Migrating to react-native-notify-kit: A New Architecture Replacement for Notifee

Notifee is Archived. Here’s a Maintained, New-Architecture Drop-in Replacement

In April 2026, Invertase officially archived the Notifee repository, ending updates for a critical notification library. Developer Marco Crupi launched react-native-notify-kit as a community-maintained fork specifically targeting React Native’s New Architecture.

Why This Matters

The archive of Notifee created a technical gap for applications requiring advanced Android features like foreground services and full-screen intents, which are not supported by expo-notifications. Furthermore, React Native 0.84 removes the legacy Bridge entirely, rendering the original Notifee library incompatible with modern development standards.

Key Insights

• Invertase archived the Notifee repository in April 2026, marking the end of official maintenance.
• React Native 0.84 removes the legacy Bridge, requiring a full migration to TurboModules (New Architecture).
• react-native-notify-kit targets React Native 0.73 to 0.84, with Android bridges rewritten in Kotlin.
• Android 14+ requires explicit foregroundServiceType declarations in the AndroidManifest to prevent runtime failures.
• The fork resolves long-standing iOS delegate lifecycle issues that caused lost events when using Firebase Messaging.

Working Examples

Migration command to swap the archived library with the maintained fork.

yarn remove @notifee/react-native
yarn add react-native-notify-kit

Drop-in replacement for imports while maintaining the same public API.

- import notifee from '@notifee/react-native';
+ import notifee from 'react-native-notify-kit';

Practical Applications

• Workout tracking apps: Utilize foreground-service timers and set counters that remain active when the screen is off.
• Alarm and Call systems: Implement full-screen intents for time-sensitive notifications, avoiding the limitations of standard local notifications.
• Pitfall: Failing to declare a foregroundServiceType on Android 14+ when using asForegroundService will cause the library to fail fast with a runtime error.

References:

• https://github.com/marcocrupi/react-native-notify-kit
• https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-native-notify-kit
• https://github.com/marcocrupi/react-native-notify-kit/blob/main/README.md
• https://github.com/marcocrupi/react-native-notify-kit/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md
• https://github.com/invertase/notifee