React Native Simple Biometrics

A simple and straight forward API to ask a user to authenticate with on device biometrics. This can be used to quickly verify if the app is being used by the owner of the phone (or a trustee) before showing some sensitive info.

Getting started

$ yarn add react-native-simple-biometrics

minimum versions

iOS target: 8.0
Android minSdkVersion: 21

iOS permission

It is required to add an entry in your ios app's info.plist giving a valid reason to use the phones face ID system.

<key>NSFaceIDUsageDescription</key>
<string>a valid reason to use biometrics</string>

Calling the authenticate function will automatically ask iOS users for the permission. For more control over when to ask permissions, use react-native-permissions

Usage

Only 2 methods are exposed

canAuthenticate()
requestBioAuth(promptTitle: string, promptMessage: string)

import RNBiometrics from "react-native-simple-biometrics";

// this will be false if
// - no biometrics hardware
// - permission was denied for face ID (iOS only)
const can = await RNBiometrics.canAuthenticate();

if (can) {
  try {
    await RNBiometrics.requestBioAuth("prompt-title", "prompt-message");
    // stuff to do when authenticated
    // ...
  } catch (error) {
    // stuff to do when auth failed
    // ...
  }
}

credits