Stream provides chat SDKs for many different platforms, and today we're excited to add another important entry to the list: Jetpack Compose! 🚀🎉
If you want to jump straight into trying the new SDK, the best place to start is the Jetpack Compose Chat Tutorial.
Jetpack Compose is a brand new, modern UI toolkit by Google. It simplifies state management, offers declarative syntax, allows you to quickly iterate on your design with previews, and it's all Kotlin!
We believe that Jetpack Compose is the future of Android UI development, and while it's just been released, Android developers have been eagerly exploring its preview versions for years. This is why we are providing first-class support for it right out the gate.
Of course, we're not abandoning support for the XML-based layout system of Android. Our existing Android UI Components get new features and improvements in every release.
Compose is a great fit for Stream’s Chat's UI Components. It lets us offer theming, customization, and flexibility easier than ever on Android. With our Compose UI Components, you can add in-app messaging features to your Android app in a breeze, and you can tailor those features to your needs.
We built these new Jetpack Compose components from the ground up with the goals of easy integration and flexibility in mind. Check out the Compose UI Components documentation to learn more about the engineering details.
While our UI for Compose is all new, the Compose SDK builds on the lower-level implementations of our existing Android SDK, which has already proved itself in production use in many applications. These provide typed API calls for the Stream Chat APIs, real-time event handling, offline support, optimistic UI updates, push notifications, and more.
Try the new SDK today with the Jetpack Compose Chat Tutorial. Just like our other client SDKs, the Compose SDK is open source, so you can also visit the GitHub repository to browse the code.
The Compose Chat SDK launches in a beta version for now. As API design for Jetpack Compose is still somewhat uncharted territory, we'll be watching and adapting as best practices emerge. We also want to hear your feedback on using the SDK! You can reach us easily on Twitter and on GitHub.
We're excited about Compose and what you'll be able to build with our new Compose UI Components. Tag us on Twitter @getstream_io and tell (and show) us what you built!