Remove Android native tabs when React removes them by wildan-m · Pull Request #105020 · Expensify/App

wildan-m · 2026-10-26T15:23:39Z

Explanation of Change

On Android, the app could crash with Maximum number of items supported by CustomBottomNavigationView is 6 when the native tab bar rebuilt its items. The tab bar never removes a tab natively: React Native checks each removal against the parent's child views before carrying it out, and the tab bar keeps its tabs in fragments rather than as child views, so every removal is silently skipped. Each time a tab was swapped in place, the old one stayed in the bar next to its replacement, and the seventh one crashed the rebuild.

This adds a react-native-screens patch that reports the tabs as the tab bar's children, the same way the library's stack already reports its screens, so removals go through. It is the same change as the open upstream fix, software-mansion/react-native-screens#5074 (software-mansion/react-native-screens#4812 rebased onto the current tabs layout).

Since #104595 removed the Insights beta, Account is always the tab without a bar item and nothing in the app adds or removes a tab at runtime, so current main no longer reaches this crash. The patch keeps the tab bar correct if a tab is added or removed at runtime again. The tab host remount in NativeTabLayout stays, because the native container still shows no content for a tab added after it selected its first tab, and still crashes when the selected tab is removed in place (upstream software-mansion/react-native-screens#4904 covers part of that). Its comment now says so, and a Jest test covers the remount.

Upstream PR: software-mansion/react-native-screens#5074

Fixed Issues

$ #104505
PROPOSAL: #104505 (comment)

Tests

Since #104595, nothing in the app adds or removes a tab at runtime, so seeing the patch at work takes a dev build with two temporary edits.

In useNativeTabNavigator.ts, let Debug mode pick the tab without a bar item. Replace const tabWithoutBarItem = NAVIGATORS.SETTINGS_SPLIT_NAVIGATOR; with:

const [isDebugModeEnabled] = useOnyx(ONYXKEYS.IS_DEBUG_MODE_ENABLED);
const tabWithoutBarItem = isDebugModeEnabled ? SCREENS.INSIGHTS : NAVIGATORS.SETTINGS_SPLIT_NAVIGATOR;

In NativeTabLayout.tsx, remove key={tabsWithoutBarItemKey} from the view wrapping the tabs, so the tab host is updated in place instead of remounted.
On Android, stay on Home and run Onyx.merge('isDebugModeEnabled', true) in the React Native DevTools console, then Onyx.merge('isDebugModeEnabled', false). Repeat both calls twice more.
Verify the bar shows five tabs after each call, with Insights and Account swapping places (Account shows as SettingsSplitNavigator, since main no longer gives it a bar label), and that nothing throws. On main, the bar shows six items after the first call (the removed tab is still there), and the second call throws Maximum number of items supported by CustomBottomNavigationView is 6.
Undo both edits. Open every tab in the bar, then Account from the avatar in the top bar, and verify each one shows its page.

Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

Offline tests

Same as Tests. The change is in how the native tab bar removes tabs, which does not depend on the network.

QA Steps

Since #104595, nothing in the app adds or removes a tab at runtime, so QA can only check that the tabs still work.

On Android, open every tab in the bar, then Account from the avatar in the top bar.
Verify each one shows its page and the app doesn't crash.

Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

PR Author Checklist

Screenshots/Videos

Android: Native

Before (main, with the Tests edits):

104505-android-postmerge2-before.mp4

After (this PR, with the Tests edits):

104505-android-postmerge2-after.mp4

This PR, unmodified:

104505-android-postmerge2-regression.mp4

Android: mWeb Chrome

video-android-mweb.mp4

iOS: Native

video-ios-native.mp4

iOS: mWeb Safari

video-ios-safari.mp4

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

video-desktop-chrome.mp4

Fabric verifies child removals through the view manager's getChildAt, and TabsHostViewManager answered with the raw FrameLayout children, which never contain the tab screens. Every tab screen removal was therefore silently skipped, so remounted screens accumulated past the six-item bottom navigation cap and the next menu rebuild on re-attach crashed. Override getChildCount and getChildAt to answer from the rendered tab screens, matching ScreenStackViewManager and ScreenContainerViewManager.

…id-tab-screen-removals # Conflicts: # patches/react-native-screens/details.md

Fabric only asks for indexes it believes exist, but a null child makes it fall back to its usual already-removed handling instead of crashing with an out-of-bounds error. Also trims the comment on the overrides.

Native tab removals now go through, so the remount is only needed because the tab container cannot show a tab added after its first selection or drop the selected tab in place.

The merge's pre-commit hook rebuilt these bundles against outdated dependencies.

github-actions · 2026-10-26T15:23:54Z

⚠️ This PR is possibly changing native code and/or updating libraries, it may cause problems with HybridApp. Please check if any patch updates are required in the HybridApp repo and run an AdHoc build to verify that HybridApp will not break. Ask Contributor Plus for help if you are not sure how to handle this. ⚠️

…m changes

melvin-bot · 2026-10-26T23:05:40Z

@mananjadhav Please copy/paste the Reviewer Checklist from here into a new comment on this PR and complete it. If you have the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]

chatgpt-codex-connector · 2026-10-26T23:05:41Z

Codex Review Summary

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Review	Status	Commit	Review trigger
📝 Code Review	✅ Completed 2026-10-26T23:20:44.734849Z	`7105573`	Draft marked ready

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garrettmknight

Looks good from a product perspective.

mananjadhav

The code looks good. I'll work on the checklist.

mananjadhav · 2026-10-27T18:50:34Z

@mountiny @garrettmknight Can we have an adhoc build here? Best to test on a physical device too.

mananjadhav · 2026-10-27T18:50:57Z

Reviewer Checklist

Screenshots/Videos

Android: HybridApp

android-tab-count.mp4

Android: mWeb Chrome

mweb-chrome-tab-count.mov

iOS: HybridApp

ios-tab-count.MP4

iOS: mWeb Safari

mweb-safari-tab-count.MP4

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

web-tab-count.mov

github-actions · 2026-10-27T19:45:39Z

🚧 mountiny has triggered a test Expensify/App build. You can view the workflow run here.

…id-tab-screen-removals

…n 007

mananjadhav

The lint failure seems to be unrelated to the PR.

…id-tab-screen-removals

…ts beta Main removed the Insights beta and its getTabWithoutBarItem helper, so the test now passes the tab without a bar item directly, and the comments no longer mention the beta. The comment and the patch details also say whose first selection leaves a later tab empty.

…id-tab-screen-removals

wildan-m · 2026-10-31T14:51:39Z

@mananjadhav need re-approval after merge latest main

mountiny

Thank you

github-actions · 2026-10-31T18:32:54Z

🚧 mountiny has triggered a test Expensify/App build. You can view the workflow run here.

OSBotify · 2026-10-31T18:36:01Z

✋ This PR was not deployed to staging yet because QA is ongoing. It will be automatically deployed to staging after the next production release.

github-actions · 2026-10-31T18:55:05Z

🧪🧪 Use the links below to test this adhoc build on Android, iOS, and Web. Happy testing! 🧪🧪
Built from App PR #105020 with the pinned Mobile-Expensify submodule.

Android 🤖	iOS 🍎
https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/rock-artifacts/ad-hoc/rock-android-Adhoc-918f706a-f89e1f8-a02a25b2ef4857bcdbf865d328187eee84419a7a/index.html	https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/rock-artifacts/ad-hoc/rock-ios-device-AdHoc-918f706a-f89e1f8-b3153120339c6d47d6f6786ac86fa7ee9b0456a7/index.html

Web 🕸️
https://105020.pr-testing.expensify.com

👀 View the workflow run that generated this build 👀

OSBotify · 2026-11-02T18:52:43Z

🚀 Deployed to staging by https://github.com/mountiny in version: 9.5.28-4 🚀

platform	result
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

MelvinBot · 2026-11-02T18:55:10Z

No help site update needed. This PR fixes an Android crash in how the native tab bar removes tabs, and users see no change in tabs, labels, or workflows.

view run

jponikarchuk · 2026-11-02T20:24:33Z

The Deploy Blocker issue https://github.com/Expensify/Expensify/issues/699512 is repro on all PRs. Could you please double check if it's not introduced by #105020

mountiny · 2026-11-03T04:35:48Z

I dont think this PR is relevant

jponikarchuk · 2026-11-03T15:54:08Z

The Deploy Blocker issue #105783 is repro on all PRs. Could you please double check if it's not introduced by #105020

OSBotify · 2026-11-03T17:57:49Z

🚀 Deployed to staging by https://github.com/mountiny in version: 9.5.30-0 🚀

platform	result
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

OSBotify · 2026-11-03T19:03:41Z

🚀 Deployed to production by https://github.com/blimpich in version: 9.5.30-0 🚀

platform	result
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

Bundle Size Analysis (Sentry):

Android
iOS

wildan-m added 6 commits October 21, 2026 03:25

Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/main' into wildan/104505-andro…

7f40c3e

…id-tab-screen-removals # Conflicts: # patches/react-native-screens/details.md

Renumber the Android tab removal patch after the new patch 006

d468e6c

Return no child for an out-of-range native tab index

4a8d86b

Fabric only asks for indexes it believes exist, but a null child makes it fall back to its usual already-removed handling instead of crashing with an out-of-bounds error. Also trims the comment on the overrides.

Describe what the tab host remount still covers on Android

b4b32c5

Native tab removals now go through, so the remount is only needed because the tab container cannot show a tab added after its first selection or drop the selected tab in place.

Restore the compiled GitHub actions to main's build

fcb3032

The merge's pre-commit hook rebuilt these bundles against outdated dependencies.

melvin-bot Bot assigned wildan-m Oct 26, 2026

Link the PR that introduces the Android tab removal patch

45bae41

wildan-m mentioned this pull request Oct 26, 2026

fix(Android, Tabs): remove TabsScreen natively when it's removed from JS software-mansion/react-native-screens#5074

Open

1 of 4 tasks

wildan-m added 2 commits October 26, 2026 23:03

Point the Android tab removal patch at the rebased upstream fix

8879514

Test that the native tabs remount only when the tab without a bar ite…

7105573

…m changes

wildan-m marked this pull request as ready for review October 26, 2026 23:05

wildan-m requested review from a team as code owners October 26, 2026 23:05

melvin-bot Bot requested review from mananjadhav and removed request for a team October 26, 2026 23:05

melvin-bot Bot requested review from garrettmknight and removed request for a team October 26, 2026 23:05

wildan-m mentioned this pull request Oct 26, 2026

[Due for payment 2026-11-10] [$250] [Sentry: APP-N5H] HybridApp Android: native tab bar crashes with more than 6 items #104505

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garrettmknight previously approved these changes Oct 27, 2026

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wildan-m added 2 commits October 28, 2026 20:36

Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/main' into wildan/104505-andro…

eb3f446

…id-tab-screen-removals

Renumber the tab screen removal patch to 008 now that main has its ow…

4727f96

…n 007

wildan-m dismissed garrettmknight’s stale review via 4727f96 October 28, 2026 13:39

mananjadhav approved these changes Oct 28, 2026

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melvin-bot Bot requested a review from mountiny October 28, 2026 18:54

wildan-m added 3 commits October 30, 2026 04:56

Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/main' into wildan/104505-andro…

1fe818c

…id-tab-screen-removals

Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/main' into wildan/104505-andro…

5dffd18

…id-tab-screen-removals

mountiny approved these changes Oct 31, 2026

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mountiny merged commit 918f706 into Expensify:main Oct 31, 2026
44 of 45 checks passed

OSBotify mentioned this pull request Nov 2, 2026

Deploy Checklist: New Expensify 2026-11-02 #105665

Closed

75 tasks done

MelvinBot mentioned this pull request Nov 3, 2026

[Due for payment 2026-11-10] Hybrid - Connections - App navigate to Workspaces tab instead of Accounting after close #105713

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