Reference version

This is documentation for the next SDK version. For up-to-date documentation, see the latest version (SDK 53).

A web standards-compliant Blob implementation for React Native.

Android
iOS
Web

expo-blob provides a web standards-compliant Blob implementation for React Native that offers superior performance and works consistently across all platforms. It is more reliable compared to the implementation exported from react-native, unlike Blob from react-native, which has limitations with the slice() method and other Web API features.

Installation

Terminal
npx expo install expo-blob

If you are installing this in an existing React Native app, make sure to install expo in your project.

Usage

Basic blob creation

import { Blob } from 'expo-blob'; // Create an empty blob const emptyBlob = new Blob(); // Create a blob from text const textBlob = new Blob(['Hello, World!'], { type: 'text/plain' }); // Create a blob from binary data const binaryBlob = new Blob([new Uint8Array([1, 2, 3, 4])], { type: 'application/octet-stream', }); // Create a blob from mixed content const mixedBlob = new Blob( [ 'Text content', new Uint8Array([65, 66, 67]), // ABC in ASCII 'More text', ], { type: 'text/plain' } );

Blob properties

const blob = new Blob(['Hello, World!'], { type: 'text/plain' }); console.log(blob.size); // 13 (bytes) console.log(blob.type); // "text/plain"

Reading blob content

const blob = new Blob(['Hello, World!'], { type: 'text/plain' }); // Read as text const text = await blob.text(); console.log(text); // "Hello, World!" // Read as bytes const bytes = await blob.bytes(); console.log(bytes); // Uint8Array(13) [72, 101, 108, 108, 111, 44, 32, 87, 111, 114, 108, 100, 33] // Read as ArrayBuffer const arrayBuffer = await blob.arrayBuffer(); console.log(arrayBuffer); // ArrayBuffer(13)

Slicing blobs

const blob = new Blob(['Hello, World!'], { type: 'text/plain' }); // Slice from position 0 to 5 const slice1 = blob.slice(0, 5); console.log(await slice1.text()); // "Hello" // Slice from position 7 to end const slice2 = blob.slice(7); console.log(await slice2.text()); // "World!" // Slice with custom type const slice3 = blob.slice(0, 5, 'text/html'); console.log(slice3.type); // "text/html"

Streaming

const blob = new Blob(['Large content...'], { type: 'text/plain' }); // Create a readable stream const stream = blob.stream(); const reader = stream.getReader(); // Read chunks while (true) { const { done, value } = await reader.read(); if (done) break; console.log('Chunk:', value); }

API

Classes

Blob

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Web

Blob Properties

size

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Read Only • Type: number

The size of the Blob in bytes.

type

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Read Only • Type: string

The MIME type of the Blob, or the empty string if the type cannot be determined.

Blob Methods

arrayBuffer()

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Web

Promise resolving to the Blob's binary data as an ArrayBuffer.

bytes()

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Web

Promise resolving to the Blob's binary data as a Uint8Array.

slice(start, end, contentType)

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Web
ParameterTypeDescription
start(optional)number

The starting byte index (inclusive) represented as a signed 32 bit integer (up to 2^31 - 1).

end(optional)number

The ending byte index (exclusive) represented as a signed 32 bit integer (up to 2^31 - 1).

contentType(optional)string

The MIME type of the new Blob. If not provided, defaults to an empty string.


Returns:
Blob

A new Blob object containing the data in the specified range of bytes of the source Blob.

stream()

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Web

Note: The current implementation loads the entire Blob into memory before streaming.

A ReadableStream of the Blob's data.

text()

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Web
Returns:
Promise<string>

Promise that resolves with the entire contents of the Blob as a UTF-8 string.

Types

BlobPart

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Web

Literal Type: union

Represents a part of a Blob. Can be a string, ArrayBuffer, ArrayBufferView, or another Blob.

Acceptable values are: string | ArrayBuffer | ArrayBufferView | Blob