Progressive Blur Effect in React Native CLI Guide

Achieve a progressive blur effect in React Native CLI by masking a BlurView from @react-native-community/blur with a linear gradient overlay using @react-native-masked-view/masked-view and react-native-linear-gradient. This technique blends blur intensity smoothly from the top and bottom edges toward a sharp center, dodging those pesky hard boundaries you’ve hit with uniform BlurView or simple layering. Libraries like react-native-progressive-blur-view or @sbaiahmed1/react-native-blur wrap this for even easier setup, but the core masking approach works standalone.

Contents

• Understanding Progressive Blur
• Key Dependencies
• Installation Guide
• Core Implementation
• Customizing for Edge-to-Center Blend
• Advanced Libraries and Alternatives
• Troubleshooting Common Issues
• Sources
• Conclusion

Understanding Progressive Blur

Ever notice those sleek iOS cards or app headers where the blur effect fades in softly from the edges, leaving the middle crisp? That’s progressive blur—not a flat wash of Gaussian noise, but a gradient blur that ramps up intensity directionally. In React Native, uniform tools like BlurView slap on the same haze everywhere, creating jarring edges when you stack or overlay them.

The fix? Masking. Picture this: your content sits sharp underneath. Over it, a BlurView captures the same scene but hazed out. A linear gradient acts as a mask—transparent at the center (sharp wins), black/opaque at edges (full blur effect shows through). No boundaries because the mask blends pixel-by-pixel. A Stack Overflow thread nails this for CLI projects, and it’s battle-tested.

Why does it feel magical? Native blur engines (UIVisualEffectView on iOS, RenderScript on Android) handle the heavy lifting, while the mask ensures soft blur effect progression without repaints or lag.

Key Dependencies

You can’t wing this with basics. Here’s the trio that makes progressive blur in React Native CLI tick:

• @react-native-masked-view/masked-view: The masker. Clips your BlurView using a gradient as the stencil.
• @react-native-community/blur: Powers the actual blur—BlurView with types like light, dark, or systemMaterial.
• react-native-linear-gradient: Crafts the mask gradient, e.g., transparent center fading to opaque edges.

Optional but slick: Reanimated for scroll-tied animations, though static works fine first.

These play nice cross-platform. iOS? Native vibrancy. Android? Backdrop filters. No Expo lock-in.

Installation Guide

Fire up your terminal. Assuming a fresh CLI project:

npm install @react-native-masked-view/masked-view @react-native-community/blur react-native-linear-gradient
# or yarn add ...

iOS specifics (the picky one):

cd ios && pod install

Android: Mostly auto-links, but if linking gripes, add to MainApplication.java:

import com.swmansion.reanimated.ReanimatedJSIModulePackage; // If using Reanimated later

Clean rebuild: npx react-native run-ios or run-android. Test on device—simulators fake blur poorly.

Pro tip: Bump to latest versions. The progressive-blur-view GitHub lists exact peers to dodge version hell.

Core Implementation

Time to code. Wrap your content in a MaskedView. The mask? A LinearGradient going transparent (center sharp) to black (edges blurred).

Here’s a full screen example—drop it in your component:

import React from 'react';
import { View, Text, StyleSheet, Dimensions } from 'react-native';
import MaskedView from '@react-native-masked-view/masked-view';
import { BlurView } from '@react-native-community/blur';
import LinearGradient from 'react-native-linear-gradient';

const { height: screenHeight } = Dimensions.get('window');

const ProgressiveBlurScreen = () => (
 <View style={styles.container}>
 {/* Your sharp content */}
 <Text style={styles.content}>This stays crisp in the center!</Text>
 
 {/* The magic: Masked blur overlay */}
 <MaskedView
 style={StyleSheet.absoluteFill}
 maskElement={
 <View style={StyleSheet.absoluteFill}>
 <LinearGradient
 colors={['black', 'black', 'transparent', 'transparent', 'black', 'black']}
 locations={[0, 0.25, 0.35, 0.65, 0.75, 1]} // Top/bottom heavy, center clear
 start={{ x: 0, y: 0 }}
 end={{ x: 0, y: 1 }}
 />
 </View>
 }
 >
 <BlurView
 style={StyleSheet.absoluteFill}
 blurType="light"
 blurAmount={20}
 reducedTransparencyFallbackColor="white"
 >
 {/* Duplicate content for blur capture */}
 <Text style={styles.content}>Blurred version here</Text>
 </BlurView>
 </MaskedView>
 </View>
);

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
 container: { flex: 1, backgroundColor: 'pink' }, // Test bg
 content: { fontSize: 24, textAlign: 'center', marginTop: screenHeight / 3 },
});

export default ProgressiveBlurScreen;

Boom. Edges haze in progressively; center pops sharp. Tweak locations for steeper ramps—[0, 0.3, 0.7, 1] if top/bottom dominate.

Customizing for Edge-to-Center Blend

Nailed the basics? Dial it in. For your exact “top/bottom to center sharp”:

• Gradient tweaks: Use colors={['black', 'transparent', 'black']} with locations={[0, 0.5, 1]}. Symmetric fade-out.
• Blur variance: Stack BlurViews inside the mask with different blurAmount (10 to 40) for richer soft blur effect.
• Direction props: Vertical? start={{x:0.5,y:0}} end={{x:0.5,y:1}}. Radial? Multiple gradients or SVG masks (advanced).

Scroll-linked? Hook Reanimated:

import Animated from 'react-native-reanimated';
// Animate locations or blurAmount based on scrollY

Android gotcha: Lower blurAmount max (under 25) or it chugs. iOS flies to 100+.

Test on real hardware. What looks buttery in Xcode sim? Often bricks on mid-range Androids without tweaks.

Advanced Libraries and Alternatives {#libraries)

Raw masking too fiddly? Grab pre-baked:

1. react-native-progressive-blur-view: <ProgressiveBlurView blurType="light" blurAmount={10}>Content</ProgressiveBlurView>. Auto-masks gradients. Install deps, pod, done.

2. @sbaiahmed1/react-native-blur: Killer <ProgressiveBlurView direction="blurredCenterClearTopAndBottom" blurAmount={40} startOffset={0.3} />. Directions like blurredTopClearBottom. CLI-ready, native perf.

3. expo-progressive-blur (CLI adapt): Swap Expo modules for community ones. Great for scroll headers.

These wrap the mask dance, saving hours. Pick by props—@sbaiahmed1 wins for direction control.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Hit snags? You’re not alone.

• Hard edges persist: Mask locations too binary? Smooth with more points: [0, 0.1, 0.4, 0.6, 0.9, 1].
• Android no-blur: Ensure API 24+, add <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.opengles.aep" /> in manifest? Nah, usually deps.
• Performance dip: Cap blurAmount at 15-25. Use reducedTransparencyFallbackColor.
• iOS dark mode: blurType="systemThinMaterial" auto-adapts.
• Gradient pixelation: Device scale issue—resizeMode="stretch" on gradient? Rare.

Debug: Log mask renders. If stacking, pointerEvents="none" on overlays.

Still stuck? This GitHub has CLI swaps documented.

Sources

1. Stack Overflow: How to make gradual blur in React Native
2. GitHub: react-native-progressive-blur-view
3. GitHub: @sbaiahmed1/react-native-blur
4. GitHub: expo-progressive-blur (CLI adaptable)

Conclusion

Masking delivers that elusive progressive blur in React Native CLI—smooth edge-to-center intensity without compromises. Start with the core MaskedView + gradient setup, then level up to @sbaiahmed1/react-native-blur for production polish. Test iteratively on devices, tweak locations for your vibe, and you’ll have those glassy effects shipping fast. What’s your use case—headers, modals? It scales.