---
modificationDate: December 17, 2025
title: Configuring lifecycle listeners
description: Learn about the mechanism that allows the Expo Modules API to hook into the lifecycle of your app.
---

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# Configuring lifecycle listeners

Learn about the mechanism that allows the Expo Modules API to hook into the lifecycle of your app.

> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). Use this file to discover all available pages.

Some Expo libraries need to handle system events such as deep links, push notifications, and configuration changes by implementing `Activity`/`Application` or `AppDelegate` lifecycle callbacks.

The Expo Modules API provides an easy way to manage such callbacks:

-   Android `ApplicationLifecycleDispatcher` and `ReactActivityHandler` forward `Application` and `Activity` lifecycle events to registered listeners. Modules can provide `ReactActivityLifecycleListener` and `ApplicationLifecycleListener` implementations through a `Package` class to register callbacks.
-   iOS `ExpoAppDelegate` forwards `AppDelegate` calls to registered subscribers. Modules can provide an `ExpoAppDelegateSubscriber` implementation to register callbacks.

Using these mechanisms allows modules to register behavior without requiring you to edit native entry points repeatedly.

## Configure your native project

### Android

To integrate `Application` lifecycle listeners on Android, forward the `onCreate()` and `onConfigurationChanged()` calls from your `Application` class to `ApplicationLifecycleDispatcher`:

### iOS

To integrate `AppDelegate` subscribers on iOS, forward the relevant calls to `ExpoAppDelegateSubscriberManager` in your existing `AppDelegate` implementation so that subscribers can respond to them:

Alternatively, if your `AppDelegate` doesn't already extend another class, you can simplify the setup by inheriting from `ExpoAppDelegate`, which handles the forwarding automatically:

> **Note:** Not all `UIApplicationDelegate` methods that could cause significant side effects are supported. See the Expo source (**ExpoAppDelegate.swift**) for the full list of forwarded methods if you need to rely on a specific delegate.

## Test your integration

To test if the callbacks are working correctly, install a module that relies on them. Install `expo-linking`, which uses lifecycle listeners to handle deep links:

```sh
npx expo install expo-linking
```

Add a listener for deep links in your code and observe the console when opening a deep link:

```jsx
import * as Linking from 'expo-linking';
import { useEffect } from 'react';

useEffect(() => {
  const listener = Linking.addEventListener('url', ({ url }) => {
    console.log('Received deep link:', url);
  });

  return listener.remove;
}, []);
```

Run the following command to open a deep link to your app:

```sh
npx uri-scheme open com.example.app://somepath/details --android
npx uri-scheme open myapp://somepath/details --ios
```