Add support for displaying full-screen notifications on both Android and iOS — similar to WhatsApp, Telegram, or Zoho Cliq — to enable incoming call or urgent alert experiences directly through Expo Notifications without requiring ejecting or native modules.

Motivation

Currently, Expo’s expo-notifications API supports displaying high-importance notifications, actions, and categories.

However, there’s no way to display a full-screen notification that can wake the screen, bypass the lock screen, or launch a specific activity/view — which is essential for:

Incoming call UIs (VoIP or video calls)

Alarm-style urgent alerts

Emergency or real-time attention events

These are standard capabilities in native Android (fullScreenIntent) and iOS (via CallKit), but there’s no managed Expo-level support yet.

Proposed Solution

Add a property to displayNotification() like:

await Notifications.displayNotificationAsync({

title: 'Incoming Call',

body: 'John is calling...',

android: {

category: 'call',

importance: Notifications.AndroidImportance.HIGH,

fullScreenIntent: true, // 👈 new property

fullScreenAction: 'IncomingCall', // optional target view

},

ios: {

fullScreen: true, // optional; may require CallKit integration

},

});

This would internally use:

Android: NotificationCompat.Builder.setFullScreenIntent()

iOS: Integrate with CallKit or allow a custom full-screen modal when unlocked.

Benefits

Enables true calling experiences in Expo-managed projects (like WhatsApp or Cliq).

Removes the need to eject or use libraries like react-native-callkeep or notifee.

Allows apps to handle real-time communication flows entirely in Expo.