Native Focus (@hozo/native)

@hozo/native is the only package in Hozo that ships native platform code, and it owns a single capability: ensuring that when a Dialog closes on Android, TalkBack’s accessibility focus actually returns to the button that opened it.

Nothing in Hozo imports @hozo/native. Your application opts in by installing it and handing its function to @hozo/behaviors/native:

sh

pnpm add @hozo/native# Rebuild the Android app so React Native autolinking includes the module

ts

// index.js or App.tsx (beside root component registration)import { setAccessibilityFocusMover } from '@hozo/behaviors/native'import { moveAccessibilityFocus } from '@hozo/native'setAccessibilityFocusMover(moveAccessibilityFocus)

No platform check is needed around that call: on iOS (and on Android when the native module is not linked into the binary), moveAccessibilityFocus is undefined, and setAccessibilityFocusMover keeps the default JS behavior.

Why this cannot be done in JavaScript

When a Dialog closes, it asks the platform to return accessibility focus to the opener.

• On iOS, AccessibilityInfo.setAccessibilityFocus reaches UIAccessibility and lands reliably every time. So @hozo/native has no ios/ directory.
• On Android, JavaScript’s sendAccessibilityEvent(view, 'focus') dispatches TYPE_VIEW_FOCUSED. If that event arrives while Android’s window manager is still settling after the dialog’s window closes, TalkBack drops the request and restores focus from its own history a moment later — leaving focus on the wrong element.

JavaScript cannot tell whether the request succeeded or was dropped, because React Native exposes no API for observing where accessibility focus landed.

@hozo/native observes the window’s accessibility events natively:

1. It sends the initial TYPE_VIEW_FOCUSED request.
2. It watches the window for the first view that receives accessibility focus.
3. If that first landing is not the opener, the window has now settled, and @hozo/native sends the focus request once more.

Only the first landing is acted on, and at most one retry is ever sent, so a user who moves focus themselves is never pulled back.

What installing it costs

docs/decisions/006-shipping-native-code.md records why this is an explicit opt-in package rather than part of @hozo/core:

• A native build: autolinking requires a Gradle build on first install rather than a JS-only reload.
• No standard Expo Go: requires a development build (expo run:android / prebuild).
• React Native New Architecture ABI: built and verified against React Native 0.87 on the New Architecture.