--- title: Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry React Native description: The Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry React Native (EDOT React Native) lets React Native applications send telemetry to Elastic through EDOT Android and EDOT iOS. url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4843/reference/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/react-native products: - Elastic Cloud Serverless - Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry React Native - Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry SDK - Elastic Observability applies_to: - Serverless Observability projects: Generally available - Elastic Stack: Generally available - Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry React Native: Preview since 0.1 --- # Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry React Native The Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry React Native (EDOT React Native) is the `@elastic/otel-react-native` package. It runs [EDOT Android](https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/android) and [EDOT iOS](https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/ios) in your React Native application, so the app sends traces, logs, and crash reports to Elastic with a few setup commands and a small JavaScript API. EDOT React Native is released as a technical preview. The stack and serverless products referred to in this documentation are GA and compatible with EDOT React Native. EDOT React Native supports bare React Native applications and Expo applications that generate their native projects with `npx expo prebuild`. See the [requirements](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4843/reference/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/react-native/getting-started#requirements) and [Set up an Expo app](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4843/reference/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/react-native/getting-started#set-up-an-expo-app). The telemetry from your app helps you better understand its performance, for example through: - [Distributed tracing](#distributed-tracing) - [Session review](#session-review) - [Alerts, dashboards, and more](#alerts-dashboards-and-more) ## Distributed tracing Distributed tracing shows how long your app waits for your backend services to respond, and why. For example, a trace can contain: - A span created in your app for an outgoing HTTP request. - A span created in the backend service that receives the request. - Additional spans created when the backend calls another service or queries a database. You can select any span in Kibana to view its timing, attributes, and relationship to the rest of the trace. For distributed tracing to show the complete request, configure your backend services to send telemetry to the same Elastic deployment. ## Session review EDOT Android and EDOT iOS add a `session.id` attribute to the spans and logs that your app sends. You can group the telemetry from one app session and follow the steps that led to an error or a slow screen. For example, you can emit a log when a user taps a button and start a span when the next screen loads. Both carry the same `session.id`, so you can find them together in Discover and follow the user's journey. ## Alerts, dashboards, and more With the [manual instrumentation](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4843/reference/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/react-native/manual-instrumentation) API, you can send spans and logs that represent your app's own features and workflows, and then: - [Create alerts](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4843/explore-analyze/alerting/alerts) when an error occurs or a performance threshold is exceeded. - [Build dashboards](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4843/explore-analyze/dashboards) that show the data most important to your app. - Use [Discover](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4843/explore-analyze/discover) to search spans, logs, and their attributes. ## Features ### Native SDK ownership EDOT Android and EDOT iOS initialize OpenTelemetry in your app and own export, buffering, sessions, sampling, automatic instrumentation, and crash reporting. On Android, the app applies the EDOT Android agent, OkHttp, and crash Gradle plugins. On iOS, EDOT iOS provides its URLSession, view-controller, lifecycle, system-metric, persistence, session, and crash behavior with its default configuration. Both SDKs start from native code before React Native loads; see [Bootstrap before React Native](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4843/reference/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/react-native/getting-started#bootstrap-before-react-native). ### Host setup commands The [`setup-android`](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4843/reference/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/react-native/getting-started#run-automated-android-setup) and [`setup-ios`](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4843/reference/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/react-native/getting-started#set-up-ios) commands add the native build lines your app needs. React Native autolinking registers the package on both platforms, so you do not register it by hand. ### Widget tap events An opt-in Babel plugin records taps on React Native's buttons, pressables, and touchables, and on the app and library components you list, as `app.widget.click` events. Each event identifies the widget from its props or visible text. See [Widget tap events](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4843/reference/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/react-native/automatic-instrumentation#widget-tap-events). ### Manual spans and logs A promise-based JavaScript API reports readiness, creates named spans with parent and child relationships, emits logs with a severity, and records widget clicks. See [Manual instrumentation](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4843/reference/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/react-native/manual-instrumentation). ### Crash reporting EDOT Android and EDOT iOS capture native crashes. See [Crash reporting](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4843/reference/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/react-native/configuration#crash-reporting). ## Try it out Follow the [EDOT React Native demo](https://github.com/elastic/elastic-otel-react-native-demo) guide to run an end-to-end weather application and inspect its telemetry in Kibana. If you're ready to instrument your own app, continue with [Get started](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4843/reference/opentelemetry/edot-sdks/react-native/getting-started).