In react native gifted chat, how would I process a click as an ordinary message?

I'm referencing the code that is here:

As the code stands, when someone press on:

#awesome

an alert will trigger due to:

onPress: props => alert(`press on ${props}`),

What I would like to do is have the press send 'Hello world' into the input as if the user had simply typed in the message and then press enter.

It seems I would need to send 'Hello world' into this function:

  onSend(messages = []) {
    this.setState((previousState) => ({
      messages: GiftedChat.append(previousState.messages, messages),
    }));
  }

but I'm not sure how to do this.

How would I get the press to function like an ordinary chat input?

Solution

You can achieve the functionality without needing to simulate a button press: