ScreenOrientation

Screen Orientation is defined as the orientation in which graphics are painted on the device. For example, the figure below has a device in a vertical and horizontal physical orientation, but a portrait screen orientation. For physical device orientation, see the orientation section of Device Motion.

Portrait orientation in different physical orientations

ScreenOrientation from expo allows changing supported screen orientations at runtime, and subscribing to orientation changes. This will take priority over the orientation key in app.json.

On both iOS and Android platforms, changes to the screen orientation will override any system settings or user preferences. On Android, it is possible to change the screen orientation while taking the user's preferred orientation into account. On iOS, user and system settings are not accessible by the application and any changes to the screen orientation will override existing settings.

Web support has limited support. For improved resize detection on mobile Safari, check out the docs on using Resize Observer in Expo web.

Platform Compatibility

Android Device	Android Emulator	iOS Device	iOS Simulator	Web

Installation

Terminal

→ npx expo install expo-screen-orientation

If you're installing this in a bare React Native app, you should also follow these additional installation instructions.

Warning

Apple added support for split view mode to iPads in iOS 9. This changed how the screen orientation is handled by the system. To put the matter shortly, for the iOS, your iPad is always in the landscape mode unless you open two applications side by side. In order to be able to lock screen orientation using this module you will need to disable support for this feature. For more information about the split view mode, check out the official Apple documentation.

Managed workflow

Open your app.json and add the following inside of the "expo" field:

{
  "expo": {
    ...
    "ios": {
      ...
      "requireFullScreen": true,
    }
  }
}

Bare workflow

Tick the Requires Full Screen checkbox in Xcode. It should be located under Project Target > General > Deployment Info.

API

import * as ScreenOrientation from 'expo-screen-orientation';

Methods

`ScreenOrientation.getOrientationAsync()`

Gets the current screen orientation.

Returns

Promise<Orientation>

Returns a promise that fulfils with an Orientation value that reflects the current screen orientation.

Error codes

ERR_SCREEN_ORIENTATION_GET_ORIENTATION_LOCK - Android Only. An unknown error occurred when trying to get the system lock.
ERR_SCREEN_ORIENTATION_MISSING_ACTIVITY - Android Only. Could not get the current activity.

`ScreenOrientation.getOrientationLockAsync()`

Gets the current screen orientation lock type.

Returns

Promise<OrientationLock>

Returns a promise which fulfils with an OrientationLock value.

Error codes

ERR_SCREEN_ORIENTATION_MISSING_ACTIVITY - Android Only. Could not get the current activity.

`ScreenOrientation.getPlatformOrientationLockAsync()`

Gets the platform specific screen orientation lock type.

Returns

Promise<PlatformOrientationInfo>

Returns a promise which fulfils with a PlatformOrientationInfo value.

Error codes

ERR_SCREEN_ORIENTATION_GET_PLATFORM_ORIENTATION_LOCK
ERR_SCREEN_ORIENTATION_MISSING_ACTIVITY - Android Only. Could not get the current activity.

`ScreenOrientation.lockAsync(orientationLock)`

Name	Type	Description
orientationLock	`OrientationLock`	The orientation lock to apply. See the `OrientationLock` enum for possible values.

Lock the screen orientation to a particular OrientationLock.

Example

async function changeScreenOrientation() {
  await ScreenOrientation.lockAsync(ScreenOrientation.OrientationLock.LANDSCAPE_LEFT);
}

Returns

Promise<void>

Returns a promise with void value, which fulfils when the orientation is set.

Error codes

ERR_SCREEN_ORIENTATION_INVALID_ORIENTATION_LOCK - An invalid OrientationLock was passed in.
ERR_SCREEN_ORIENTATION_UNSUPPORTED_ORIENTATION_LOCK - The platform does not support the orientation lock policy.
ERR_SCREEN_ORIENTATION_MISSING_ACTIVITY - Android Only. Could not get the current activity.

`ScreenOrientation.lockPlatformAsync(options)`

Name	Type	Description
options	`PlatformOrientationInfo`	The platform specific lock to apply. See the `PlatformOrientationInfo` object type for the different platform formats.

Returns

Promise<void>

Returns a promise with void value, resolving when the orientation is set and rejecting if an invalid option or value is passed.

Error codes

ERR_SCREEN_ORIENTATION_INVALID_ORIENTATION_LOCK - iOS Only. An invalid OrientationLock was passed in.
ERR_SCREEN_ORIENTATION_UNSUPPORTED_ORIENTATION_LOCK - The platform does not support the orientation lock policy.
ERR_SCREEN_ORIENTATION_MISSING_ACTIVITY - Android Only. Could not get the current activity.

`ScreenOrientation.supportsOrientationLockAsync(orientationLock)`

Name	Type	Description
orientationLock	`OrientationLock`	-

Returns whether the OrientationLock policy is supported on the device.

Returns

Promise<boolean>

Returns a promise that resolves to a boolean value that reflects whether or not the orientationLock is supported.

`ScreenOrientation.unlockAsync()`

Sets the screen orientation back to the OrientationLock.DEFAULT policy.

Returns

Promise<void>

Returns a promise with void value, which fulfils when the orientation is set.

Error codes

ERR_SCREEN_ORIENTATION_MISSING_ACTIVITY - Android Only. Could not get the current activity.

Event Subscriptions

`ScreenOrientation.addOrientationChangeListener(listener)`

Name	Type	Description
listener	`OrientationChangeListener`	Each orientation update will pass an object with the new `OrientationChangeEvent` to the listener.

Invokes the listener function when the screen orientation changes from portrait to landscape or from landscape to portrait. For example, it won't be invoked when screen orientation change from portrait up to portrait down, but it will be called when there was a change from portrait up to landscape left.

Returns

Subscription

`ScreenOrientation.removeOrientationChangeListener(subscription)`

Name	Type	Description
subscription	`Subscription`	A subscription object that manages the updates passed to a listener function on an orientation change.

Unsubscribes the listener associated with the Subscription object from all orientation change updates.

Returns

void

`ScreenOrientation.removeOrientationChangeListeners()`

Removes all listeners subscribed to orientation change updates.

Returns

void

Types

`OrientationChangeEvent`

Name	Type	Description
orientationInfo	`ScreenOrientationInfo`	The current `ScreenOrientationInfo` of the device.
orientationLock	`OrientationLock`	The current `OrientationLock` of the device.

`OrientationChangeListener()`

Name	Type	Description
event	`OrientationChangeEvent`	-

`PlatformOrientationInfo`

Name	Type	Description
screenOrientationArrayIOS (optional)	`Orientation[]`	Only for: iOS An array of orientations to allow on the iOS platform.
screenOrientationConstantAndroid (optional)	`number`	Only for: Android A constant to set using the Android native API. For example, in order to set the lock policy to unspecified, `-1` should be passed in.
screenOrientationLockWeb (optional)	`WebOrientationLock`	Only for: Web A web orientation lock to apply in the browser.

`ScreenOrientationInfo`

Name	Type	Description
horizontalSizeClass (optional)	`SizeClassIOS`	Only for: iOS The horizontal size class of the device.
orientation	`Orientation`	The current orientation of the device.
verticalSizeClass (optional)	`SizeClassIOS`	Only for: iOS The vertical size class of the device.

`Subscription`

Name	Type	Description
remove	`() => void`	A method to unsubscribe the listener.

Enums

`Orientation`

`UNKNOWN`

Orientation.UNKNOWN ＝ 0

An unknown screen orientation. For example, the device is flat, perhaps on a table.

`PORTRAIT_UP`

Orientation.PORTRAIT_UP ＝ 1

Right-side up portrait interface orientation.

`PORTRAIT_DOWN`

Orientation.PORTRAIT_DOWN ＝ 2

Upside down portrait interface orientation.

`LANDSCAPE_LEFT`

Orientation.LANDSCAPE_LEFT ＝ 3

Left landscape interface orientation.

`LANDSCAPE_RIGHT`

Orientation.LANDSCAPE_RIGHT ＝ 4

Right landscape interface orientation.

`OrientationLock`

An enum whose values can be passed to the lockAsync method.

Note: OrientationLock.ALL and OrientationLock.PORTRAIT are invalid on devices which don't support OrientationLock.PORTRAIT_DOWN.

Code	Description
ERR_SCREEN_ORIENTATION_UNSUPPORTED_ORIENTATION_LOCK	The platform does not support the `OrientationLock` policy.
ERR_SCREEN_ORIENTATION_INVALID_ORIENTATION_LOCK	An invalid `OrientationLock` was passed in.
ERR_SCREEN_ORIENTATION_GET_ORIENTATION_LOCK	Android Only. An unknown error occurred when trying to get the orientation lock.
ERR_SCREEN_ORIENTATION_GET_PLATFORM_ORIENTATION_LOCK	Android Only. An unknown error occurred when trying to get the platform orientation lock.
ERR_SCREEN_ORIENTATION_MISSING_ACTIVITY	Android Only. Could not get the current activity.