How-to make React Native lists bounce only from the bottom?

A solution would be to listen to scroll events and check whether the bounces prop inherited from ScrollView should be enabled or not. Note that I personally find this solution to be a bit of an overkill, but it works as expected.

You can find a fully working example at the following URL: https://snack.expo.io/SkL-L0knZ. You can preview it right in the browser and you can also try it on your mobile device with the Expo app.

Here is the result (forget about the lag, as this was captured in the browser):

And here is the relevant source code:

export default class App extends Component {

    constructor (props) {
        super(props);
        this.state = { bounces: false };
        this.renderHeader = this.renderHeader.bind(this);
        this._onScroll = this._onScroll.bind(this);
    }

    _onScroll (event) {
        const scrollPosition = event && event.nativeEvent && event.nativeEvent.contentOffset && event.nativeEvent.contentOffset.y;
        let newBouncesValue;

        if (scrollPosition < viewportHeight / 3) {
            newBouncesValue = false;
        } else {
            newBouncesValue = true;
        }

        if (newBouncesValue === this.state.bounces) {
            return;
        }

        this.setState({ bounces: newBouncesValue });
    }

    renderHeader () {
        const { bounces } = this.state;
        const style = [
            styles.header,
            { backgroundColor : bounces ? 'darkseagreen' : 'firebrick'}
        ];

        return (
            <Text style={style}>{ bounces ? 'CAN BOUNCE' : "WON'T BOUNCE"}</Text>
        );
    }

    renderItem ({item}) {
        return (
            <Text style={styles.row}>{item.key}</Text>
        );
    }

    render() {
        return (
            <View style={styles.container}>
                { this.renderHeader() }
                <FlatList
                    data={DUMMY_DATA}
                    renderItem={this.renderItem}
                    onScroll={this._onScroll}
                    bounces={this.state.bounces}
                    scrollEventThrottle={16}
                />
            </View>
        );
    }
}