React Native Voice

A speech-to-text library for React Native.

npm i @react-native-community/voice --save

Table of contents

• Linking
  • Manually Link Android
  • Manually Link iOS
• Usage
  • Example
• API
• Events
• Permissions
  • Android
  • iOS
• Contributors

Linking

Manually or automatically link the NativeModule

react-native link @react-native-community/voice

Manually Link Android

• In android/setting.gradle

...
include ':@react-native-community_voice', ':app'
project(':@react-native-community_voice').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../node_modules/@react-native-community/voice/android')

• In android/app/build.gradle

...
dependencies {
    ...
    compile project(':@react-native-community_voice')
}

• In MainApplication.java

import android.app.Application;
import com.facebook.react.ReactApplication;
import com.facebook.react.ReactPackage;
...
import com.wenkesj.voice.VoicePackage; // <------ Add this!
...

public class MainActivity extends Activity implements ReactApplication {
...
    @Override
    protected List getPackages() {
      return Arrays.asList(
        new MainReactPackage(),
        new VoicePackage() // <------ Add this!
        );
    }
}

Manually Link iOS

• Drag the Voice.xcodeproj from the @react-native-community/voice/ios folder to the Libraries group on Xcode in your poject. Manual linking

• Click on your main project file (the one that represents the .xcodeproj) select Build Phases and drag the static library, lib.Voice.a, from the Libraries/Voice.xcodeproj/Products folder to Link Binary With Libraries

Usage

Full example for Android and iOS.

Example

import Voice from '@react-native-community/voice';
import React, {Component} from 'react';

class VoiceTest extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    Voice.onSpeechStart = this.onSpeechStartHandler.bind(this);
    Voice.onSpeechEnd = this.onSpeechEndHandler.bind(this);
    Voice.onSpeechResults = this.onSpeechResultsHandler.bind(this);
  }
  onStartButtonPress(e){
    Voice.start('en-US');
  }
  ...
}

API

Static access to the Voice API.

All methods now return a new Promise for async/await compatibility.

Events

Callbacks that are invoked when a native event emitted.

Permissions

Arguably the most important part.

Android

While the included VoiceTest app works without explicit permissions checks and requests, it may be necessary to add a permission request for RECORD_AUDIO for some configurations. Since Android M (6.0), user need to grant permission at runtime (and not during app installation). By default, calling the startSpeech method will invoke RECORD AUDIO permission popup to the user. This can be disabled by passing REQUEST_PERMISSIONS_AUTO: true in the options argument.

If you're running an ejected expo/expokit app, you may run into issues with permissions on Android and get the following error host.exp.exponent.MainActivity cannot be cast to com.facebook.react.ReactActivity startSpeech. This can be resolved by prompting for permssion using the expo-permission package before starting recognition.

import { Permissions } from "expo";
async componentDidMount() {
	const { status, expires, permissions } = await Permissions.askAsync(
		Permissions.AUDIO_RECORDING
	);
	if (status !== "granted") {
		//Permissions not granted. Don't show the start recording button because it will cause problems if it's pressed.
		this.setState({showRecordButton: false});
	} else {
		this.setState({showRecordButton: true});
	}
}

iOS

Need to include permissions for NSMicrophoneUsageDescription and NSSpeechRecognitionUsageDescription inside Info.plist for iOS. See the included VoiceTest for how to handle these cases.

  ...
  NSMicrophoneUsageDescription
  Description of why you require the use of the microphone
  NSSpeechRecognitionUsageDescription
  Description of why you require the use of the speech recognition
  ...

Please see the documentation provided by ReactNative for this: PermissionsAndroid

Contributors

• @asafron
• @BrendanFDMoore
• @brudny
• @chitezh
• @ifsnow
• @jamsch
• @misino
• @Noitidart
• @ohtangza & @hayanmind
• @rudiedev6
• @tdonia
• @wenkesj