expo-horizontal-picker

A performant horizontal picker component for React Native and Expo apps.

• Smooth Horizontal Scrolling
  Optimized with react-native-reanimated for buttery-smooth, performant scroll animations.

• Snapping Behavior
  Automatically snaps to the closest item to give users a precise and polished interaction.

• GPU-Accelerated Animations
  Customize transform and opacity styles for focused/unfocused items with GPU-accelerated properties for optimal performance.

• Initial Index Support
  Set the starting index to highlight a default item.

• TypeScript Support
  Fully typed API for a better developer experience.

• Works with Expo and Bare React Native
  Supports both managed and bare workflows out of the box.

📦 Installation

1. Install the package

This package requires react-native-reanimated to work:

npm install expo-horizontal-picker react-native-reanimated

ref support uses React 19's ref-as-prop model, so install this package in a React 19 app.

Make sure to follow the additional setup instructions for Reanimated in the official docs.

🎬 Demo

import { HorizontalPicker, type HorizontalPickerRef } from 'expo-horizontal-picker';
import { useRef, useState } from 'react';
import { ScrollView, StyleSheet, Text } from 'react-native';
import { SafeAreaView } from 'react-native-safe-area-context';

const numberItems = Array.from({ length: 600 }, (_, i) => ({
  label: `${i + 1}`,
  value: i + 1,
}));

const thousandItems = Array.from({ length: 20 }, (_, i) => ({
  label: `${i + 1}k`,
  value: (i + 1) * 1000,
}));

const hourItems = Array.from({ length: 24 }, (_, i) => ({
  label: `${i + 1}h`,
  value: i + 1,
}));

const largeNumberItems = Array.from({ length: 5 }, (_, i) => ({
  label: `${(i + 1) * 10000}`,
  value: (i + 1) * 10000,
}));

const pickerContainerHeight = 53;

export default function App() {
  const firstPickerRef = useRef<HorizontalPickerRef | null>(null);
  const secondPickerRef = useRef<HorizontalPickerRef | null>(null);

  const [, setSelectedFirst] = useState({ index: 499, value: numberItems[499].value });
  const [, setSelectedSecond] = useState({ index: 499, value: numberItems[499].value });
  const [, setSelectedThird] = useState({ index: 9, value: thousandItems[9].value });
  const [, setSelectedFourth] = useState({ index: 11, value: hourItems[11].value });
  const [, setSelectedFifth] = useState({ index: 2, value: largeNumberItems[2].value });

  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={styles.container}>
      <ScrollView contentContainerStyle={styles.content} showsVerticalScrollIndicator={false}>
        <Text style={styles.title}>expo-horizontal-picker</Text>

        {/* 7 visible items (sync) */}
        <HorizontalPicker
          ref={firstPickerRef}
          items={numberItems}
          containerHeight={pickerContainerHeight}
          initialScrollIndex={499}
          visibleItemCount={7}
          onChange={(value, index) => {
            setSelectedFirst({ index, value });
            secondPickerRef.current?.scrollToIndex({ index, animated: true });
          }}
          pickerItemStyle={styles.pickerItem}
        />
        <HorizontalPicker
          ref={secondPickerRef}
          items={numberItems}
          containerHeight={pickerContainerHeight}
          initialScrollIndex={499}
          visibleItemCount={7}
          onChange={(value, index) => {
            setSelectedSecond({ index, value });
            firstPickerRef.current?.scrollToIndex({ index, animated: true });
          }}
          pickerItemStyle={styles.pickerItem}
        />

        {/* 5 / 3 / 1 visible items */}
        <HorizontalPicker
          items={thousandItems}
          containerHeight={pickerContainerHeight}
          initialScrollIndex={9}
          visibleItemCount={5}
          onChange={(value, index) => setSelectedThird({ index, value })}
          pickerItemStyle={styles.pickerItem}
        />
        <HorizontalPicker
          items={hourItems}
          containerHeight={pickerContainerHeight}
          initialScrollIndex={11}
          visibleItemCount={3}
          onChange={(value, index) => setSelectedFourth({ index, value })}
          pickerItemStyle={styles.pickerItem}
        />
        <HorizontalPicker
          items={largeNumberItems}
          containerHeight={pickerContainerHeight}
          initialScrollIndex={2}
          visibleItemCount={1}
          onChange={(value, index) => setSelectedFifth({ index, value })}
          pickerItemStyle={styles.pickerItem}
        />
      </ScrollView>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    backgroundColor: '#eeeeee',
  },
  content: {
    paddingHorizontal: 20,
    paddingVertical: 12,
    gap: 16,
  },
  title: {
    fontSize: 28,
    fontWeight: '800',
    color: '#111111',
  },
  pickerItem: {
    paddingVertical: 20,
  },
});

Ref Usage

Pass a ref when you need the picker scroll methods: scrollToEnd, scrollToIndex, scrollToItem, or scrollToOffset.

The picker is intentionally stateful around its own scroll position. A ref is meant for imperative coordination, such as keeping two pickers visually in sync or jumping to a specific item from another control. If you choose that pattern, keep any mirrored app state in the parent and update it alongside the ref call, just like the example below.

import { HorizontalPicker, type HorizontalPickerRef, type PickerValues } from 'expo-horizontal-picker';
import { useRef, useState } from 'react';
import { Text, View } from 'react-native';

export default function RefExample() {
  const firstPickerRef = useRef<HorizontalPickerRef | null>(null);
  const secondPickerRef = useRef<HorizontalPickerRef | null>(null);
  const [selected, setSelected] = useState<PickerValues>({
    index: 0,
    value: items[0].value,
  });

  return (
    <View>
      <Text>Selected: {selected.value}</Text>

      <HorizontalPicker
        ref={firstPickerRef}
        items={items}
        containerHeight={53}
        onChange={(value, index) => {
          setSelected({ index, value });
          secondPickerRef.current?.scrollToIndex({ index, animated: true });
        }}
      />

      <HorizontalPicker
        ref={secondPickerRef}
        items={items}
        containerHeight={53}
        onChange={(value, index) => {
          setSelected({ index, value });
          firstPickerRef.current?.scrollToIndex({ index, animated: true });
        }}
      />
    </View>
  );
}

📱 Example App

A runnable Expo example app is included in example. It includes:

• two synced pickers (visibleItemCount={7}) driven by refs
• additional standalone pickers with visibleItemCount set to 5, 3, and 1

cd example
yarn
yarn start

The example app resolves expo-horizontal-picker to this repository's local src directory through Metro, so you can iterate on the library and see changes immediately in the app.

🎨 Customization Example

Customize the focused and unfocused item styles with GPU-accelerated properties:

<HorizontalPicker
  items={items}
  containerHeight={53}
  focusedTransformStyle={[{ scale: 1.2 }]}
  unfocusedTransformStyle={[{ scale: 0.9 }]}
  focusedOpacityStyle={1}
  unfocusedOpacityStyle={0.3}
  pickerItemStyle={{ height: 80 }}
  onChange={(value, index) => console.log('Selected:', value, index)}
/>

🧩 Props

Prop	Type	Default	Description
items	PickerOption[]	–	Array of options to display. Each option is an object with label and value.
initialScrollIndex	number	0	Index of the item initially selected.
visibleItemCount	number	7	Number of items visible on screen at once.
containerHeight	number	required	Required picker container height reserved before width is measured, preventing layout shift.
onChange	(value: string | number, index: number) => void	–	Callback triggered when the selected item changes.
focusedTransformStyle	ViewStyle['transform']	[{ scale: 1.15 }]	Transform style applied to the focused item (GPU-accelerated).
unfocusedTransformStyle	ViewStyle['transform']	[{ scale: 1 }]	Transform style applied to unfocused items (GPU-accelerated).
focusedOpacityStyle	number	1	Opacity value for the focused item (GPU-accelerated).
unfocusedOpacityStyle	number	0.2	Opacity value for unfocused items (GPU-accelerated).
pickerItemStyle	ViewStyle	–	Style applied to each picker item container.
pickerItemTextStyle	TextStyle	–	Style applied to the text inside each picker item.
style	ViewStyle	–	Style applied to the scroll container.

Additional FlatList Props

The component extends FlatListPropsWithLayout, so you can also pass any valid FlatList props such as:

• keyExtractor (default: (item, index) => ${item.value}-${index})
• scrollEventThrottle (default: 16)
• decelerationRate (default: 'fast')
• onLayout
• showsHorizontalScrollIndicator (default: false)
• initialNumToRender (default: 15)
• maxToRenderPerBatch (default: 15)
• removeClippedSubviews (default: Platform.OS !== 'android')
• ref to call scrollToEnd, scrollToIndex, scrollToItem, and scrollToOffset

⚡ Performance Notes

The focusedTransformStyle and unfocusedTransformStyle props only accept GPU-accelerated transform properties (e.g., scale, translateX, translateY, rotate) for optimal performance. These properties are processed directly on the GPU without triggering layout recalculations.