Bring your users together by allowing them to chat with each other through our SendBird Chat extension.
SendBird is a third-party service that requires an active account with a valid subscription. Depending on your app setup and your chat requirements, you can choose to use our fair use account or create your own on the SendBird website. Regardless of the selected option, this extension is included only in our Professional plan, so if you are using Android only or Standard plan, you will need to upgrade in order to use our chat feature.
1. Using Shoutem SendBird account
By choosing Shoutem fair use account, you will be limited to 100 users per app. Once the limit is exceeded, you will be required to either buy more user space or upgrade to use your own SendBird account.
2. Using your own SendBird account
Once you have purchased your account, go ahead and create your SendBird application. The SendBird onboarding process should guide you through this part. Afterward, navigate to Settings → General. In the Credentials section, you’ll see the Application ID. Copy this value, navigate back to the builder, and add it in Settings → SendBird Chat → Your SendBird account.
This part should cover service integration and allow your users to chat. In order to receive push notifications for the chat messages, we will also need to set up the push configuration for the SendBird app.
This consists of uploading your iOS push certificate and filling out the FCM API key for the Android app. You can contact our support to provide this data and enter it manually in Settings → Notifications (SendBird dashboard).
Important! Changing SendBird subscription settings in the builder will delete all existing chat conversations. This action is irreversible.
Install SendBird Chat extension
Most of our extensions are already pre-installed, but this particular one isn’t so you’ll need to install it first before you will be able to add it as a screen to your app. Go to Screens → press the + button → search for Chat in the search bar → click SendBird Chat card → click Install. Once this extension gets an Installed label, you’ll be able to add it to your app.
Configure SendBird Chat
Navigate to Settings → SendBird Chat and click GET STARTED to enable this feature. From there, you’ll be able to choose the account of your choice and enter the App ID created on your own SendBird chat account. You can also disable this feature by clicking DISABLE.
How to chat
- Log in to the app or create one.
- Navigate to the Chat or Members screen, find a user you want to chat with, and start the conversation. (You have to log in at least one time in order to be able to chat with users once the app is installed.)
If you’d like us to take over the whole app-building process and help you create an app with the SendBird chat feature, take a look at our Shoutem PRO.
