.arrowLeft} width={moderateScale(15.5, 0.6)} height={moderateScale(17.5, 0.6)} viewBox="32.484 17.5 15.515 17.5"  enable-background="new 32.485 17.5 15.515 17.5">
                <Path
                    d="M38.484,17.5c0,8.75,1,13.5-6,17.5C51.484,35,52.484,17.5,38.484,17.5z"
                    fill="grey"
                    x="0"
                    y="0"
                />
            </Svg>
        </View>
        </View>
      </View>

The CSS Part

 item: {
       marginVertical: moderateScale(7, 2),
       flexDirection: 'row'
    },
    itemIn: {
        marginLeft: 20
    },
    itemOut: {
       alignSelf: 'flex-end',
       marginRight: 20
    },

    [styling properties continue...]

    arrowRight: {
        right:moderateScale(-6, 0.5),
    }

Experimenting with scaling on various device screens was mostly trial and error for me. The current output meets my requirements adequately, but I may revisit this design in the future for enhancements.

[pasting of screenshots and descriptions follows...]

Answer №2

To implement this technique, you don't necessarily need to rely on SVG. Instead, you can achieve the desired effect by positioning <View> components at the corners of the text container.

<View style={styles.container}>
  <Text style={styles.text} key={index}>{item.text}</Text>
  <View style={styles.rightArrow} />
  <View style={styles.rightArrowOverlap} />
</View>

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    backgroundColor: "#0078fe",
    padding: 10,
    marginLeft: '45%',
    borderRadius: 20,
    marginTop: 5,
    marginRight: "5%",
    maxWidth: '50%',
    alignSelf: 'flex-end',
  },
  text: {
    fontSize: 16,
    color: "#fff",
  },
  rightArrow: {
    position: "absolute",
    backgroundColor: "#0078fe",
    width: 20,
    height: 25,
    bottom: 0,
    borderBottomLeftRadius: 25,
    right: -10,
  },
  rightArrowOverlap: {
    position: "absolute",
    backgroundColor: "#eeeeee",
    width: 20,
    height: 35,
    bottom: -6,
    borderBottomLeftRadius: 18,
    right: -20,
  },
});

The values for properties like borderRadius, maxWidth, and margin can be customized based on your specific requirements. For a more detailed explanation, you can refer to this article that delves deeper into the topic.
Note: It is recommended to use this approach with FlatList due to potential rendering inconsistencies observed in other functions (e.g., map).

Answer №3

When it comes to creating chat bubbles in React Native, the react-native-gifted-chat library is a great option for standard bubbles. However, if you want to customize your bubbles, you can utilize the flat-list component in React Native. By using the render item method in flat list, you can easily align your bubbles based on the sender or receiver id.

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