React Native – open links in browser

Here is a complete working solution:

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import { WebView, Linking } from 'react-native';

export default class WebViewThatOpensLinksInNavigator extends Component {
  render() {
    const uri = 'http://stackoverflow.com/questions/35531679/react-native-open-links-in-browser';
    return (
      <WebView
        ref={(ref) => { this.webview = ref; }}
        source={{ uri }}
        onNavigationStateChange={(event) => {
          if (event.url !== uri) {
            this.webview.stopLoading();
            Linking.openURL(event.url);
          }
        }}
      />
    );
  }
}

It uses a simple WebView, intercepts any url change, and if that url differs from the original one, stops the loading, preventing page change, and opens it in the OS Navigator instead.