Android restarts on theme switch within Expo environment

[artyorsh]

Hi 👋 Thanks for the great work on this library and Expo support.

I'm sorry if I've missed something, but is it correct that Android completely restarts an app on a system theme switch while iOS is not forced to do this?

Related code:

const createAppearanceTheme = (appearance: ColorSchemeName, initialTheme: Theme): ColorSchemeName => {
  if (appearance === 'no-preference') {
    return preferredTheme;
  }
  return appearance;
};

export const useTheming = (initialTheme?: ColorSchemeName = 'no-preference') => {
  const deviceAppearance: ColorSchemeName = Appearance.getColorScheme();
  const deviceAppearanceTheme = createAppearanceTheme(deviceAppearance, preferredTheme);

  const [currentTheme, setCurrentTheme] = React.useState(deviceAppearanceTheme);

  React.useEffect(() => {
    const subscription = Appearance.addChangeListener((preferences: AppearancePreferences): void => {
      const appearanceTheme: ColorSchemeName = createAppearanceTheme(preferences.colorScheme, initialTheme);
      setCurrentTheme(appearanceTheme);
    });

    return () => subscription.remove();
  }, []);
};

Also "userInterfaceStyle": "automatic" in app.json

Which is followed by default configuration of usage docs

Demo

[DimitarNestorov]

@artyorsh After completing the configuration section in the README the app should not restart anymore: https://github.com/expo/react-native-appearance#configuration

[artyorsh]

@DimitarNestorov Thanks. That was helpful for bare react-native project. Can it be somehow handled in expo environment?

[DimitarNestorov]

Is it not? You might want to reopen in this case.

[artyorsh]

This solved my use-case. I was able to switch to Bare expo application and modify AndroidManifest. However, am I right that this issue is actual for regular Expo applications?

[summerkiflain]

@artyorsh I can confirm that this is not resolved for expo environment, Can you please reopen this issue with probably Expo written in the tittle.

[maitriyogin]

Hi, I'm getting the same issue.
I even tried removing appearance completely and went back to the barest of apps from an expo init ( sdk 37 ).
App restarts on a dark mode switch, not sure if this is an appearance bug?
/Stephen.

[dacevedo12]

Can confirm this still happens on the manager workflow. Maybe the shell app needs to be updated?

Also noticed that the expo client app is also affected

[anisimov74]

Same here