Pasting images into TextInput should not be this hard

React Native developer Arunabh Verma describes how a missing but familiar chat interaction—pasting copied images directly into a message composer—led from an initially adequate Mattermost-based library to the creation of expo-paste-input after React Native’s New Architecture made the existing solution increasingly unreliable, especially on Android. Rather than replacing React Native’s TextInput with a rich editor or custom component, the project wraps the standard input and adds native paste detection that returns pasted media as temporary local file URIs for the application to handle as attachments. Its implementation addresses iOS clipboard privacy rules, Android’s fragmented content and paste APIs, and numerous media-specific edge cases including multiple images, GIFs, transparency, screenshots, static and animated iOS stickers, text attachments, and cursor preservation. Developed first for a real Powstać client chat product and later open-sourced, expo-paste-input aims to make media pasting behave naturally while allowing developers to retain control over their existing input components and user interfaces.

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