React native flatlist initial scroll to bottom - react-native

Question

I am trying to create a chat in React native using a <Flatlist />
Like WhatsApp and other chat apps, the messages start at the bottom.
After fetching the messages from my API, I call
this.myFlatList.scrollToEnd({animated: false});
But it scrolls somewhere in the middle and sometimes with fewer items to the bottom and sometimes it does nothing.
How can I scroll initially to the bottom?
My chat messages have different heights, so I can't calculate the height.

Answer 1

I had similar issue. If you want to have you chat messages start at the bottom, you could set "inverted" to true and display your messages and time tag in an opposite direction.
Check here for "inverted" property for FlatList. https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/flatlist#inverted
If you want to have you chat messages start at the top, which is what I am trying to achieve. I could not find a solution in FlatList, because as you said, the heights are different, I could not use getItemLayout which make "scrollToEnd" behave in a strange way.
I follow the approach that #My Mai mentioned, using ScrollView instead and do scrollToEnd({animated: false}) in a setTimeout function. Besides, I added a state to hide the content until scrollToEnd is done, so user would not be seeing any scrolling.

Answer 2

I solved this issue with inverted property and reverse function
https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/flatlist#inverted
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/reverse
<FlatList
inverted
data={[...data].reverse()}
renderItem={renderItem}
keyExtractor={(item) => item.id}
/>
You can use this solution in chat component.

Answer 3

I faced the same issue with you and then I moved to use ScrollView.
It is fixed:
componentDidMount() {
setTimeout(() => {
this.scrollView.scrollToEnd();
});
}
<ScrollView ref={(ref) => { this.scrollView = ref; }} style={styles.messages}>
{
messages.map((item, i) => (
<Message
key={i}
direction={item.userType === 'banker' ? 'right' : 'left'}
text={item.message}
name={item.name}
time={item.createdAt}
/>
))
}
</ScrollView>`

Answer 4

Set initialScrollIndex to your data set's length - 1.
I.e.
<Flatlist
data={dataSet}
initialScrollIndex={dataSet.length - 1}
/>

Answer 5

There are two types of 'good' solutions as of 2021.
First one is with timeout, references and useEffect. Here's the full example using Functional Components and Typescript:
// Set the height of every item of the list, to improve perfomance and later use in the getItemLayout
const ITEM_HEIGHT = 100;
// Data that will be displayed in the FlatList
const [data, setData] = React.useState<DataType>();
// The variable that will hold the reference of the FlatList
const flatListRef = React.useRef<FlatList>(null);
// The effect that will always run whenever there's a change to the data
React.useLayoutEffect(() => {
const timeout = setTimeout(() => {
if (flatListRef.current && data && data.length > 0) {
flatListRef.current.scrollToEnd({ animated: true });
}
}, 1000);
return () => {
clearTimeout(timeout);
};
}, [data]);
// Your FlatList component that will receive ref, data and other properties as needed, you also have to use getItemLayout
<FlatList
data={data}
ref={flatListRef}
getItemLayout={(data, index) => {
return { length: ITEM_HEIGHT, offset: ITEM_HEIGHT * index, index };
}}
{ ...otherProperties }
/>
With the example above you can have a fluid and animated scroll to bottom. Recommended for when you receive a new message and has to scroll to the bottom, for example.
Apart from this, the second and easier way is by implementing the initialScrollIndex property that will instantly loads the list at the bottom, like that chat apps you mentioned. It will work fine when opening the chat screen for the first time.
Like this:
// No need to use useEffect, timeout and references...
// Just use getItemLayout and initialScrollIndex.
// Set the height of every item of the list, to improve perfomance and later use in the getItemLayout
const ITEM_HEIGHT = 100;
<FlatList
data={data}
getItemLayout={(data, index) => {
return { length: ITEM_HEIGHT, offset: ITEM_HEIGHT * index, index };
}}
{ ...otherProperties }
/>

Answer 6

I found a solution that worked for me 100%
Added the ref flatListRef to my flatlist:
<Flatlist
reference={(ref) => this.flatListRef = ref}
data={data}
keyExtractor={keyExtractor}
renderItem={renderItem}
/>
Then whenever you want to automatically scroll to bottom of the list use:
this.flatListRef._listRef._scrollRef.scrollToEnd({ animating: true });
yes you should access the element _listRef then _scrollRef then call the scrollToEnd 🙄
react-native 0.64.1
react 17.0.2

Answer 7

I've struggled on this as well and found the best possible solution for me that renders without a glitch is:
Use inverted={-1} props
Reverse the order of messages objects inside my array with data={MyArrayofMessages.reverse()} in my case data={this.state.messages.reverse()} using reverse() javascript function.
Stupidly easy and renders instantaneously !

Answer 8

Use inverted={1} and reverse your data by using the JS reverse function. It worked for me

Answer 9

<FlatList contentContainerStyle={{ flex: 1, justifyContent: 'flex-end' }} />

Answer 10

I am guessing that RN cannot guess your layout so it cannot know how much it needs to "move". According to the scroll methods in the docs you might need to implement a getItemLayout function, so RN can tell how much it needs to scroll.
https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/flatlist.html#scrolltoend

Answer 11

Guys if you want FlatList scroll to bottom at initial render. Just added inverted={-1} to your FlatList. I have struggle with scroll to bottom for couple of hours but it ends up with inverted={-1}. Don't need to think to much about measure the height of FlatList items dynamically using getItemLayout and initialScrollIndex or whats so ever.

Answer 12

I found a solution that worked for me 100%
let scrollRef = React.useRef(null)
and
<FlatList
ref={(it) => (scrollRef.current = it)}
onContentSizeChange={() =>
scrollRef.current?.scrollToEnd({animated: false})
}
data={data}/>

Answer 13

If you want to display the message inverted, set "inverted" to true in the flat list.
<Flatlist
data={messageData}
inverted={true}
horizontal={false}
/>
If you just want to scroll to the last message, you can use initialScrollIndex
<Flatlist
data={messageData}
initialScrollIndex={messageArray.length - 1}
horizontal={false}
/>

Answer 14

I spent couple of hours struggling with showing the first message on top without being able to calculate the item's height as it contains links and messages. But finally i've been able to...
What i've done is that i wrapped the FlatList in a View, set FlatList as inverted, made it to take all available space and then justified content. So now, conversations with few messages starts at top but when there are multiple messages, they will end on bottom. Something like this:
<View style={ConversationStyle.container}>
<FlatList
data={conversations}
initialNumToRender={10}
renderItem={({ item }) => (
<SmsConversationItem
item={item}
onDelete={onDelete}
/>
)}
keyExtractor={(item) => item.id}
getItemCount={getItemCount}
getItem={getItem}
contentContainerStyle={ConversationStyle.virtualizedListContainer}
inverted // This will make items in reversed order but will make all of them start from bottom
/>
</View>
And my style looks like this:
const ConversationStyle = StyleSheet.create({
container: {
flex: 1
},
virtualizedListContainer: {
flexGrow: 1,
justifyContent: 'flex-end'
}
};