File: video-thumbnails.md | Updated: 11/15/2025
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A library that allows you to generate an image to serve as a thumbnail from a video file.
Android
iOS
Bundled version:
~9.0.3
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expo-video-thumbnails allows you to generate an image to serve as a thumbnail from a video file.
Terminal
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- npx expo install expo-video-thumbnails
If you are installing this in an existing React Native app
, make sure to install expo
in your project.
Video Thumbnails
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import { useState } from 'react'; import { StyleSheet, Button, View, Image, Text } from 'react-native'; import * as VideoThumbnails from 'expo-video-thumbnails'; export default function App() { const [image, setImage] = useState(null); const generateThumbnail = async () => { try { const { uri } = await VideoThumbnails.getThumbnailAsync( 'https://d23dyxeqlo5psv.cloudfront.net/big_buck_bunny.mp4', { time: 15000, } ); setImage(uri); } catch (e) { console.warn(e); } }; return ( <View style={styles.container}> <Button onPress={generateThumbnail} title="Generate thumbnail" /> {image && <Image source={{ uri: image }} style={styles.image} />} <Text>{image}</Text> </View> ); } const styles = StyleSheet.create({ container: { flex: 1, justifyContent: 'center', alignItems: 'center', backgroundColor: '#F5FCFF', }, image: { width: 200, height: 200, }, });
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import * as VideoThumbnails from 'expo-video-thumbnails';
VideoThumbnails.getThumbnailAsync(sourceFilename, options)Android
iOS
| Parameter | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| sourceFilename | string | An URI of the video, local or remote. |
| options(optional) | [VideoThumbnailsOptions](https://docs.expo.dev/versions/v52.0.0/sdk/video-thumbnails#videothumbnailsoptions) | A map defining how modified thumbnail should be created.<br><br>Default:{} |
Create an image thumbnail from video provided via sourceFilename.
Returns:
[Promise](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Promise) <[VideoThumbnailsResult](https://docs.expo.dev/versions/v52.0.0/sdk/video-thumbnails#videothumbnailsresult) >
Returns a promise which fulfils with VideoThumbnailsResult
.
VideoThumbnailsOptionsAndroid
iOS
| Property | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| headers(optional) | Record<string, string> | In case sourceFilename is a remote URI, headers object is passed in a network request. |
| quality(optional) | number | A value in range 0.0 - 1.0 specifying quality level of the result image. 1 means no compression (highest quality) and 0 the highest compression (lowest quality). |
| time(optional) | number | The time position where the image will be retrieved in ms. |
VideoThumbnailsResultAndroid
iOS
| Property | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| height | number | Height of the created image. |
| uri | string | URI to the created image (usable as the source for an Image/Video element). |
| width | number | Width of the created image. |