I am currently making a chat bubble in react-native. Since I am new to react-native I first tried to make the chat bubble on a browser and then tried to replicate the same in react-native. I am struggling to replicate the arrow in react-native. Any ideas/suggestions?
Normal HTML/CSS:
<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 result:
React-Native Version:
<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,
}
I have almost replicated the bubble. Just struggling on the arrow part. Any ideas/suggestions?
Making the arrows appear was harder than I thought it would be, especially when you consider different screen sizes, different platforms (iOS and android). Yes, @Panagiotis Vrs is correct when he mentioned that it won't look 100% same on both platforms. Nevertheless, I tried to achieve the same using react-native-svg and react-native-size-matters.
I am sharing my code, maybe someone can improvise this and make this even better.
The HTML Part
<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>
<View style={[styles.item, styles.itemOut]}>
<View style={[styles.balloon, {backgroundColor: '#1084ff'}]}>
<Text style={{paddingTop: 5, color: 'white'}}>Hey! I am good. How are you?</Text>
<View
style={[
styles.arrowContainer,
styles.arrowRightContainer,
]}
>
<Svg style={styles.arrowRight} width={moderateScale(15.5, 0.6)} height={moderateScale(17.5, 0.6)} viewBox="32.485 17.5 15.515 17.5" enable-background="new 32.485 17.5 15.515 17.5">
<Path
d="M48,35c-7-4-6-8.75-6-17.5C28,17.5,29,35,48,35z"
fill="#1084ff"
x="0"
y="0"
/>
</Svg>
</View>
</View>
</View>
<View style={[styles.item, styles.itemOut]}>
<View style={[styles.balloon, {backgroundColor: '#1084ff'}]}>
<Text style={{paddingTop: 5, color: 'white'}}>Check this Image out !!!</Text>
<View
style={[
styles.arrowContainer,
styles.arrowRightContainer,
]}
>
<Svg style={styles.arrowRight} width={moderateScale(15.5, 0.6)} height={moderateScale(17.5, 0.6)} viewBox="32.485 17.5 15.515 17.5" enable-background="new 32.485 17.5 15.515 17.5">
<Path
d="M48,35c-7-4-6-8.75-6-17.5C28,17.5,29,35,48,35z"
fill="#1084ff"
x="0"
y="0"
/>
</Svg>
</View>
</View>
</View>
<View style={[styles.item, styles.itemOut]}>
<View style={[styles.balloon, {backgroundColor: '#1084ff'}]}>
<Image
styleName="small"
borderRadius={5}
source={{ uri: 'https://shoutem.github.io/img/ui-toolkit/examples/image-3.png'}}
/>
<View
style={[
styles.arrowContainer,
styles.arrowRightContainer,
]}
>
<Svg style={styles.arrowRight} width={moderateScale(15.5, 0.6)} height={moderateScale(17.5, 0.6)} viewBox="32.485 17.5 15.515 17.5" enable-background="new 32.485 17.5 15.515 17.5">
<Path
d="M48,35c-7-4-6-8.75-6-17.5C28,17.5,29,35,48,35z"
fill="#1084ff"
x="0"
y="0"
/>
</Svg>
</View>
</View>
</View>
<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
},
balloon: {
maxWidth: moderateScale(250, 2),
paddingHorizontal: moderateScale(10, 2),
paddingTop: moderateScale(5, 2),
paddingBottom: moderateScale(7, 2),
borderRadius: 20,
},
arrowContainer: {
position: 'absolute',
top: 0,
left: 0,
right: 0,
bottom: 0,
zIndex: -1,
flex: 1
},
arrowLeftContainer: {
justifyContent: 'flex-end',
alignItems: 'flex-start'
},
arrowRightContainer: {
justifyContent: 'flex-end',
alignItems: 'flex-end',
},
arrowLeft: {
left: moderateScale(-6, 0.5),
},
arrowRight: {
right:moderateScale(-6, 0.5),
}
Now scaling it on different device screens was just trial and error for me. The output right now is good enough for me. Maybe when I have time I will try to improve on this current design.
This is how it looks on iOS:
Now on android unfortunately I wasn't able to make the curve of the arrow appear. Maybe I am doing something wrong. This is how it looks in the end.
Maybe we can use flex
to make the arrow curves look good on android.
In case someone has made a better version of this. Do share. :)