A Flutter plugin for iOS and Android for picking images from the image library, and taking new pictures with the camera.
First, add image_picker
as a dependency in your pubspec.yaml file.
This plugin requires iOS 9.0 or higher.
Starting with version 0.8.1 the iOS implementation uses PHPicker to pick (multiple) images on iOS 14 or higher. As a result of implementing PHPicker it becomes impossible to pick HEIC images on the iOS simulator in iOS 14+. This is a known issue. Please test this on a real device, or test with non-HEIC images until Apple solves this issue. 63426347 - Apple known issue
Add the following keys to your Info.plist file, located in <project root>/ios/Runner/Info.plist
:
NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription
- describe why your app needs permission for the photo library. This is called Privacy - Photo Library Usage Description in the visual editor.NSCameraUsageDescription
- describe why your app needs access to the camera. This is called Privacy - Camera Usage Description in the visual editor.NSMicrophoneUsageDescription
- describe why your app needs access to the microphone, if you intend to record videos. This is called Privacy - Microphone Usage Description in the visual editor.
Starting with version 0.8.1 the Android implementation support to pick (multiple) images on Android 4.3 or higher.
No configuration required - the plugin should work out of the box. It is however highly recommended to prepare for Android killing the application when low on memory. How to prepare for this is discussed in the Handling MainActivity destruction on Android section.
It is no longer required to add android:requestLegacyExternalStorage="true"
as an attribute to the <application>
tag in AndroidManifest.xml, as image_picker
has been updated to make use of scoped storage.
Note: Images and videos picked using the camera are saved to your application's local cache, and should therefore be expected to only be around temporarily. If you require your picked image to be stored permanently, it is your responsibility to move it to a more permanent location.
import 'package:image_picker/image_picker.dart';
...
final ImagePicker _picker = ImagePicker();
// Pick an image
final XFile? image = await _picker.pickImage(source: ImageSource.gallery);
// Capture a photo
final XFile? photo = await _picker.pickImage(source: ImageSource.camera);
// Pick a video
final XFile? image = await _picker.pickVideo(source: ImageSource.gallery);
// Capture a video
final XFile? video = await _picker.pickVideo(source: ImageSource.camera);
// Pick multiple images
final List<XFile>? images = await _picker.pickMultiImage();
...
When under high memory pressure the Android system may kill the MainActivity of
the application using the image_picker. On Android the image_picker makes use
of the default Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT
or MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE
intents. This means that while the intent is executing the source application
is moved to the background and becomes eligable for cleanup when the system is
low on memory. When the intent finishes executing, Android will restart the
application. Since the data is never returned to the original call use the
ImagePicker.retrieveLostData()
method to retrieve the lost data. For example:
Future<void> getLostData() async {
final LostDataResponse response =
await picker.retrieveLostData();
if (response.isEmpty) {
return;
}
if (response.files != null) {
for (final XFile file in response.files) {
_handleFile(file);
}
} else {
_handleError(response.exception);
}
}
This check should always be run at startup in order to detect and handle this case. Please refer to the example app for a more complete example of handling this flow.
Starting with version 0.8.2 of the image_picker plugin, new methods have been added for picking files that return XFile
instances (from the cross_file package) rather than the plugin's own PickedFile
instances. While the previous methods still exist, it is already recommended to start migrating over to their new equivalents. Eventually, PickedFile
and the methods that return instances of it will be deprecated and removed.
Old API | New API |
---|---|
PickedFile image = await _picker.getImage(...) |
XFile image = await _picker.pickImage(...) |
List<PickedFile> images = await _picker.getMultiImage(...) |
List<XFile> images = await _picker.pickMultiImage(...) |
PickedFile video = await _picker.getVideo(...) |
XFile video = await _picker.pickVideo(...) |
LostData response = await _picker.getLostData() |
LostDataResponse response = await _picker.retrieveLostData() |