Now more than ever, gaming is a social experience — according to a recent study, some 77% of gamers in the US see gameplay as an opportunity to connect with friends and make new ones. In-game chat creates a sense of community and camaraderie among players that will keep them coming back for more and attract new gamers to your title long after its launch. Users on mobile devices, PCs, and consoles alike now expect in-game chat to be as immersive as the game world itself.
A polished chat feature doesn't just improve UX — it helps boost metrics that are critical to any studio's success, like retention, engagement, cost-per-install, and lifetime value. For developers, that means extra time and attention spent getting the details right — a tedious process that can now be greatly accelerated with reusable and highly customizable SDK building blocks from Stream.
Given the increasing number of free-to-play games on the market, if you’ve got an idea in the works, it will need to be able to scale quickly, confidently, and, most of all, cost-effectively. This is where Stream comes in. We saw the need for an in-game chat solution accessible enough that indie game studios could expedite their development processes while also being able to scale to support the sizable audiences of AAA games. So, in October 2021 we began developing our Unreal Chat SDK.
Stream’s latest SDK integrates easily to provide players with a rich in-game messaging experience that complements a number of gameplay styles, from competitive to casual, and Massive Multiplayer Online Role Play Games (MMORPGs) to sandbox environments. Stream’s EDGE network ensures that no matter how many players log on, from anywhere in the world, this SDK will deliver a low-latency chat experience that’s both secure and dynamic for all gamers.
The SDK's core functionality works with the Stream Chat API to support messages, channels, reactions, and more. Users can send, edit, and delete messages and reactions, discover and join channels, and view each other's online status (presence). Support for Stream's full suite of Chat API features — like attachments and messaging threads — is coming soon, along with mobile and console support.
The gaming chat SDK includes several features designed to help developers move quickly and confidently. For a head start, build Unreal chat UX on top of our low-level client, check out the selection of included widgets. The Unreal SDK also offers latent blueprint nodes for all asynchronous operations, which allow developers to preserve their workflows.
Stream's latest SDK is designed to be accessible for organizations of all sizes, with pricing plans based on API usage in terms of monthly active users (MAU), and even a free tier called the Maker Account for personal dev projects and qualifying early-stage startups — learn more and activate your free Stream Maker Account today.