Authenticate Image Download Requests

[michaelrothkopf]

Sorry for making an issue for a question, but I am really having trouble.

I need to authenticate image requests within a chat. Server-side, images are stored with a resource identifier UUID attached to the message which points to a record containing the server file path. An API route is used to retrieve the images from the server, which authenticates via a header.

Is there any way to have GiftedChat send its image requests with an authentication header given that the authentication token is held in a globally accessible AppState class?