React Native - Is there a way to hide the keyboard completely?

Question

I'm developing an app for a scanning device which does not use the virtual keyboard at all. So currently, I only show the keyboard when the user want to open it (by tapping the keyboard icon)

And tab again to turn the virtual keyboard off.

.

However, when I type the Input by hard keyboard (from PC / scanning device) or tap the input, the virtual keyboard still showing up and there is no way to prevent that. I can catch the event and dismiss the virtual keyboard by:

onKeyPress={() => {
  Keyboard.dismiss();
}}

But it still create an annoying opening - closing virtual keyboard animation. Is there anyway to stop this animation or hide the virtual keyboard completely?

Answer 1

This is a known limitation of React Native. You can try disabling pointer events as follows but I am not sure that will prevent the physical keyboard from creating events and you will lose text scrolling:

    <View pointerEvents="none">
      <Input
        value={String(value)}
        placeholder={placeholder}
      />
    </View>

Answer 2

use props of textInput 'showSoftInputOnFocus' example:

<TextInput showSoftInputOnFocus={false} />

documentation here https://github.com/facebook/react-native/commit/d88e4701fc46b028861ddcfa3e6ffb141b3ede3d