How to Set Up an App for Android TV and Apple TV Using React Native.
Introduction
Smart TVs have revolutionized home entertainment, offering access to streaming, gaming, and interactive apps. With billions of devices in use, the global smart TV market is rapidly expanding, fueling the growth of TV apps like Netflix and Disney+. These apps now cover a broad range of categories, including gaming, fitness, and shopping.
For developers, this surge presents a valuable opportunity. Platforms like Android TV and Apple TV offer robust tools for building apps tailored to large screens and remote navigation. React Native has become a popular choice, enabling cross-platform development with reusable code across both devices.
Importance of React Native for cross-platform TV app development.
React Native plays a critical role in cross-platform TV app development by enabling developers to build apps for both Android TV and Apple TV with a shared codebase. This reduces development time and effort while ensuring consistency across platforms. Its flexibility allows for seamless adaptation to TV-specific requirements, such as remote navigation and UI scaling for larger screens.
Additionally, React Native’s vast ecosystem of libraries and community support enables developers to integrate advanced features like video playback, remote control navigation, and focus management seamlessly. This makes it a powerful tool for delivering high-quality TV apps across platforms, ensuring a consistent user experience.
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of React Native.
Android Studio for Android TV development.
Xcode for Apple TV (tvOS) development.
Node.js and npm installed on your machine.
React Native CLI or Expo.
Setting Up Your React Native Project
Install React Native using the CLI or Expo: npx react-native init MyTVApp
Adding Support for Android TV and Apple TV (tvOS).
To set up your React Native project for both Android TV and Apple TV, you’ll need to install the react-native-tvos package. In your package.json, update the React Native version to ensure compatibility with TV platforms.
Note: Releases of react-native-tvos will be based on a public release of react-native; e.g. the 0.75.2-0 release of this package will be derived from the 0.75.0 release of react-native. All releases of this will follow the 0.xx.x-y format, where x digits are from a specific RN core release, and y represents the additional versioning from react-native-tvos repo.
This ensures that your project uses the tvOS-compatible version of React Native, enabling support for both Android TV and Apple TV development.
Now that the Android TV setup is complete, let’s move on to the steps for setting up Apple TV.
To set up Apple TV (tvOS), open your Podfile and make the following modifications:
Set the platform for tvOS:
platform :tvos, ‘13.4’
Enable Fabric for tvOS:
:fabric_enabled => true
In the next step, open your Xcode project and update the target settings:
Change the Destination Target: a. Go to the Project Navigator in Xcode. b. Select your project, then navigate to the Targets section. c. Under the General tab, locate Supported Destinations and change the destination target to Apple TV by selecting tvOS.
Remove Other Targets (if applicable): a. In the same Targets section, you can remove any other unnecessary targets by right-clicking and selecting Delete (for platforms like iOS if not needed).
Now, follow these steps to create a new file for the launch screen in your Apple TV (tvOS) project:
Select LaunchScreen:
a. In Xcode’s Project Navigator, select the LaunchScreen.storyboard file.
Create a New File:
a. Right-click on LaunchScreen.storyboard.
b. Click on New File.
Choose the File Type:
a.Select User Interface under the tvOS section.
b.Choose Storyboard and click Next.
Name the File:
Name your new file (e.g., LaunchScreen.storyboard), and click Create.
Now, to adjust the build script settings for your tvOS target in Xcode:
Open Build Settings: a. In Xcode, select your project from the Project Navigator. b. Go to the Targets section and select your Apple TV (tvOS) target.
Search for Build Script: a. Navigate to the Build Settings tab. b. In the search bar at the top right, type “Build Script”.
Set Build Script to NO: a. Locate the ‘Run Build Script Phase in Parallel’ option and change it to NO.
To run your app on the tvOS Simulator, follow these steps:
Open the Scheme Menu: a. In Xcode, locate the scheme menu at the top of the workspace window. It’s usually next to the “Run” button and displays the current scheme and target device.
Select tvOS Simulator: a. Click on the scheme menu to open the drop-down list. b. Under the Destination section, choose tvOS Simulator. c. Select a specific tvOS Simulator device (e.g., Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD) from the available options.
This will configure Xcode to build and run your app on the selected tvOS Simulator, allowing you to test your Apple TV app.
To run your project, follow these steps:
Open Terminal:
a. Navigate to your project location in the terminal.
Install Dependencies: a. Run yarn or npm install
Navigate to iOS Folder using command: cd ios
Install CocoaPods Dependencies: a. Run the following command to install the iOS dependencies b. pod install
Return to Project Root: a. Go back to the project root directory: cd ..
Start the Development Server: a. Use Yarn or npm to start the development server: b. Run your TV Simulator and AndroidTV Amulator. i. yarn start or ii. npm start This will start the React Native development server, allowing you to run and test your app on the tvOS Simulator or an Apple TV device.
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