chore: replace react-native-background-timer with plain setInterval

[diegolmello]

Proposed changes

react-native-background-timer is an interop-only native module, unmaintained since 2020, with no New-Architecture (TurboModule/Fabric) path. On RN 0.83 / Expo 55 it survives only because the default-on interop layer carries it, making it a first-to-break liability on future RN bumps.

Its sole consumer is videoConfTimer — the classic-Jitsi 10s keep-alive heartbeat, which runs only while the JitsiMeetView is in the foreground. Foreground-only timing needs no native module, so this rewrites it on plain setInterval/clearInterval and removes the dependency, its @types package and the autolinked iOS pod.

Trade-off: the module's background continuation (~30s on iOS after backgrounding) is lost. Negligible here — the legacy Jitsi heartbeat backs a foreground WebView call, and the accepted decision covers it.

Issue(s)

Part of the RN 0.83 / Expo 55 upgrade hardening — https://rocketchat.atlassian.net/browse/NATIVE-1234

How to test or reproduce

1. Build and run on iOS or Android.
2. Join a server whose video-conference provider is classic Jitsi, then start a call so JitsiMeetView mounts.
3. Observe network traffic: POST video-conference/jitsi.update-timeout fires immediately, then every ~10s while the call is foregrounded, and stops on call end.

Screenshots

n/a — no visible UI change.

Types of changes

• Improvement (non-breaking change which improves a current function)

Checklist

• I have read the CONTRIBUTING doc
• I have signed the CLA
• Lint and unit tests pass locally with my changes
• I have added tests that prove my fix is effective or that my feature works (if applicable)
• I have added necessary documentation (if applicable)
• Any dependent changes have been merged and published in downstream modules

Further comments

Verified: pnpm install (−79 pkgs) + pnpm pod-install clean, pod dropped from Podfile.lock; pnpm lint (eslint + tsc) 0 errors; iOS build succeeds and app boots on the simulator — confirming autolinking is unaffected by removing the native module. The live in-call Jitsi heartbeat (step 3 above) was not exercised, as it needs a server configured with Jitsi as the videoconf provider; the change is a pure JS-builtin timer swap, so build + boot covers the native-removal risk.

Targets the RN 0.83 / Expo 55 integration branch (chore/rn-0.83-expo-55, #7481).

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Improved video conference timer reliability by using standard timer handling.
  • Ensured timers are properly cleared when a video conference ends.
• Chores
  • Removed an unused background timer dependency.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 07cf0734-6182-4252-a759-2b55d156c375

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 8223269 and 9e9f860.

⛔ Files ignored due to path filters (2)

• ios/Podfile.lock is excluded by !**/*.lock
• pnpm-lock.yaml is excluded by !**/pnpm-lock.yaml

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• app/lib/methods/videoConfTimer.ts
• package.json

💤 Files with no reviewable changes (1)

• package.json

🚧 Files skipped from review as they are similar to previous changes (1)

• app/lib/methods/videoConfTimer.ts

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Walkthrough

The video conference timer replaces background timer APIs with standard JavaScript interval APIs and removes the corresponding runtime and type dependencies.

Changes

Video conference timer migration

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Standardize video conference timer intervals app/lib/methods/videoConfTimer.ts, package.json	The timer uses setInterval and clearInterval with an updated handle type, while the background timer packages are removed.

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Suggested labels: type: chore

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and accurately summarizes the main change: replacing react-native-background-timer with setInterval.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

Warning

Review ran into problems

🔥 Problems

Errors were encountered while retrieving linked issues.

Errors (2)

• NATIVE-1234: Request failed with status code 401
• EXPO-55: Request failed with status code 401

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