In-app channel
In-app channels are used to send notifications to users within your application. These notifications can be used to inform users of events, promotions, or other important information. In-app channels are a great way to keep users engaged with your application and can be used to drive user retention and engagement.
UI vs Data template
Sendbird Business Messaging supports two template styles of in-app channels: UI and Data templates. The difference between these styles lies in the Template payload structure and their usage as described below. When creating a channel on Sendbird Dashboard, choose the type that best fits your use case.
| Type | Description | When to use |
|---|---|---|
UI | Its payload contains a full set of message design data, such as its layout, text color, component alignment, and more. | Coupled with Sendbird Business Messaging's UIKit. Our UIKit will render the message data for you. Flutter SDK with SBM Module should use this channel as well. |
Data | Its payload contains only the key-value pairs specified to the channel when designing the Template on the Dashboard. | Coupled with Sendbird Business Messaging's core SDK. You can parse the payload and render notifications on your client app with your custom UI sets. |
To learn more about how channel is rendered in UIKit, see Channel rendering for iOS or Channel rendering for Android.
For core SDK, see our Usage guide for SDK specific implementation.
Create a channel
Note: You can create multiple channels of the same type except Push notification channel.
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On the Business Messaging > Channels page, click Create channel+ button at the top-right corner of your screen.
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Select In-app under Channel type.
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Depending on the use, fill in the following fields:
- View type: Only feed view is supported for now.
- Template type: Depending on your SDK of choice, you can select the appropriate template type.
- UI: Its template includes styling information about how the notification should appear. This is typically utilized in conjunction with the UIKits.
- Data: Its template does not include any information about how a notification should appear. This cannot be used in conjunction with the UIKits.
- Name: Specify a name of the channel.
- Key: Specify a unique key of the channel. This becomes part of
channel_url.
- Click Create.
Manage a channel
In in-app channels, you can manage the following settings after their creation:
| Fields | Description |
|---|---|
Category filter | Enables filtering listed notifications based on a category. |
Template label | Enables support for custom template labels to provide additional context to the end user. |
Note: Channel name and key can't be changed after creation.
Category filter
Category filters are a per-channel feature that an end user may utilize to filter the list of notifications rendered. This is optional and can be configured per channel.
To configure category filters for a specific channel, navigate to the Sendbird Dashboard > Application > Business Messaging > Channels and select the channel which you wish to enable Category filter.
Once enabled, you can add as many or as few categories to fit your use case. Categories will always have an ID associated with them which is a static value regardless of the name of the category. This means that even though you may change the name of a category, the ID will remain the same.
Once categories have been enabled, and created, you can then associate them to your templates.
Note: Categories cannot be retroactively applied to notifications. They will only be applied to notifications that are sent after they’ve been configured. Categories can be changed on templates however previously sent notifications will still appear with the previous category.