callstack / callstack/react-native-bottom-tabs

Tab icon size is hard-coded to 27x27pt with no way to override it

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Dominant language
TypeScript
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Description

### Summary

Tab icon size is hard-coded to 27×27pt with no way to override it, which makes it impossible to give a single tab item a larger icon.

### Where

Two independent call sites, both fixed:

- [`ios/TabViewProvider.swift:60`](https://github.com/callstack/react-native-bottom-tabs/blob/main/packages/react-native-bottom-tabs/ios/TabViewProvider.swift#L60) — `private var iconSize = CGSize(width: 27, height: 27)`, applied to remotely-loaded icons via `image.resizeImageTo(size: iconSize)`.
- [`ios/TabViewImpl.swift:350`](https://github.com/callstack/react-native-bottom-tabs/blob/main/packages/react-native-bottom-tabs/ios/TabViewImpl.swift#L350) — `let iconSize = CGSize(width: 27, height: 27)` inside `makeTabBarItemImage`, used on the `experimental_bakedTintColors` path.

Because remote images are resized to `iconSize`, supplying a larger source image has no effect.

### Use case

We show the signed-in user's avatar as the Profile tab's icon (a snapshot of our own circular avatar component, handed over as a `file://` PNG). Design wants that avatar rendered noticeably larger than the neighbouring glyph icons, which is a common pattern for a "you" tab — the avatar is a photo of a person rather than a symbol, so it reads better at a larger size, especially with the label hidden via `tabBarLabel: ''`.

At 27pt it is legible but visibly smaller than intended, and there is currently no prop, per-screen option, or `imageInsets`-style escape hatch to change it.

### Proposal

Expose the icon size, ideally per screen so one item can differ from the rest:

```tsx
({ uri: avatarFileUri }),
tabBarIconSize: 34, // new
}}
/>
```

A navigator-level default (`iconSize` on `Tab.Navigator`) with a per-screen override would also work for us. Happy to open a PR if you'd like it in this shape — wanted to check the preferred API first, and whether per-screen sizing raises layout concerns on Android's `BottomNavigationView` that aren't obvious from the iOS side.

### Environment

- `react-native-bottom-tabs` 1.4.0 / `@bottom-tabs/react-navigation` 1.4.0
- React Native 0.85.3, Expo SDK 56, New Architecture, React 19.2.3
- iOS 26.5 simulator (iPhone 17 Pro), Xcode 26.6

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start with the React Native tab options API and the two iOS call sites in ios/TabViewProvider.swift:60 and ios/TabViewImpl.swift:350. Check how a navigator-level default and per-screen override would flow to both fixed-size paths, including the Android layout concern mentioned in the proposal. Done means the chosen API allows one tab icon to use a different size without breaking the default behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
react-native, swift, typescript
Domain
api, mobile
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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