[thiagobrez]

PR Description

Bug fix. Fixes #596.

When an app is built with the iOS 27 SDK, UITabBar.items follows display order, so a search role tab moves to the end. UITabBarController.tabs keeps declaration order. configureTabBarItemImages matched items to filteredItems by position, so every tab after the search tab got the next route's title, selected icon and accessibility label. Presses still reached the right route, which made the tab labelled Library open Search.

This matches each item to its tab by identity (tabs[i].viewController?.tabBarItem === item) on iOS 18+, and falls back to the position otherwise. Builds with the iOS 26 SDK keep the old order, so they behave as before.

#588 changes the same function, so whichever lands second needs a small rebase.

How to test?

1. Build the reproducible code from iOS 27 SDK: tab titles and icons land on the wrong tabs when one tab has role "search" #596 with Xcode 27. React Native 0.87 apps crash at launch with the iOS 27 SDK because they don't use the scene lifecycle; the 0.88 template does.
2. Before: the bar reads Home, Search, Favorites, Library, the search tab's selected icon is the Library icon, and Search opens Favorites, Favorites opens Library, Library opens Search.
3. After: the bar reads Home, Favorites, Library, Search, and each tab opens its own screen.

Verified in a fresh React Native 0.88.0 app with agent-device, reading the tab labels and pressing every tab:

Built with	Simulator	Before	After
Xcode 27.1	iOS 27.0	❌	✅
Xcode 27.1	iOS 26.5	not run	✅
Xcode 27.1	iOS 18.6	not run	✅
Xcode 26.6	iOS 27.0	✅	✅

Not tested: physical devices, iPad sidebar, tvOS, visionOS, hidden tabs and the More tab.

Screenshots

Xcode 27.1, iOS 27.0, after pressing the last tab:

Before: the tab labelled Library opens Search	After

🤖 Generated with Claude Code