diff --git a/Libraries/Image/RCTImageLoader.h b/Libraries/Image/RCTImageLoader.h
index 186a53cd1046b0..4d23a628e733e5 100644
--- a/Libraries/Image/RCTImageLoader.h
+++ b/Libraries/Image/RCTImageLoader.h
@@ -23,4 +23,6 @@
 + (void)loadImageWithTag:(NSString *)tag
                 callback:(void (^)(NSError *error, id /* UIImage or CAAnimation */ image))callback;
 
++ (BOOL)isSystemImageURI:(NSString *)uri;
+
 @end
diff --git a/Libraries/Image/RCTImageLoader.m b/Libraries/Image/RCTImageLoader.m
index 948503ccededc6..22b535f0747b92 100644
--- a/Libraries/Image/RCTImageLoader.m
+++ b/Libraries/Image/RCTImageLoader.m
@@ -156,4 +156,11 @@ + (void)loadImageWithTag:(NSString *)imageTag callback:(void (^)(NSError *error,
   }
 }
 
++ (BOOL)isSystemImageURI:(NSString *)uri
+{
+  return uri != nil && (
+   [uri hasPrefix:@"assets-library"] ||
+   [uri hasPrefix:@"ph://"]);
+}
+
 @end
diff --git a/Libraries/Network/RCTDataManager.m b/Libraries/Network/RCTDataManager.m
index 1d0a793de8e454..f6479548235cd2 100644
--- a/Libraries/Network/RCTDataManager.m
+++ b/Libraries/Network/RCTDataManager.m
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 #import "RCTConvert.h"
 #import "RCTLog.h"
 #import "RCTUtils.h"
+#import "RCTImageLoader.h"
 
 @implementation RCTDataManager
 
@@ -34,8 +35,43 @@ @implementation RCTDataManager
     NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:URL];
     request.HTTPMethod = [RCTConvert NSString:query[@"method"]] ?: @"GET";
     request.allHTTPHeaderFields = [RCTConvert NSDictionary:query[@"headers"]];
-    request.HTTPBody = [RCTConvert NSData:query[@"data"]];
 
+    if (query[@"data"] != [NSNull null]) {
+      NSDictionary *data = [RCTConvert NSDictionary:query[@"data"]];
+      NSData *body = [RCTConvert NSData:data[@"string"]];
+      if (body != nil) {
+        request.HTTPBody = body;
+        [RCTDataManager sendRequest:request responseSender:responseSender];
+        return;
+      }
+      NSString *uri = [RCTConvert NSString:data[@"uri"]];
+      if (uri != nil) {
+        if ([RCTImageLoader isSystemImageURI:uri]) {
+          [RCTImageLoader loadImageWithTag:(NSString *)uri callback:^(NSError *error, UIImage *image) {
+            if (error) {
+              RCTLogError(@"Error loading image URI: %@", error);
+              // We should really circle back to JS here and notify an error/abort on the request.
+              return;
+            }
+            NSData *imageData = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(image, 1.0);
+            request.HTTPBody = imageData;
+            [RCTDataManager sendRequest:request responseSender:responseSender];
+          }];
+        } else {
+          RCTLogError(@"Cannot resolve URI: %@", uri);
+        }
+        return;
+      }
+    }
+
+    // There was no data payload, or we couldn't understand it.
+    [RCTDataManager sendRequest:request responseSender:responseSender];
+  } else {
+    RCTLogError(@"unsupported query type %@", queryType);
+  }
+}
+
++ (void)sendRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request responseSender:(RCTResponseSenderBlock)responseSender {
     // Build data task
     NSURLSessionDataTask *task = [[NSURLSession sharedSession] dataTaskWithRequest:request completionHandler:^(NSData *data, NSURLResponse *response, NSError *connectionError) {
 
@@ -71,11 +107,6 @@ @implementation RCTDataManager
     }];
 
     [task resume];
-
-  } else {
-
-    RCTLogError(@"unsupported query type %@", queryType);
-  }
 }
 
 @end
diff --git a/Libraries/Network/RCTNetwork.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj b/Libraries/Network/RCTNetwork.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj
index 1dca7fe6de27bf..28bd23c8622a20 100644
--- a/Libraries/Network/RCTNetwork.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj
+++ b/Libraries/Network/RCTNetwork.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj
@@ -209,6 +209,7 @@
 					"$(inherited)",
 					/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/include,
 					"$(SRCROOT)/../../React/**",
+					"$(SRCROOT)/../Image/**",
 				);
 				LIBRARY_SEARCH_PATHS = "$(inherited)";
 				OTHER_LDFLAGS = "-ObjC";
@@ -226,6 +227,7 @@
 					"$(inherited)",
 					/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/include,
 					"$(SRCROOT)/../../React/**",
+					"$(SRCROOT)/../Image/**",
 				);
 				LIBRARY_SEARCH_PATHS = "$(inherited)";
 				OTHER_LDFLAGS = "-ObjC";
diff --git a/Libraries/Network/XMLHttpRequest.ios.js b/Libraries/Network/XMLHttpRequest.ios.js
index 6c7367c18db725..fca690e5955c6f 100644
--- a/Libraries/Network/XMLHttpRequest.ios.js
+++ b/Libraries/Network/XMLHttpRequest.ios.js
@@ -20,13 +20,16 @@ var XMLHttpRequestBase = require('XMLHttpRequestBase');
 class XMLHttpRequest extends XMLHttpRequestBase {
 
   sendImpl(method: ?string, url: ?string, headers: Object, data: any): void {
+    if (typeof data === 'string') {
+      data = {string: data};
+    }
     RCTDataManager.queryData(
       'http',
       {
-        method: method,
-        url: url,
-        data: data,
-        headers: headers,
+        method,
+        url,
+        data,
+        headers,
       },
       // TODO: Do we need this? is it used anywhere?
       'h' + crc32(method + '|' + url + '|' + data),