Chat SDKs Android v4

Chat SDKs Android

Chat SDKs

Android

Version 4

Overview

Sendbird Chat SDK for Android provides expansive messaging features to enhance users' chat experience. Basic and foundational messaging features such as sending, copying, updating, and deleting a message make up the essential chat experience. You can also load as well as receive messages through channel event handlers. Features related to marking messages as read, counting the number of unread messages, adding extra data to a message, reporting a message, and local caching are available to support a wide range of user needs.

Message types

There are three types of messages in Sendbird Chat.

Text: A message containing a string of text. The message must be sent by a user and, in the case of group channels, the user must be a member of the channel to be able to send the message.
File: A message containing a file, which can be directly uploaded to the Sendbird server or specified by its URL. The message must be sent by a user and, in the case of group channels, the user must be a member of the channel to be able to send the message.
Multiple files: A message containing more than two files, which can be directly uploaded to the Sendbird server or specified by their URL. These messages are supported only in group channels and, just like a regular file message, the sender must be a member of the channel. The maximum number of file attachments is 30 and the default maximum size per file is set to 25MB. To adjust the numbers, contact our Sales team.
Admin: A system message sent without a sender and, in the case of group channels, without the sender needing to be a member of the channel. Admin message can be sent using the Chat API or Sendbird Dashboard. Common use cases include general notices to a channel like "Livestream will begin in 1 minute! Your messages may be monitored to ensure a safe, welcoming environment." and auto event messages like "User 1 joined the channel."

Comparing message types

Characteristics and supported features of each message type are shown below.

	Text	File	Admin
Class	`UserMessage`	`FileMessage`, `MultipleFilesMessage`	`AdminMessage`
Content	Text only	File only	Text only
Send by user	Required	Required	Not required
Join group channel	Required	Required	Not required
Delivery receipts	Supported	Supported	N/A
Message search	Supported	Supported	N/A
Message threading	Supported	Supported	N/A
Polls	Supported * Except scheduled message	N/A	N/A
Reactions	Supported	Supported	Supported
Read receipts	Supported	Supported	N/A
Translations	Supported	N/A	N/A

Functionalities by topic

Users can interact with other users in a channel by sending, receiving, replying to messages, and more. The following is a list of functionalities that our Chat SDK provides.

Sending a message

Functionality	Description	Open channel	Group channel
Send a message	Sends a text or file message to a channel.
Send a critical alert message to iOS device users	Sends a critical alert notification to iOS devices even when Mute or Do Not Disturb feature is on.
Send an admin message	Sends a message from an admin to a channel on the Sendbird Dashboard or using the Chat Platform API.
Track file upload progress using a handler	Tracks the progress of a file upload.
Cancel an in-progress file upload	Cancels a file upload that hasn't been completed yet.
Share an encrypted file	Encrypts files and thumbnail images for secure access to users in a channel.
Spam flood protection	Customizes the number of messages a user can send to a channel per second.
Smart throttling	Customizes the number of messages displayed in a channel per second.

Receiving messages through event handler

Functionality	Description	Open channel	Group channel
Receive messages in a channel	Receives messages sent by other users in a channel through the channel event handler.

Functionality

Description

Open channel

Group channel

Receive messages in a channel

Receives messages sent by other users in a channel through the channel event handler.

Using message threading

Functionality	Description	Open channel	Group channel
Create a message thread	Sends a reply to a specific message in a channel. This can create a message thread.
List replies in a message thread	Retrieves replies to a parent message.

Functionality

Description

Open channel

Group channel

Create a message thread

Sends a reply to a specific message in a channel. This can create a message thread.

List replies in a message thread

Retrieves replies to a parent message.

Retrieving messages

Functionality	Description	Open channel	Group channel
Retrieve a message	Retrieves a specific message in a channel.
Retrieve a list of messages	Retrieves messages in a channel. You can load a set number of previous messages or messages based on its timestamp or message ID.
Retrieve the last message of a channel	Retrieves the last message in a channel.

Functionality

Description

Open channel

Group channel

Retrieve a message

Retrieves a specific message in a channel.

Retrieve a list of messages

Retrieves messages in a channel. You can load a set number of previous messages or messages based on its timestamp or message ID.

Retrieve the last message of a channel

Retrieves the last message in a channel.

Searching messages

Functionality	Description	Open channel	Group channel
Search messages by a keyword	Retrieves a list of messages that contain a search query or a specified keyword.

Functionality

Description

Open channel

Group channel

Search messages by a keyword

Retrieves a list of messages that contain a search query or a specified keyword.

Managing a message

Functionality	Description	Open channel	Group channel
Copy a message	Copies a message in a channel and sends it to the same channel or another channel.
Update a message	Updates a text or file message in a channel. Users can only update their own messages. Operators can update any messages in the channel.
Delete a message	Deletes a text or file message in a channel. Users can only delete their own messages. Operators can delete any messages in the channel.
React to a message	Adds an emoji to a message.
Clear the chat history in a channel	Clears the chat history from the channel view of the current user. Messages aren't deleted from the Sendbird system's database and other users in the channel can still view all the messages in their own channel view.
Send typing indicators to other users	Indicates to other users in the channel that a user is typing up a message to the channel.
Display Open Graph tags in a message	Displays a URL link preview when a message contains a web page URL.
Generate thumbnails of a file message	Creates a thumbnail of an image file.

Listing changelogs

Functionality	Description	Open channel	Group channel
List changelogs of messages	Retrieves message changelogs by timestamp or token.

Functionality

Description

Open channel

Group channel

List changelogs of messages

Retrieves message changelogs by timestamp or token.

Marking messages as read

Functionality	Description	Open channel	Group channel
Mark messages as read	Marks messages in a channel as read when a user enters the channel or brings the opened channel view to the foreground.

Functionality

Description

Open channel

Group channel

Mark messages as read

Marks messages in a channel as read when a user enters the channel or brings the opened channel view to the foreground.

Marking messages as delivered

Functionality	Description	Open channel	Group channel
Mark messages as delivered	Marks messages as delivered when a user who is online receives messages from the Sendbird server.

Functionality

Description

Open channel

Group channel

Mark messages as delivered

Marks messages as delivered when a user who is online receives messages from the Sendbird server.

Mentioning other users in a message

Functionality	Description	Open channel	Group channel
Mention other users in a message	Includes other users in the channel in a message.

Functionality

Description

Open channel

Group channel

Mention other users in a message

Includes other users in the channel in a message.

Managing polls

Functionality	Description	Open channel	Group channel
Create a poll	Creates a poll with at least one poll option and sends as a user message.
Retrieve a poll	Retrieves a specific poll in a channel.
Update a poll	Updates a poll in a channel.
Delete a poll	Deletes a poll in a channel.
Close a poll	Closes a poll in a channel.
Add a poll option	Adds a voting option for a poll in a channel.
Retrieve a poll option	Retrieves a specific poll option in a channel.
Update a poll option	Updates a poll option in a channel.
Delete a poll option	Deletes a poll option in a channel.
Cast or cancel a vote	Adds or removes a vote from a poll option.
Retrieve a list of polls	Retrieves a list of polls in a channel.
Retrieve a list of voters	Retrieves a list of voters of a poll in a channel.
List changelogs of polls	List changelogs of polls by specifying a timestamp or a token.

Retrieving unread count

Functionality	Description	Open channel	Group channel
Retrieve number of unread messages in a channel	Retrieves the number of messages in a channel a user hasn't read.
Retrieve number of unread messages in all channels	Retrieves the number of messages a user hasn't read in all channels they are in.
Retrieve number of channels with unread messages	Retrieves the number of channels where a user hasn't read one or more messages.
Retrieve number of members who haven’t received a message	Retrieves the number of users in a channel who have yet to receive a specific message.
Retrieve number of members who haven’t read a message	Retrieves the number of users in a channel who haven't read a specific message.
Retrieve number of unread items	Retrieves the number of messages a user hasn't read, unread messages a user is mentioned in, and invitations to group and Supergroup channels a user has received.

Categorizing messages

Functionality	Description	Open channel	Group channel
Categorize messages by custom type	Specifies a custom message type to search or filter messages by.

Functionality

Description

Open channel

Group channel

Categorize messages by custom type

Specifies a custom message type to search or filter messages by.

Adding extra data to a message

Functionality	Description	Open channel	Group channel
Add extra data to a message	Adds one or more key-value items to a message to add extra information.

Functionality

Description

Open channel

Group channel

Add extra data to a message

Adds one or more key-value items to a message to add extra information.

Translating messages

Functionality	Description	Open channel	Group channel
Auto-translate messages	Translates messages into specified languages and sends to channel.
Translate messages on-demand	Translates messages according to user needs.
Translation engine	Sendbird’s message auto-translation and on-demand features are powered by Google Cloud Translation API's recognition engine. The recognition engine supports a wide variety of languages for the Neural Machine Translation (NMT) model.

Functionality

Description

Open channel

Group channel

Auto-translate messages

Translates messages into specified languages and sends to channel.

Translate messages on-demand

Translates messages according to user needs.

Translation engine

Sendbird’s message auto-translation and on-demand features are powered by Google Cloud Translation API's recognition engine. The recognition engine supports a wide variety of languages for the Neural Machine Translation (NMT) model.

On this page

Message types Functionalities by topic

Sample app