Getting Started Internationalizing (i18n) with Intlayer and React Native

What is Intlayer?

Intlayer is an innovative, open-source internationalization (i18n) library that simplifies multilingual support in modern applications. It works in many JavaScript/TypeScript environments, including React Native (via the react-intlayer package).

With Intlayer, you can:

• Easily manage translations using declarative dictionaries at the component level.
• Ensure TypeScript support with autogenerated types.
• Dynamically localize content, including UI strings (and in React for web, it can also localize HTML metadata, etc.).
• Benefit from advanced features, like dynamic locale detection and switching.

Step 1: Install Dependencies

From your React Native project, install the following packages:

npm install intlayer react-intlayer react-native-intlayer

Packages

• intlayer
  The core i18n toolkit for configuration, dictionary content, types generation, and CLI commands.

• react-intlayer
  React integration that provides the context providers and React hooks you’ll use in React Native for obtaining and switching locales.

• react-native-intlayer
  React Native integration that provides the Metro plugin for integrating Intlayer with the React Native bundler.

Step 2: Create an Intlayer Config

In your project root (or anywhere convenient), create an Intlayer config file. It might look like this:

import { Locales, type IntlayerConfig } from "intlayer";const config: IntlayerConfig = {  internationalization: {    locales: [      Locales.ENGLISH,      Locales.FRENCH,      Locales.SPANISH,      // ... Add any other locales you need    ],    defaultLocale: Locales.ENGLISH,  },};export default config;

Within this config, you can:

• Configure your list of supported locales.
• Set a default locale.
• Later, you may add more advanced options (e.g., logs, custom content directories, etc.).
• See the Intlayer configuration docs for more.

Step 3: Add the Metro plugin

Metro is a bundler for React Native. It is the default bundler for React Native projects created with the react-native init command. To use Intlayer with Metro, you need to add the plugin to your metro.config.js file:

const { getDefaultConfig } = require("expo/metro-config");const { configMetroIntlayer } = require("react-native-intlayer/metro");module.exports = (async () => {  const defaultConfig = getDefaultConfig(__dirname);  return await configMetroIntlayer(defaultConfig);})();

Step 4: Add the Intlayer provider

To keep synchronized the user language across your application, you need to wrap your root component with the IntlayerProvider component from react-intlayer.

Also, you need to add the intlayerPolyfill function to your index.js file to ensure that Intlayer can work properly.

import { Stack } from "expo-router";import { getLocales } from "expo-localization";import { IntlayerProviderContent } from "react-intlayer";import { intlayerPolyfill } from "react-native-intlayer";import { type FC } from "react";intlayerPolyfill();const getDeviceLocale = () => getLocales()[0]?.languageTag;const RootLayout: FC = () => {  return (    <IntlayerProviderContent locale={getDeviceLocale()}>      <Stack>        <Stack.Screen name="(tabs)" options={{ headerShown: false }} />      </Stack>    </IntlayerProviderContent>  );};export default RootLayout;

Step 5: Declare Your Content

Create content declaration files anywhere in your project (commonly within src/), using any of the extension formats that Intlayer supports:

• .content.ts
• .content.mjs
• .content.cjs
• .content.json
• etc.

Example (TypeScript with TSX nodes for React Native):

import { t, type Dictionary } from "intlayer";import type { ReactNode } from "react";/** * Content dictionary for our "app" domain */import { t, type Dictionary } from "intlayer";const homeScreenContent = {  key: "home-screen",  content: {    title: t({      en: "Welcome!",      fr: "Bienvenue!",      es: "¡Bienvenido!",    }),  },} satisfies Dictionary;export default homeScreenContent;

For details on content declarations, see Intlayer’s content docs.

Step 4: Use Intlayer in Your Components

Use the useIntlayer hook in child components to get localized content.

Example

import { Image, StyleSheet, Platform } from "react-native";import { useIntlayer } from "react-intlayer";import { HelloWave } from "@/components/HelloWave";import ParallaxScrollView from "@/components/ParallaxScrollView";import { ThemedText } from "@/components/ThemedText";import { ThemedView } from "@/components/ThemedView";import { type FC } from "react";const HomeScreen = (): FC => {  const { title, steps } = useIntlayer("home-screen");  return (    <ParallaxScrollView      headerBackgroundColor={{ light: "#A1CEDC", dark: "#1D3D47" }}      headerImage={        <Image          source={require("@/assets/images/partial-react-logo.png")}          style={styles.reactLogo}        />      }    >      <ThemedView style={styles.titleContainer}>        <ThemedText type="title">{title}</ThemedText>        <HelloWave />      </ThemedView>    </ParallaxScrollView>  );};const styles = StyleSheet.create({  titleContainer: {    flexDirection: "row",    alignItems: "center",    gap: 8,  },});export default HomeScreen;

When using content.someKey in string-based props (e.g., a button’s title or a Text component’s children), call content.someKey.value to get the actual string.

(Optional) Step 5: Change the App Locale

To switch locales from within your components, you can use the useLocale hook’s setLocale method:

import { type FC } from "react";import { View, Text, TouchableOpacity, StyleSheet } from "react-native";import { getLocaleName } from "intlayer";import { useLocale } from "react-intlayer";export const LocaleSwitcher: FC = () => {  const { setLocale, availableLocales } = useLocale();  return (    <View style={styles.container}>      {availableLocales.map((locale) => (        <TouchableOpacity          key={locale}          style={styles.button}          onPress={() => setLocale(locale)}        >          <Text style={styles.text}>{getLocaleName(locale)}</Text>        </TouchableOpacity>      ))}    </View>  );};const styles = StyleSheet.create({  container: {    flexDirection: "row",    justifyContent: "center",    alignItems: "center",    gap: 8, // Spacing between buttons  },  button: {    paddingVertical: 6,    paddingHorizontal: 12,    borderRadius: 6,    backgroundColor: "#ddd", // Light background  },  text: {    fontSize: 14, // Smaller text    fontWeight: "500",    color: "#333",  },});

This triggers a re-render of all components that use Intlayer content, now showing translations for the new locale.

See useLocale docs for more details.

Configure TypeScript (if you use TypeScript)

Intlayer generates type definitions in a hidden folder (by default .intlayer) to improve autocompletion and catch translation errors:

// tsconfig.json{  // ... your existing TS config  "include": [    "src", // your source code    ".intlayer", // <-- ensure the auto-generated types are included    // ... anything else you already include  ],}

This is what enables features like:

• Autocompletion for your dictionary keys.
• Type checking that warns if you access a non-existent key or mismatch the type.

Git Configuration

To avoid committing auto-generated files by Intlayer, add the following to your .gitignore:

# Ignore the files generated by Intlayer.intlayer

Go Further

• Visual Editor: Use the Intlayer Visual Editor to manage translations visually.
• CMS Integration: You can also externalize and fetch your dictionary content from a CMS.
• CLI Commands: Explore the Intlayer CLI for tasks like extracting translations or checking missing keys.

Enjoy building your React Native apps with fully powered i18n through Intlayer!