File: system-ui.md | Updated: 11/15/2025
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A library that allows interacting with system UI elements.
Android
iOS
Web
Bundled version:
~4.0.9
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expo-system-ui enables you to interact with UI elements that fall outside of the React tree. Specifically the root view background color, and locking the user interface style globally on Android.
Terminal
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- npx expo install expo-system-ui
If you are installing this in an existing React Native app
, make sure to install expo
in your project.
import * as SystemUI from 'expo-system-ui';
SystemUI.getBackgroundColorAsync()Android
iOS
Web
Gets the root view background color.
Returns:
[Promise](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Promise) <[ColorValue](https://reactnative.dev/docs/colors) | null>
Current root view background color in hex format. Returns null if the background color is not set.
Example
const color = await SystemUI.getBackgroundColorAsync();
SystemUI.setBackgroundColorAsync(color)Android
iOS
Web
| Parameter | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| color | null \| [ColorValue](https://reactnative.dev/docs/colors) | Any valid CSS 3 (SVG) color<br>. |
Changes the root view background color. Call this function in the root file outside of you component.
Returns:
[Promise](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Promise) <void>
Example
SystemUI.setBackgroundColorAsync("black");