Recently, I have been trying to animate a dynamic header like AirBnb has using React Native Reanimated 2.

The Problem

While I have successfully managed to make it work on iOS, on Android it turned out to be quite laggy and something didn't seem right. I described more in detail the bug here.

Solution (Part 1)

Luckily, I managed to fix it today following this tutorial:

https://medium.com/@habibridho/implementing-collapsing-toolbar-using-react-native-4a84e1718f11

Basically, the fix was to make the header absolute, but at the same time, I also needed to make sure the FlatList is displayed properly because of that. An easy fix is to add a marginTop: HEADER_HEIGHT in the FlatList, but because my header changes its height dynamically, using a margin didn't work.

Instead, I had to use paddingTop: HEADER_HEIGHT, but now another problem arises, if you have a pull to refresh feature on your FlatList it will be hidden by the header on both iOS and Android.

Solution (Part 2)

To fix that, you need to add a few more props to the FlatList and make sure paddingTop is only applied on Android:

const HEADER_HEIGHT = 50;

<FlatList
  contentContainerStyle={
    paddingTop: Platform.OS === 'android' ? HEADER_HEIGHT : 0
  }
  contentInset={{ top: HEADER_HEIGHT }}
  contentOffset={{
    y: Platform.OS === 'ios' ? -HEADER_HEIGHT : 0
  }}
  progressViewOffset={ HEADER_HEIGHT }
/>

Related: stackoverflow.com/a/63258603

Aditional

❗️If you are passing the contentOffset from FlatList to your Header in order to animate it, you will have to make sure that y will take into account the contentOffset we have added conditionally based on the Platform like so:

const HEADER_HEIGHT = 50;
const TRANSLATION_Y_OFFSET = Platform.OS === 'ios' ? HEADER_HEIGHT : 0;

const translationY = useSharedValue(0);

const scrollHandler = useAnimatedScrollHandler((event) => {
  translationY.value = event.contentOffset.y + TRANSLATION_Y_OFFSET;
});

<FlatList
  contentContainerStyle={
    paddingTop: Platform.OS === 'android' ? HEADER_HEIGHT : 0
  }
  contentInset={{ top: HEADER_HEIGHT }}
  contentOffset={{ y: -TRANSLATION_Y_OFFSET }}
  progressViewOffset={ HEADER_HEIGHT }
  onScroll={ scrollHandler }
/>

Now, this will make sure that translationY will always start at 0 even if we have contentOffset set to a different value on iOS.

Conclusion

Animating collapsable headers in React Native is not an easy task, especially if you have a FlatList that has a pull to refresh option.

Luckily, there are ways to make it work, but you will have to go down the rabbit hole and make sure that you understand how your solution works.

Well, I hope you found this article helpful and found the answer to your question. Let me know if you encountered a similar problem in React Native and share with me if you managed to solve it in a better way. Would love to know!

Until then, see you tomorrow! 😊

p.s 🤫 I recently started a podcast called The Anxious Developer where I share my knowledge on how to reduce your stress, become more present and productive as a Developer. I would love to hear your thoughts on it! 😊

Remember, you are worthy, you are loved and you matter! Have a great day! ❤️

Andrei's Zgîrvaci - Blog