React Native GiftedChat: Maximum update depth exceeded error on minimal example

I am building a chatbot screen in React Native CLI using the react-native-gifted-chat package (version 0.16.3). However, when I run even a minimal example, I get the following error:

Maximum update depth exceeded. This can happen when a component repeatedly calls setState inside componentWillUpdate or componentDidUpdate. React limits the number of nested updates to prevent infinite loops.

Here is my minimal ChatbotScreen code:

import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import { GiftedChat } from 'react-native-gifted-chat';
import { View, StyleSheet } from 'react-native';

const Chatbotscreen = () => {
  const [messages, setMessages] = useState([]);

  useEffect(() => {
    setMessages([
      {
        _id: 1,
        text: 'Hello! How can I assist you today?',
        createdAt: new Date(),
        user: {
          _id: 2,
          name: 'Bot',
        },
      },
    ]);
  }, []);

  const onSend = (newMessages = []) => {
    setMessages(previousMessages => GiftedChat.append(previousMessages, newMessages));
  };

  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <GiftedChat
        messages={messages}
        onSend={onSend}
        user={{ _id: 1 }}
      />
    </View>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: { flex: 1 },
});

export default Chatbotscreen;


 and  here is my app.jsx

import React from 'react';
import Chatbotscreen from './Source/Screens/Chatbotscreen';

const App = () => {
  return <Chatbotscreen />;
};

export default App;