Mobile surface matrix

Copy Markdown View Source

What Mob covers — what's solid, what's partial, what's missing. Use this to set realistic expectations before starting an app, and to spot gaps worth filling (either in mob core, in a plugin, or by declaring out-of-scope).

The reference surface is the union of React Native core, Expo SDK modules, and platform-native capabilities both ecosystems have converged on as "what mobile apps need." Many missing items are pluggable — see MOB_PLUGINS.md for the manifest spec.

This doc is hand-maintained from inspection of lib/mob/ and src/mob_nif.erl. If you add a capability, update the matching row.

Legend

✅Fully present — public Elixir API, both iOS + Android (unless noted)
🟡Partial — works but limited (single platform, narrow API, or known caveats)
❌Missing — could be a plugin or future core addition
⛔Out of scope — requires separate deployment target (widgets, Watch app), or fundamentally incompatible with Mob's architecture

Per-platform columns: ✓ = supported, — = not supported, n/a = not applicable on that platform.

A ✅ capability may live in core or in a first-party plugin (0.7.0 extracted camera, photos, location, notifications, biometrics, scanning, and Bluetooth into mob_* capability packages). The Notes column names the supplying plugin; rows without one are core. Plugins activate with the dep + config :mob, :plugins, [...] in mob.exs — see the Plugins guide.

UI components (render tree)

Elements you can use inside ~MOB. The set is intentionally small and orthogonal — composition over a fat component library.

ComponentStatusiOSAndroidNotes
<Box>✅✓✓Container with align, padding, background, corner radius, border
<Column>, <Row>✅✓✓Flex layouts
<Text>✅✓✓Font, color, size, weight, align, line height, letter spacing
<Button>✅✓✓Tap handler, text, background, fill width
<Image>✅✓✓Local + remote (Coil on Android, AsyncImage on iOS)
<TextField>✅✓✓Keyboard type, return key, placeholder, change events
<Toggle>✅✓✓Boolean switch
<Slider>✅✓✓Min/max/value, change events
<Progress>✅✓✓Linear + circular
<Divider>✅✓✓Horizontal line separator
<Spacer>✅✓✓Layout filler
<Scroll>✅✓✓Vertical or horizontal, scroll observation on iOS 18+
<List>✅✓✓Vertical / horizontal stack with selection
<LazyList>✅✓✓Virtualised long-list with on_end_reached pagination
<TabBar>✅✓✓Bottom tab bar (Material 3 NavigationBar on Android, SwiftUI Tab on iOS)
<WebView>✅✓✓Inline web view, JS bridge, navigation control
<CameraPreview>✅✓✓Live preview with frame stream
<Video>🟡✓🟡Android: ExoPlayer integration pending
<GpuView>✅✓✓Metal (iOS) / GLES 3.0 (Android) fragment shader surface
Custom views via <NativeView>✅✓✓Register a plugin-defined render-tree node type
Date / Time / Color pickers❌——Plugin candidate
<SearchBar>❌——Native search bar (UISearchBar / SearchBar). Plugin candidate
<DatePicker>❌——Plugin candidate
<Modal> (sheet presentation)✅✓✓Mob.UI.sheet/2 — native modal sheet composing ordinary Mob nodes (iOS .sheet, Android Material 3 ModalBottomSheet). Android needs an app generated by mob_new ≥ 0.4.24. Programmatic alerts + action sheets also available via Mob.Alert
Pull-to-refresh❌——Missing; commonly requested. Plugin candidate
Bottom sheets✅✓✓Same primitive as <Modal> above — Mob.UI.sheet/2 with :detents ([:medium, :large] subset). iOS cannot set the system dimming opacity, so :scrim is applied exactly on Android and approximated on iOS
Drawer navigation❌——Plugin candidate; mob's nav model is stack-based today

Touch, gesture, input

CapabilityStatusiOSAndroidNotes
Tap / double-tap / long-press✅✓✓on_tap, on_double_tap, on_long_press props
Swipe (l/r/u/d)✅✓✓on_swipe_left, etc.
Pan / drag gesture🟡🟡🟡Tap-based; full pan-responder system (like react-native-gesture-handler) is missing
Pinch / zoom❌——Plugin candidate; common for image/map views
Rotation gesture❌——Plugin candidate
Hardware keyboard events❌——key_press/1 exists for the test harness but not as a user-facing API
Keyboard show/hide events❌——Missing; commonly needed for keyboard-aware layouts
<KeyboardAvoidingView> equivalent❌——Plugin / core candidate
Apple Pencil / stylus events❌—n/aPlugin territory
3D Touch / Force Touch❌—n/aDeprecated by Apple; low priority
Drag and drop (cross-app)❌——Plugin candidate
Haptic feedback✅✓✓Mob.Haptic.trigger/2

Device + system info

CapabilityStatusiOSAndroidNotes
Platform detection✅✓✓Mob.Device.platform/0 returns :ios or :android
OS version✅✓✓Mob.Device.os_version/0
Device model✅✓✓Mob.Device.model/0
Foreground / background state✅✓✓Mob.Device.foreground?/0 + {:device, :foreground/:background, ...} events
Battery level + state✅✓✓Mob.Device.battery_level/0, battery_state/0
Thermal state✅✓✓Mob.Device.thermal_state/0
Low-power mode✅✓✓Mob.Device.low_power_mode?/0
Color scheme (light/dark)✅✓✓Mob.Theme.color_scheme/0 + Mob.Theme.Adaptive (auto-watch)
Safe area insets✅✓✓Mob.Device.safe_area/0
Screen dimensions / pixel ratio✅✓✓Mob.Device.screen_info/0
Locale / language🟡🟡🟡Derivable from system; no first-class API
Time zone🟡🟡🟡Use Erlang's :calendar directly
Network info (cell vs wifi, type)❌——Plugin candidate (NetInfo equivalent)
Network reachability❌——Plugin candidate
Screen brightness❌——Plugin candidate
Screen orientation lock✅✓✓Mob.Device.lock_orientation/1 + unlock_orientation/0 (Android setRequestedOrientation; iOS supported-orientations + geometry request)
Idle timer / screen wake✅✓✓Mob.Device.keep_awake/1 — prevent auto-dim/lock (iOS isIdleTimerDisabled; Android FLAG_KEEP_SCREEN_ON)
Exit app✅n/a✓Android only; iOS forbids programmatic exit

Storage

CapabilityStatusiOSAndroidNotes
Key-value store✅✓✓Mob.Storage with typed schemas, namespacing
Files API✅✓✓Mob.Files, plus Mob.Storage.dir/1 for app-private paths
External files dir (Android)✅n/a✓storage_external_files_dir/1
Save to photo library✅✓✓Mob.Storage.save_to_photo_library/1 + Android MediaStore equivalent
SQLite✅✓✓Via :ecto_sqlite3 + bundled libsqlite3_nif.so
Keychain / Keystore❌——Plugin candidate (standalone API beyond biometric)
Secure-storage / encrypted-storage❌——Plugin candidate

Camera + microphone

CapabilityStatusiOSAndroidNotes
Capture photo✅✓✓MobCamera.capture_photo/2 (mob_camera plugin)
Capture video✅✓✓MobCamera.capture_video/2 (mob_camera plugin)
Live preview✅✓✓<CameraPreview> component (core; session API in mob_camera)
Per-frame stream✅✓✓MobCamera.start_frame_stream/2 (mob_camera plugin) — pushes RGBA frames to handle_info
Photo library picker✅✓✓MobPhotos.pick/2 (mob_photos plugin)
Audio recording✅✓✓Mob.Audio.start_recording/2
Audio playback✅✓✓Mob.Audio.play/3, stop, volume
Text-to-speech✅✓✓Mob.Speech.speak/3 + stop_speaking/1 (AVSpeechSynthesizer / TextToSpeech)
Speech recognition❌——Plugin candidate (SFSpeechRecognizer / SpeechRecognizer)
Voice activity detection❌——Plugin candidate
Audio effects (reverb, EQ)❌——Plugin candidate
Camera zoom / focus / exposure🟡🟡🟡Basic capture works; fine-grained control missing
Torch / flashlight✅✓✓Mob.Torch.on/1, off/1, set/2 — core, no camera session or permission. On/off only (brightness level is a follow-up)

Connectivity

CapabilityStatusiOSAndroidNotes
Bluetooth Classic✅n/a✓MobBluetooth plugin (extracted; Hfp / Spp sub-modules) — central/host role, Android only
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)🟡✓✓MobBluetooth.Le (mob_bluetooth 0.3.0) — GATT peripheral role only (advertise + notify + receive writes), iOS + Android; BLE central (scan/connect) is a future addition
NFC❌——Plugin candidate (Core NFC / Android NFC)
WiFi info / scanning❌——Plugin candidate; OS restrictions apply
USB host✅n/a✓Mob.VendorUsb — bulk read/write, custom devices
WebSocket client🟡n/an/aUse Elixir libs directly (e.g. :gun)
HTTP client🟡n/an/aUse Elixir libs (:req, :finch)
File upload progress❌——Plugin candidate
Background download/upload❌——Plugin candidate
mDNS / Bonjour❌——Plugin candidate
Sockets (raw TCP/UDP)🟡n/an/aUse Erlang's :gen_tcp/:gen_udp
Mob.Dist (BEAM clustering)✅✓✓Hot-push, device → desktop connection

Sensors

CapabilityStatusiOSAndroidNotes
Accelerometer✅✓✓Mob.Motion.start(:accelerometer, ...)
Gyroscope✅✓✓Mob.Motion.start(:gyro, ...)
Magnetometer✅✓✓Mob.Motion.start(:magnetometer, ...) — µT-calibrated mag + fused heading (0.7.14); keys present only when :magnetometer requested
Barometer❌——Plugin candidate
Proximity❌——Plugin candidate
Ambient light❌——Plugin candidate
Pedometer / step counter❌——Plugin candidate
Compass / heading✅✓✓Fused heading (degrees from magnetic north) via Mob.Motion :magnetometer — same request as above

Location

CapabilityStatusiOSAndroidNotes
One-shot location✅✓✓MobLocation.get_once/1 (mob_location plugin)
Continuous updates✅✓✓MobLocation.start/2, stop (mob_location plugin)
Background location🟡🟡🟡Mob's foreground-service keep-alive lets updates continue while backgrounded; not a true background-location API
Geofencing❌——Plugin candidate (CLCircularRegion / Geofencing API)
Significant-change updates❌——Plugin candidate (iOS)
Mock-location detection❌——Plugin candidate
Reverse geocoding❌——Use third-party API for now (e.g. Mapbox)

Notifications

CapabilityStatusiOSAndroidNotes
Local notification scheduling✅✓✓MobNotify.schedule/2, cancel (mob_notify plugin)
Push notification registration✅✓✓MobNotify.register_push/1 (mob_notify plugin) → token to handle_info
Push delivery via APNs / FCM✅✓✓Via mob_push Hex package
Notification tap handling🟡🟡🟡Foreground + background work. Cold-start does not: the payload is stored before the NIF loads, so it is dropped and take_launch_notification/0 returns nil (#81, fix in #77)
Notification actions (buttons)❌——Plugin / core candidate
Critical / time-sensitive flags (iOS)❌—n/aPlugin candidate
Notification grouping / threading❌——Plugin candidate
Badge management🟡🟡🟡Basic only

Background tasks

CapabilityStatusiOSAndroidNotes
Foreground service / keep-alive✅✓✓MobBackground.keep_alive/0 (mob_background plugin)
Background fetch (silent periodic)❌——Plugin candidate (iOS Background Tasks framework / Android WorkManager)
Silent push handling🟡🟡🟡Push arrives but no dedicated "wake-and-handle-then-suspend" lifecycle
Background URL session❌——Plugin candidate
Scheduled jobs (periodic / one-shot)❌——Plugin candidate (WorkManager equivalent)

Auth + payment

CapabilityStatusiOSAndroidNotes
Biometric auth (Face ID / fingerprint)✅✓✓MobBiometric.authenticate/2 (mob_biometric plugin)
Apple Sign-In❌—n/aPlugin candidate (common requirement for App Store)
Google Sign-In❌——Plugin candidate
Sign in with X / Facebook / etc.❌——Plugin candidate
OAuth flow helpers❌——Plugin candidate; can mostly be done from Elixir
In-app purchase (StoreKit / Play Billing)❌——Plugin candidate; sensitive — needs receipt validation
Apple Pay❌—n/aPlugin candidate
Google Pay❌——Plugin candidate
Passkeys / WebAuthn❌——Plugin candidate

ML / Vision

CapabilityStatusiOSAndroidNotes
QR / barcode scanning✅✓✓MobScanner.scan/2 (mob_scanner plugin; activate mob_camera too — it owns :camera) — full-screen scanner with format filtering
TFLite model inference✅✓✓Via mix mob.enable tflite (mob_dev 0.5.7+) — NNAPI/MTK on Android, Core ML delegate on iOS
Nx-based inference🟡🟡🟡Via nx_eigen exploration; not formalised
Apple Vision framework wrappers❌—n/aPlugin candidate (text recognition, face detection, image classification)
Apple Foundation Models (LLM)❌—n/aPlugin in flight — see mob PR #8 (DRAFT)
MLKit wrappers (Android)🟡n/a🟡Barcode scanning uses it under the hood; other models (text, face, pose) are plugin territory
OCR (text recognition)❌——Plugin candidate
Face detection❌——Plugin candidate
Pose detection❌——Plugin candidate
Speech-to-text❌——Plugin candidate
Translation❌——Plugin candidate
Smart Reply❌——Plugin candidate

Maps

CapabilityStatusiOSAndroidNotes
Native map view❌——Plugin candidate (Apple Maps / Google Maps)
Annotations / markers❌——Plugin candidate
Polylines / polygons❌——Plugin candidate
User location display❌——Plugin candidate
Map tile providers (Mapbox, etc.)❌——Plugin candidate

System integration

CapabilityStatusiOSAndroidNotes
Clipboard✅✓✓Mob.Clipboard.put/1, get/0
Open URL (deep linking, browser)✅✓✓Mob.Device.open_url/1 — picks browser, mail, tel, etc.
Share sheet (text)✅✓✓Mob.Share.text/1
Share sheet (image / file)❌——Plugin candidate
Document picker✅✓✓Mob.Files.pick/1
Action sheet (iOS-style menu)✅✓✓action_sheet_show/2 via Mob.Alert
Toast (Android-style)✅✓✓toast_show/2 — implemented on both platforms
Alert dialog✅✓✓Mob.Alert.alert/2
Vibration patterns✅✓✓Via Mob.Haptic
App settings page (open)❌——Plugin candidate
Calendar events❌——Plugin candidate
Contacts❌——Plugin candidate
Reminders (iOS)❌—n/aPlugin candidate
Permissions facade✅✓✓Mob.Permissions.request/2 for camera, microphone, photos, location, notifications

Accessibility

CapabilityStatusiOSAndroidNotes
Accessibility labels / hints🟡🟡🟡Some component props expose this; not uniform across all components
Screen reader announcements (imperative)❌——Plugin / core candidate
Focus management (programmatic)❌——Plugin / core candidate
Reduce-motion preference❌——Plugin candidate
Bold-text preference❌——Plugin candidate
Dynamic type / font scaling🟡🟡🟡iOS automatic via system size; explicit override needed
RTL support🟡🟡🟡Layout-engine level; no explicit I18nManager equivalent
Accessibility test inspection✅✓✓Mob.Test reads the AX tree for assertion-based UI testing

iOS-only platform features

CapabilityStatusNotes
Live Activities / Dynamic Island⛔Requires Widget Extension target — separate from main app; not a Mob template today
Widgets (home + lock screen)⛔Same — Widget Extension target
App Clips⛔App Clip target; not in Mob templates
Watch app companion⛔WatchKit target; not in Mob templates
Share extensions⛔Share Extension target; not in Mob templates
Today extensions (deprecated by Apple)⛔—
Background App Refresh❌Plugin candidate
Apple Pencil events❌Plugin candidate
Multi-window (iPad)🟡App runs but no first-class multi-scene API
Split View / Slide Over🟡Same as multi-window
Picture in Picture (video)❌Plugin candidate
Universal Links / Custom URL Scheme🟡Open URL works; route registration is per-app, no unified API
Handoff / NSUserActivity❌Plugin candidate
Spotlight indexing❌Plugin candidate
App Shortcuts (Siri integration)❌Plugin candidate

Android-only platform features

CapabilityStatusNotes
Home screen widgets⛔AppWidgetProvider — separate component, not in Mob templates
Quick Settings tiles⛔TileService — separate component
App Shortcuts (long-press launcher)❌Plugin candidate
Picture in Picture❌Plugin candidate
Multi-window✅Works via resizable activity flag
Split-screen✅Works via resizable activity flag
Foldable / large-screen support🟡Layout adapts; no first-class foldable APIs
Auto Backup✅Honored by default per AndroidManifest
Doze mode handling❌Plugin candidate (alarm/wake-up scheduling)
Direct Share❌Plugin candidate
Notification channels (configurable)🟡Default channel works; per-app multi-channel API is partial

Architecturally not present (and probably shouldn't be)

ItemWhy
JavaScript / TypeScript runtimeMob's host language is Elixir/Erlang/Gleam on BEAM; bridging JS would defeat the architecture
React reconcilerMob has its own render tree; no React VDOM under it
CSS / Yoga flexbox engineiOS uses SwiftUI layout; Android uses Compose layout; both are native flexbox-equivalents
XMLHttpRequest / fetch polyfillUse Erlang/Elixir HTTP libraries directly (:req, :finch, :gun)
Babel / Metro / bundlerBEAM bytecode replaces JS bundling; mix mob.push ships .beam directly

How to use this matrix

  • Starting a new app: scan the ❌ rows first to see what would need to be a plugin or worked around.
  • Reporting a gap: if something here is wrong (mob has a capability I missed, or partial that's actually full), the doc is hand-maintained — please open a PR or flag it.
  • Filling a gap as a plugin: see MOB_PLUGINS.md for the manifest spec. Most ❌ rows are plugin candidates (tier 1 or tier 2 depending on whether they ship UI).
  • Filling a gap in core: when a capability is universal enough (every app needs it, both platforms support it cleanly) it's worth landing in core rather than as a plugin. The boundary is fuzzy; raising a discussion before doing the work is the right call.

This matrix isn't a roadmap commitment — it's a snapshot of reality. Some ❌ rows may stay ❌ for a long time because no one's asked. Others will land via community plugins. The intent is honest disclosure, not a promise of feature parity with React Native.

  • MOB_PLUGINS.md — plugin manifest spec for filling missing capabilities without merging into core
  • RELEASE.md — release process if you're shipping a new capability that lands in core
  • guides/styling.md — visual styling for the components above (tokens, themes, dark mode)
  • guides/support_matrix.md — minimum OS / ABI / SDK supported (a different "support matrix" — platform versions rather than capabilities)