When to use TouchableNativeFeedback, TouchableHighlight or TouchableOpacity?

Solution 1:

source: https://medium.com/differential/better-cross-platform-react-native-components-cb8aadeba472, by Nick Wientge

TouchableHighlight

• What it does: Darkens or lightens the background of the element when pressed.

• When to use it: On iOS for touchable elements or buttons that have a solid shape or background, and on ListView items.

TouchableOpacity

• What it does: Lightens the opacity of the entire element when pressed.

• When to use it: On iOS for touchable elements that are standalone text or icons with no background color.

TouchableNativeFeedback

• What it does: Adds a ripple effect to the background when pressed.

• When to use it: On Android for almost all touchable elements.

Solution 2:

Well, This is how I typically decide what to use:

• If I'm building for Android-only, and the component is large enough that the native feedback will be visibly different than using the others then I use TouchableNativeFeedback
• If I want to control the opacity on the component or I want the button to have color when touched, and I don't want to control the focused state of some element inside the Touchable, then I use TouchableHighlight. (TouchableOpacity has got some weird parts when you control opacity yourself).
• In all other cases, I use TouchableOpacity because it's more "bare" than TouchableHighlight

Solution 3:

I think the main essential difference as stated in Docs:

TouchableHighlight must have one child (not zero or more than one). If you wish to have several child components, wrap them in a View.link

TouchableHighlight

TouchableHighlight A wrapper for making views respond properly to touches. On press down, the opacity of the wrapped view is decreased, which allows the underlay color to show through, darkening or tinting the view.

The underlay comes from wrapping the child in a new View, which can affect layout, and sometimes cause unwanted visual artifacts if not used correctly, for example if the backgroundColor of the wrapped view isn't explicitly set to an opaque color.

TouchableOpacity

TouchableOpacity # A wrapper for making views respond properly to touches. On press down, the opacity of the wrapped view is decreased, dimming it.