Permissions are where many apps quietly lose users: a poorly timed or unexplained prompt gets denied, and the feature behind it breaks. react-native-permissions gives one consistent API across iOS and Android for checking and requesting permissions — but the bigger win is requesting them at the right moment with the right context.
Key takeaways
- Check status before requesting, and request in context — right when the feature needs it.
- Declare every permission's usage string and Android manifest entry before requesting.
- Handle the blocked state by guiding users to Settings instead of re-prompting.
A unified permission API
iOS and Android model permissions differently, and react-native-permissions normalizes them into check and request functions that return a clear status: granted, denied, blocked, limited, or unavailable. That single vocabulary removes most of the platform branching from your code.
Always declare the permission first — usage-description keys in iOS Info.plist and the matching entries in the Android manifest — or the request silently fails or crashes.
Ask at the right time
Requesting everything on first launch is the fastest way to get denied. Request a permission the moment the user does something that needs it, and show a short in-app explanation before the system dialog so the choice makes sense. A granted permission you earned with context is worth more than a prompt the user dismissed reflexively.
Handling denial and blocked states
Once a permission is blocked, the OS will not show the dialog again, so re-requesting does nothing. Detect the blocked status and route users to the app settings screen with a clear explanation, and design the feature to degrade gracefully when permission is absent.