Skip to content
react-native-unistyles

Theming

Theming guide

Theming in Unistyles differs from other libraries as it doesn’t impose any specific syntax.

Any JavaScript object can be a Unistyles theme.

There is also no limit to the number of themes. You can even register dozens of them eg. when you needs to support some premium ones.

Theming is optional. If you dont’t register themes with StyleSheet.configure the library will use an empty object by default.

Create a theme

You can organize your themes however you want:

const myTheme = {
    // any keys
    colors: {
        // your colors
    },
    components: {
        // any number of nesting
        button: {
            deepKey: {}
        }
    },
    utils: {
        // you can even use functions here
        hexToRGBA: () => {}
    },
    // or compute your themes with functions and spread operators
    ...premiumFeatures,
    ...getMyColors()
}

If you use TypeScript you need to override the library’s type:

type AppThemes = {
  name: typeof myTheme
}


declare module 'react-native-unistyles' {
  export interface UnistylesThemes extends AppThemes {}
}

Finally, to register the theme, you need to call StyleSheet.configure:

import { StyleSheet } from 'react-native-unistyles'
import { myTheme } from './themes'


StyleSheet.configure({
    themes: {
        name: myTheme,
        // you can add more themes here
    }
})

Where name is the unique name of your theme.

Select theme

If you’ve registered more than one theme, Unistyles won’t know which one is the initial one. At this point, you have 3 options:

StyleSheet.configure({
    settings: {
        initialTheme: 'premium'
    }
})
  • If you need to resolve the user-selected theme during runtime, use a synchronous function:
StyleSheet.configure({
    settings: {
        initialTheme: () =>  {
            // get preferred theme from user's preferences/MMKV/SQL etc.
            return storage.getString('preferredTheme') ?? 'light'
        }
    }
})
  • Use adaptive themes, which are described below

Get the current theme

To get the current theme you can access it in the StyleSheet.create function:

const styles = StyleSheet.create(theme => ({
    ...
}))

Other, discouraged way is to access it in the hook useUnistyles:

import { useUnistyles } from 'react-native-unistyles'


const MyComponent = () => {
    const { theme } = useUnistyles()


    return (
        <Text>
            My theme is {theme.colors.primary}
        </Text>
    )
}

Get the current theme name

To get the current theme name, import UnistylesRuntime:

import { UnistylesRuntime } from 'react-native-unistyles'


// access the current theme name in your component
export const UserTheme = () => (
    <Text>
        Selected theme is {UnistylesRuntime.themeName}
    </Text>
)

Adaptive themes

Adaptive themes allow Unistyles to automatically manage the selection of your themes based on device color scheme settings. To enable this, you need to meet two conditions:

  • register two themes with reserved names light and dark:
StyleSheet.configure({
    themes: {
        light: lightTheme,
        dark: darkTheme,
        // you may have more themes
    }
})
  • Explicitly enable adaptiveThemes:
StyleSheet.configure({
    themes: {
        light: lightTheme,
        dark: darkTheme
    },
    settings: {
        adaptiveThemes: true
    }
})

Toggle adaptive themes during runtime

To toggle adaptive theme support at any point, use UnistylesRuntime:

import { UnistylesRuntime } from 'react-native-unistyles'


// toggle support for adaptive themes at any point
export const ToggleAdaptiveThemes = () => (
    <Button
        title="Disable adaptive themes"
        onPress={() => UnistylesRuntime.setAdaptiveThemes(false)}
    />
)

With disabled adaptive themes, you can now change the theme.

Check if adaptive themes are enabled

To check if adaptive themes are enabled, again use UnistylesRuntime:

import { UnistylesRuntime } from 'react-native-unistyles'


// check if you've enabled adaptive themes
export const AdaptiveThemes = () => (
    <Text>
        Adaptive themes are {UnistylesRuntime.hasAdaptiveThemes ? 'enabled' : 'disabled'}
    </Text>
)

Get device color scheme

Check your device color preference with UnistylesRuntime:

import { UnistylesRuntime } from 'react-native-unistyles'


// check the current device scheme preference
export const UserTheme = () => (
    <Text>
        My device is using the {UnistylesRuntime.colorScheme} scheme.
    </Text>
)

Available options are: dark, light or unspecified for devices that don’t support color schemes.

If your app’s theme is not changing based on device settings, please refer to the FAQ

Change theme

To change the theme at any time, simply call setTheme function:

import { UnistylesRuntime } from 'react-native-unistyles'


// change the theme in any component
export const ChangeTheme = () => (
    <Button
        title="Change theme"
        onPress={() => UnistylesRuntime.setTheme('dark')}
    />
)

Update theme during runtime

Unistyles allows you to update your theme during runtime. This is useful if you want to show the user interface with default colors and later alter theme based on user preferences.

If you update the currently selected theme, it will be automatically applied, and Unistyles will notify all stylesheets about the change. Otherwise, theme will be updated silently.

To update the theme during runtime, call updateTheme function, and return new theme object:

import { UnistylesRuntime } from 'react-native-unistyles'


// update the theme at any time
export const UpdateTheme = ({ selectedColors }) => (
    <Button
        title="Update theme"
        onPress={() => UnistylesRuntime.updateTheme('dark', currentTheme => ({
            ...currentTheme,
            colors: {
                ...currentTheme.colors,
                ...selectedColors
            }
        }))}
    />
)

Update rootView background color during runtime

You can also change dynamically the root view background color with UnistylesRuntime:

import { UnistylesRuntime } from 'react-native-unistyles'


// update the theme at any time
export const UpdateTheme = ({ selectedColors }) => (
    <Button
        title="Update theme"
        onPress={() => UnistylesRuntime.setRootViewBackgroundColor(theme.colors.primary)}
    />
)

Changing rootView background color is useful when your app supports different orientations and you want to match the background color with your theme while transitioning.