Wrong status bar color

[Parveshdhull]

Report: https://www.figma.com/design/tvE6qvOmcfJC5bjFpxJNoh?node-id=2-5#838350076

Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/1210237582470807632/1217173176086302821/1252624401732730985

[Parveshdhull]

Related Issue

• status bar is black in a dark theme #19720 status bar is black in a dark theme status bar is black in a dark theme #19720
• Updating status bar using merge options not working on iOS #15260 Updating status bar using merge options not working Updating status bar using merge options not working on iOS #15260
• Opening and closing the AC causes the status bar to have the wrong colors (no issue).
• Somewhat related to Spike: POC and report on new Navigation library #20471 Spike: POC and report on new Navigation library Spike: POC and report on new Navigation library #20471

[Parveshdhull]

More information: #19089

[Parveshdhull]

Ok, there were a bunch of wrong things that caused the wrong status bar color in ios

1. Main problem
   

   status-mobile/ios/StatusIm/Info.plist

   Line 123 in 66785d0

   <string>UIStatusBarStyleLightContent</string>

   
   While implementing the splash screen we hard coded statusBar color to light. This caused the status-bar color provided by the navigation library while setting root have no effect

2. Then when status bar color management by rnn stopped working, in Fix statusbar color on dark screens #18785 we started to use react native module StatusBar directly to change color. But this only worked in the simulator

3. Another problem was we were not providing theme value at the time of setRoot. So set root also had the wrong status for the dark theme. But interestingly this had no effect, because for Android we were updating the status bar with the right value after login dynamically and IOS was broken so did not affect right or wrong values.

So I removed hardcoding and fixed issue in #20540. Also checked splash screen, removal had no effect in both themes.

Note: PR only fixes these bugs, not the actual limitations we have with rnn mergeOptions with ios - #15260
So the status bar should be correct after login but will be broken by theme change. But as theme change is not that common, and after relogin, it will works fine, we can ignore this flow.

cc @ilmotta @J-Son89

[ilmotta]

Excellent summary @Parveshdhull.

My only concern is that theme changes are common for certain users (once or twice every day). We want users to stay as much as possible in the app and if they need to close the app to get the theme correctly we might be affecting user retention due to frustration. I think it's a minor bug, but a pesky one for certain users that marked in the Status settings that they want to track theme changes from the system/OS.

So the status bar should be correct after login but will be broken by theme change.

Do you mean that the improvements you found will introduce this regression or does this problem already exist?

[Parveshdhull]

Thank you @ilmotta

Do you mean that the improvements you found will introduce this regression or does this problem already exist?

This problem already exists and is a technical limitation of RNN. IOS is not able to change the theme at runtime at all, and Android will change color but with some limitations as mentioned in #15596 and Known Issues section of Android in #19089 (comment)

if they need to close the app to get the theme correctly

To be clear, the theme change will work fine, only the status bar will remain the same as before the theme change. So the usability of the app will not be affected. But yes it will be a little annoying, but I think maybe somewhat under-stable as theme change is a significant event and the user will be mentally ready to see the app change.

[Parveshdhull]

To be clear, the theme change will work fine, only the status bar will remain the same as before the theme chang

For example #19367

[ilmotta]

To be clear, the theme change will work fine, only the status bar will remain the same as before the theme change.So the usability of the app will not be affected.

In that case as you suggested originally it seems fine for now 👍🏼 Thank you @Parveshdhull