[iOS] Crash (SIGABRT) when using MediaPipe with Firebase in Expo/React Native projects

[acopetkovic]

Crash (SIGABRT) when using MediaPipe with Firebase in Expo/React Native projects

Description

I think that @thinksys/react-native-mediapipe causes immediate app crash when used alongside @react-native-firebase packages due to native glog symbol conflicts.

Environment

• Package version: @thinksys/react-native-mediapipe@0.0.19
• React Native: 0.81.5
• Expo SDK: 54.0.27
• Platform: iOS (tested on physical device)
• Conflicting packages:
  • @react-native-firebase/app@23.0.0
  • @react-native-firebase/auth@23.0.0
  • @react-native-firebase/firestore@23.0.0

The Problem

Crash Details:

Thread: com.facebook.react.runtime.JavaScript
Exception: SIGABRT
Location: google::LogDestination::LogToSinks()

App crashes immediately on launch after installing MediaPipe, even without importing or using it in code.

Root Cause

Both MediaPipeTasksVision (dependency of this package) and Firebase SDK contain embedded glog (Google Logging) libraries. When Firebase's required use_frameworks! :linkage => :static is used, these cause symbol conflicts during static linking.

Three sources of glog:

1. React Native core
2. Firebase SDKs (via GoogleUtilities, gRPC-Core)
3. MediaPipeTasksVision (prebuilt XCFramework)

Works vs Doesn't Work

✅ Works: MediaPipe in fresh Expo project without Firebase
❌ Doesn't work: MediaPipe + Firebase in same project

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create Expo 54 project with Firebase installed
2. Configure expo-build-properties with useFrameworks: "static" (required by Firebase)
3. Install @thinksys/react-native-mediapipe@0.0.19
4. Run npx expo prebuild --clean
5. Run npx expo run:ios --device
6. App crashes on launch with SIGABRT

Attempted Solutions

• ❌ Removing buildReactNativeFromSource → Build errors
• ❌ Adding CLANG_ALLOW_NON_MODULAR_INCLUDES_IN_FRAMEWORK_MODULES → Build succeeds, crash remains

[tusharthinksys]

@acopetkovic

At this moment there is no reliable workaround for using Expo + Firebase + MediaPipe together because:

• Firebase requires static frameworks when using use_frameworks! :linkage => :static.
• MediaPipe’s native XCFramework includes an embedded glog library that cannot be removed or patched within Expo.
• Expo’s build system does not currently allow modifying or re-compiling precompiled XCFramework dependencies.

Because of these constraints, the only stable option for developers who urgently need both Firebase and MediaPipe is to:

Use a bare React Native project where the native dependencies can be rebuilt or customized.

We recognize that this is not ideal for many Expo users, and we are actively exploring ways to improve compatibility in future releases.

[acopetkovic]

Thank you for quick answer. In this case I'll switch to using Supabase. From my research it should work with your package.

[rawalhussain]

@tusharthinksys is there any solution for this

[kamranshah19]

@tusharthinksys is there any solution for this

[kamranshah19]

Its also crashing with same error for me, Iam using MediaPipe without Firebase in Expo/React Native project.