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expo-face-check

On-device face detection for Expo apps. Detect faces locally. No API keys, no cloud, just native intelligence.

iOS 🤖 Android

What is expo-face-check?​

expo-face-check is a library that provides on-device face detection for React Native / Expo applications. It detects whether an image contains exactly one dominant face — useful for profile photo validation, identity verification flows, and selfie checks.

On iOS, expo-face-check uses Apple's Vision framework for face detection. On Android, it uses Google ML Kit Face Detection.

Privacy First

All face detection happens locally on the device. Your users' photos never leave their phone, ensuring complete privacy and compliance with data protection regulations.

Key Features​

  • Privacy-first — All detection happens on-device; no photos leave the user's device
  • Zero latency — No network round-trips required
  • Free forever — No API costs, rate limits, or subscriptions
  • Native performance — Built on Apple Vision (iOS) and Google ML Kit (Android)
  • Dominant face detection — Intelligently identifies a single dominant face among multiple faces
  • Face bounds — Returns bounding box coordinates for the detected face
  • Smart filtering — Automatically ignores faces smaller than 1.5% of the image area
  • Simple API — One function, one result — checkFace(imageUri)

Platform Support​

PlatformFrameworkMin Version
iOSApple VisioniOS 13.0+
AndroidGoogle ML KitAPI 21+ (Android 5.0)

Requirements:

  • Expo SDK 51+
  • iOS 13.0+
  • Android API 21+

Quick Example​

import { checkFace } from 'expo-face-check';

// Pick an image (e.g., from expo-image-picker)
const result = await checkFace(imageUri);

if (result.status === 'READY') {
  // ✅ Single dominant face detected
  console.log('Face bounds:', result.dominantFaceBounds);
} else if (result.status === 'NO_FACE') {
  // ❌ No face found
  alert('Please upload a photo with a face');
} else if (result.status === 'MULTIPLE_FACES') {
  // ⚠️ Multiple faces, none dominant
  alert('Please upload a photo with only one person');
}

Next Steps​