How to Add a Native Rich Text Editor in Expo / React Native (No WebView)

Rich text editing in React Native has always been tricky — especially when you want native performance instead of relying on WebViews. Most available libraries work great for the web, but fall short on mobile.

That’s where [expo-rte](https://github.com/mdadul/expo-rte) comes in.
It’s a pure native rich text editor for Expo and React Native, built using expo-modules, Kotlin, and Swift. No WebView. Fully cross-platform.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to install, set up, and customize expo-rte in your app.

Why expo-rte?

• Pure native UI — smooth scrolling, native gestures, no WebView overhead.

• Cross-platform — works on both iOS and Android.

• Feature-rich — bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, bullet lists, numbered lists, undo/redo, and more.

• Customizable — configure toolbar layout, button density, and styles.

This guide will walk you through installing and using it in your Expo or React Native project.

Install expo-rte

Run:

npm install expo-rte
# or
yarn add expo-rte

Since it’s a native module, you’ll need to run a development build (Expo Go won’t work):

npx expo run:ios
npx expo run:android

Add the Editor to Your App

Create a simple editor screen:

import React, { useRef } from 'react';
import { View } from 'react-native';
import { RichTextEditor, RichTextEditorRef } from 'expo-rte';

export default function App() {
    const editorRef = useRef<RichTextEditorRef>(null);
    const handleChange = ({ nativeEvent }) => {
        console.log('Content:', nativeEvent.content);
    };
    return (
        <View style={{ flex: 1, padding: 20 }}>
            <RichTextEditor
                ref={editorRef}
                content="

                Start typing...

                "
                placeholder="Enter your text here..."
                onChange={handleChange}
                style={{ height: 300 }}    
        />

    );
}

Customize the Toolbar

expo-rte lets you control which formatting options appear.

import { ToolbarConfig } from 'expo-rte';

const toolbarConfig: ToolbarConfig = {
  adaptive: true,
  density: 'comfortable',
  scrollable: true,
  groupButtons: true,
  buttons: [
    { type: 'bold', icon: 'B', label: 'Bold', group: 'format' },
    { type: 'italic', icon: 'I', label: 'Italic', group: 'format' },
    { type: 'underline', icon: 'U', label: 'Underline', group: 'format' },
    { type: 'bullet', icon: '•', label: 'Bullet List', group: 'list' },
    { type: 'numbered', icon: '1.', label: 'Numbered List', group: 'list' },
    { type: 'undo', icon: '↶', label: 'Undo', group: 'action' },
    { type: 'redo', icon: '↷', label: 'Redo', group: 'action' },
  ],
};

Pass it into your editor:

<RichTextEditor toolbarConfig={toolbarConfig} />

Control the Editor Programmatically

With a ref, you can:

editorRef.current?.setContent('<p>New content</p>');
const html = await editorRef.current?.getContent();
editorRef.current?.undo();
editorRef.current?.redo();

Troubleshooting

• Editor not showing? Make sure you’re using a development build.

• Buttons not working? Check your toolbarConfig.

• Performance issues? Enable adaptive: true in the toolbar config.

Conclusion: With expo-rte, you can add a native rich text editor to your Expo/React Native app—no WebView required. It’s fast, customizable, and works across iOS and Android.

📌 Full docs & source code: github.com/mdadul/expo-rte