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After setting up your Firebase project and adding your environment variables to the repository as explained in Get Starter Docs, now you are ready to go!

Run Firebase Functions Locally

1. Install dependencies inside react-native-starter-backend/functions folder by running the commands below:

bash

cd ./react-native-starter-backend/functions && npm install

And also install firebase-tools globally on your machine with the command below:(This is needed for running Firebase functions locally)

bash

npm install -g firebase-tools

2. After installing the dependencies, now you are ready to run your backend locally with the serve command below:(Make sure that you are using node with >= 18 version)

bash

npm run serve

After you run the serve command above, you should be able to see the terminal output below:

Serving firebase functions locally terminal output

Run iOS Locally

Being able to run iOS locally on iPhone simulator, you need to have MacOS machine. If you have one, you are ready to go! If not, you can continue with Android section for sure!

1. Open iPhone simulator locally by running the command below or opening up xCode and launching manually as shown in the screenshot below:

Terminal

open -a Simulator.app

2. After opening up your iOS simulator like below, you need to execute run command for iOS on your terminal and your React Native Starter AI will be launched on the simulator opened. In the first time that you run npm run ios command, a new ios directory will get created on your repository.

Terminal

npm run ios

After you run npm run ios command, React Native Starter AI demo app will be opened with all of its UI and functionality in your local like below:

React Native Starter AI demo app running on iOS simulator

Run Android Locally

Being able to run on Android locally, first you need to download Android Studio and Android Emulators. You can check the official installation guide of them from these links.

1. After downloading Android Studio and emulators, you can launch an emulator on your local with the following command or open up a new emulator from Android Studio manually as shown in the screenshot below:

Opening Android Studio Virtual Device Manager

List Android Emulators on Windows:

Terminal

%userProfile%\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\emulator/emulator -list-avds

List Android Emulators on MacOS:

Terminal

~/Library/Android/sdk/emulator/emulator -list-avds

After you run the list command above, you will be able to see an output like below showing your available Android emulators installed on your computer.

Listing installed android emulators on Terminal

After choosing which Android emulator you like to launch, you can launch it with the commands below depending on your environment being MacOS or Windows:

Launch Android Emulator on Windows:

Terminal

%userProfile%\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\emulator/emulator -avd {AVD_NAME}

Launch Android Emulator on MacOS:

Terminal

~/Library/Android/sdk/emulator/emulator -avd {AVD_NAME}

Also don't forget to setup ANDROID_HOME environment variable as below:

Set ANDROID_HOME on Windows:

Terminal

set ANDROID_HOME=%userProfile%\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\

Set ANDROID_HOME on MacOS:

Terminal

export ANDROID_HOME=~/Library/Android/sdk/

After running the command above depending on your environment, your selected Android emulator will get launched. Now you are ready to run React Native Starter AI app on your Android emulator with the command below:

Terminal

npm run android

In the first time that you run npm run android command, a new android directory will get created on your repository.

After you run npm run android command, React Native Starter AI demo app will be opened with all of its UI and functionality in your local Android emulator like below:

React Native Starter AI demo app running on Android simulator