React Native Tracking SDK

The React Native Tracking SDK lets a React Native app start, stop and monitor background location tracking. A thin TypeScript wrapper calls a local Kotlin native module, which forwards to the native Android Tracking SDK distributed through Maven.

Platform	Status
Android	✅ Available - documented on these pages
iOS	🕐 Coming soon

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Purpose and goals of the SDK

React Native has no direct access to platform background-location services, so this integration bridges JavaScript to the same native Tracking SDK used by native Android apps. The JavaScript layer only forwards calls - tracking, background collection and uploads are implemented natively, so the platform behaviours documented on the Android pages apply here as well.

Architecture

React Native screen
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src/TrackingSdk.ts            (TypeScript wrapper)
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NativeModules.TrackingSdk
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TrackingSdkModule.kt          (Kotlin bridge, registered in MainApplication.kt)
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SsBackgroundGeolocation       (Android Maven dependency)
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Your configured tracking backend

The tracking integration uses a Maven dependency plus a local native bridge that you copy into your app. It does not depend on the React Native Map SDK npm package.

Overview of the SDK features and capabilities

• Start tracking - initAndStartTracking() initializes the SDK and starts tracking in one call.
• Stop tracking - stopTracking().
• State queries - getTrackingState() (live native state) and getSavedTrackingStatus() (locally saved snapshot).
• Device health - getDeviceHealth() reports permission, location-service, battery-optimization and motion-activity flags for diagnostics.
• Two authentication modes - SDK-managed login and registration, or a caller-provided access token. See Authentication.

Reference configuration

The reference project is built with the versions below. These are its configured versions, not a compatibility matrix or independently verified minimum requirements.

Component	Reference configuration
React Native	0.85.3
React	19.2.3
Node.js	>= 22.11.0
Android minimum SDK	24 (Android 7.0)
Android compile / target SDK	36 / 36
Android build tools	36.0.0
Kotlin	2.1.20
Android NDK	27.1.12297006
Tracking SDK (Maven)	com.sovereignsolutions:tracking-sdk:3.0.4

Keep the React Native template's compatible JDK, Gradle and Android Gradle Plugin versions. The native bridge checks for Android API 23+, but the example app's minimum is API 24.

Continue to Get Started to add the SDK to your React Native project.

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Looking for the map rendering SDK instead? See the React Native Map SDK.