Remove Expo peer dependency — support bare React Native projects

[blick]

Context

We would like to use this SDK in a bare React Native project, but expo is listed as a peer dependency, which prevents this.

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Investigation findings

After a full investigation including runtime testing, the Expo dependency is deeper than initially apparent. There are two layers:

1. JS layer — requireNativeModule from expo

src/CookieInformationRNSDKModule.ts imports requireNativeModule from expo to access the native module. Replacing this with NativeModules from react-native is technically straightforward, but it does not work as long as the native modules are built on ExpoModulesCore — because ExpoModulesCore registers modules in its own system, separate from the classic React Native bridge. NativeModules.CookieInformationRNSDK returns null at runtime.

2. Native layer — ExpoModulesCore (the real dependency)

Both native implementations extend Expo's module system:

• iOS (ios/CookieInformationRNSDKModule.swift): import ExpoModulesCore, extends Module
• Android (android/src/main/java/expo/modules/mobileconsentssdk/CookieInformationRNSDKModule.kt): package expo.modules.mobileconsentssdk, uses Expo module registration

This is the root cause. expo-modules-core must be present as a native dependency regardless of what the JS layer does.

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What a real fix requires

To remove the Expo peer dependency entirely, both native modules need to be rewritten using the standard React Native bridge:

• iOS: Replace ExpoModulesCore with RCTBridgeModule / RCTEventEmitter
• Android: Replace Expo module registration with a standard ReactPackage + ReactContextBaseJavaModule

The JS layer change (requireNativeModule → NativeModules) follows naturally once the native side is updated.

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Current workaround

None — bare React Native projects without expo-modules-core cannot use this SDK today.

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Would you be open to rewriting the native modules to use the standard React Native bridge?

[mandrzej]

Hi @blick,

Thanks for the thorough investigation, your analysis of both the JS and native layers is spot on.

We agree this is worth doing. Removing the Expo dependency and rewriting the native modules to use the standard React Native bridge is something we can take on.

Before we schedule the work - how urgent is this for your project? Are you blocked right now, or is there some flexibility on timing? This will help us prioritize accordingly.

[blick]

Hi @mandrzej

This is not an urgent at all for me at least, because I was not able to wait for this for now. So I added headless api support for my own developed bridge package which we were hoping to replace with this package. No pressure on timeline from my side.