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Overview

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Requirements

• A managed Expo app. For bare React Native apps, see React Native SDK setup.
• Expo SDK 48+ (instructions use version 52.0.43)
• EAS CLI (EAS Build documentation)
• React Native 0.71+ (instructions use version 0.78.2)
• Configured OneSignal app and platform

iOS Requirements

• macOS with Xcode 14+ (setup instructions use Xcode 16.2)
• Device with iOS 12+, iPadOS 12+, or Xcode simulator running iOS 16.2+
• CocoaPods 1.16.2+

Android Requirements

• Android 7.0+ device or emulator with Google Play Store (Services) installed

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Configure your OneSignal app and platform

Required setup for push notifications

To start sending push notifications with OneSignal, you must first configure your OneSignal app with all the platforms your support—Apple (APNs), Google (FCM), Huawei (HMS), and/or Amazon (ADM).

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SDK setup

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1. Add SDK

Install the OneSignal Expo plugin using the Expo CLI.

npx expo install onesignal-expo-plugin 

Add the react-native-onesignal package to your project.

  npm install --save react-native-onesignal

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2. Configure the plugin

Open your app.json (or app.config.js). In the plugins array, you should see "onesignal-expo-plugin". Configure the desired plugin props:

  {
    "expo": {
      "ios": {
        "bundleIdentifier": "com.yourcompany.yourapp", // ✅ Required for iOS builds
        "infoPlist": {
          "UIBackgroundModes": ["remote-notification"] // ✅ Required for push notifications
        },
        "entitlements": {
          "aps-environment": "development", // ✅ Required for push notification, change to "production" for Testflight and App Store builds
          "com.apple.security.application-groups": [
            "group.${ios.bundleIdentifier}.onesignal" // // ✅ Required for confirmed delivery
          ]
        }
      },
      "android": {
        "package": "com.yourcompany.yourapp" // ✅ Required for Android builds
      },
      "plugins": [
        [
          "onesignal-expo-plugin",
          {
            "mode": "development"
          }
        ]
      ]
    }
  }

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3. Initialize SDK

Depending on your Expo structure (Traditional App entry or Expo Router), initialize OneSignal following these options.

import React, { useEffect } from 'react';
// Include the OneSignal package
import { OneSignal, LogLevel } from 'react-native-onesignal';

export default function App(): React.JSX.Element {
  // Initialize OneSignal in useEffect to ensure it runs only once
  useEffect(() => {
  // Enable verbose logging for debugging (remove in production)
  OneSignal.Debug.setLogLevel(LogLevel.Verbose);
  // Initialize with your OneSignal App ID
  OneSignal.initialize('YOUR_APP_ID');
  // Use this method to prompt for push notifications.
  // We recommend removing this method after testing and instead use In-App Messages to prompt for notification permission.
  OneSignal.Notifications.requestPermission(false);
  }, []); // Ensure this only runs once on app mount

  return (
    // Your app's root component
  );
}

import React, { useEffect } from 'react';
// Include the OneSignal package
import { OneSignal, LogLevel } from 'react-native-onesignal';

export default function App(): React.JSX.Element {
  // Initialize OneSignal in useEffect to ensure it runs only once
  useEffect(() => {
  // Enable verbose logging for debugging (remove in production)
  OneSignal.Debug.setLogLevel(LogLevel.Verbose);
  // Initialize with your OneSignal App ID
  OneSignal.initialize('YOUR_APP_ID');
  // Use this method to prompt for push notifications.
  // We recommend removing this method after testing and instead use In-App Messages to prompt for notification permission.
  OneSignal.Notifications.requestPermission(false);
  }, []); // Ensure this only runs once on app mount

  return (
    // Your app's root component
  );
}

import React, {useEffect} from 'react';
// Include the OneSignal package
import {OneSignal, LogLevel} from 'react-native-onesignal';

export default function RootLayout() {
  // Initialize OneSignal in useEffect to ensure it runs only once
  useEffect(() => {
    // Enable verbose logging for debugging (remove in production)
    OneSignal.Debug.setLogLevel(LogLevel.Verbose);
    // Initialize with your OneSignal App ID
    OneSignal.initialize('YOUR_APP_ID');
    // Use this method to prompt for push notifications.
    // We recommend removing this method after testing and instead use In-App Messages to prompt for notification permission.
    OneSignal.Notifications.requestPermission(false);
  }, []); // Ensure this only runs once on app mount

  return (
    // Your app's root component
  );
}

​

Android setup

Make sure your OneSignal app is configured for the Android platform using your Firebase credentials.

Set up your notification icons to match your app’s branding. If this step is skipped, a default bell icon will display for your push notifications.

Build for Android

At this point, you should be able to build and run your app on a physical Android device or emulator without issues.

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iOS setup

Make sure your OneSignal app is configured for the iOS platform using either the p8 Token (Recommended) or p12 Certificate.

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Build for iOS

You should now be able to build and run your app on a real iOS device or iOS simulator (16.2+).

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Common iOS build errors

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Testing the OneSignal SDK integration

This guide helps you verify that your OneSignal SDK integration is working correctly by testing push notifications, subscription registration, and in-app messaging.

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Check mobile subscriptions

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Set up test subscriptions

Test subscriptions are helpful for testing a push notification before sending a message.

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Send test push via API

curl -X \
POST --url 'https://api.onesignal.com/notifications' \
 --header 'content-type: application/json; charset=utf-8' \
 --header 'authorization: Key YOUR_APP_API_KEY' \
 --data \
 '{
  "app_id": "YOUR_APP_ID",
  "target_channel": "push",
  "name": "Testing basic setup",
  "headings": {
  	"en": "👋"
  },
  "contents": {
    "en": "Hello world!"
  },
  "included_segments": [
    "Test Users"
  ],
  "ios_attachments": {
    "onesignal_logo": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/11823027?s=200&v=4"
  },
  "big_picture": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/11823027?s=200&v=4"
}'

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Send an in-app message

In-app messages let you communicate with users while they are using your app.

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User identification

Previously, we demonstrated how to create mobile Subscriptions. Now we’ll expand to identifying Users across all their subscriptions (including push, email, and SMS) using the OneSignal SDK. We’ll cover External IDs, tags, multi-channel subscriptions, privacy, and event tracking to help you unify and engage users across platforms.

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Assign External ID

Use an External ID to identify users consistently across devices, email addresses, and phone numbers using your backend’s user identifier. This ensures your messaging stays unified across channels and 3rd party systems (especially important for Integrations).

Set the External ID with our SDK’s login method each time they are identified by your app.

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Add data tags

Tags are key-value pairs of string data you can use to store user properties (like username, role, or preferences) and events (like purchase_date, game_level, or user interactions). Tags power advanced Message Personalization and Segmentation allowing for more advanced use cases.

Set tags with our SDK addTag and addTags methods as events occur in your app.

In this example, the user reached level 6 identifiable by the tag called current_level set to a value of 6.

We can create a segment of users that have a level of between 5 and 10, and use that to send targeted and personalized messages:

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Add email and/or SMS subscriptions

Earlier we saw how our SDK creates mobile subscriptions to send push and in-app messages. You can also reach users through emails and SMS channels by creating the corresponding subscriptions.

• Use the addEmail method to create email subscriptions.
• Use the addSms method to create SMS subscriptions.

If the email address and/or phone number already exist in the OneSignal app, the SDK will add it to the existing user, it will not create duplicates.

You can view unified users via Audience > Users in the dashboard or with the View user API.

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Privacy & user consent

To control when OneSignal collects user data, use the SDK’s consent gating methods:

• setConsentRequired(true): Prevents data collection until consent is given.
• setConsentGiven(true): Enables data collection once consent is granted.

See our Privacy & security docs for more on:

• Data collected by the SDK
• Handling personal data

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Prompt for push permissions

Instead of calling requestPermission() immediately on app open, take a more strategic approach. Use an in-app message to explain the value of push notifications before requesting permission.

For best practices and implementation details, see our Prompt for push permissions guide.

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Listen to push, user, and in-app events

Use SDK listeners to react to user actions and state changes.

The SDK provides several event listeners for you to hook into. See our SDK reference guide for more details.

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Push notification events

• addClickListener(): Detect when a notification is tapped. Helpful for Deep Linking.
• addForegroundLifecycleListener(): Control how notifications behave in foreground.

For full customization, see Mobile Service Extensions.

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User state changes

• addObserver() for user state: Detect when the External ID is set.
• addPermissionObserver(): Track the user’s specific interaction with the native push permission prompt.
• addObserver() for push subscription: Track when the push subscription status changes.

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In-app message events

• addClickListener(): Handle in-app click actions. Ideal for deep linking or tracking events.
• addLifecycleListener(): Track full lifecycle of in-app messages (shown, clicked, dismissed, etc.).

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Advanced setup & capabilities

Explore more capabilities to enhance your integration:

• 🔁 Migrating to OneSignal from another service
• 🌍 Location tracking
• 🔗 Deep Linking
• 🔌 Integrations
• 🧩 Mobile Service Extensions
• 🛎️ Action buttons
• 🌐 Multi-language messaging
• 🛡️ Identity Verification
• 📊 Custom Outcomes
• 📲 Live Activities

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Mobile SDK setup & reference

Make sure you’ve enabled all key features by reviewing the Mobile push setup guide.

For full details on available methods and configuration options, visit the Mobile SDK reference.