Chat UIKit React v2
Chat UIKit React
Chat UIKit
React
Version 2
Sendbird Chat UIKit v2 for React is no longer supported as a new version is released. Check out our latest Chat UIKit v3

Send your first message

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Sendbird UIKit for React is a set of prebuilt UI components that allows you to easily craft an in-app chat with all the essential messaging features. Our development kit includes light and dark themes, text fonts, colors and more. You can customize these components to create an interactive messaging interface unique to your brand identity.

Sendbird UIKit supports both open channels and group channels. Follow the guide below to start sending a message from scratch with React. This library isn't designed to work with other frameworks such as Vue or Angular.

Note: While group channels provide a ChannelList component, open channels do not. You have to create your own list of open channels.

Note: To learn about how to build a React chat app with UIKit, see our React UIKit tutorial.


Requirements

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The dependencies for UIKit for React are:

  • React 16.8.0 or higher
  • React DOM 16.8.0 or higher
  • Sendbird Chat SDK for JavaScript 3.0.117 or higher
  • css-vars-ponyfill 2.3.2
  • date-fns 2.16.1

Note: From v1.3.0, UIKit doesn't support moment.


Supported browsers

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BrowserSupported versions

Internet Explorer

11 or higher

Edge

13 or higher

Chrome

All modern versions

Firefox

All modern versions

Safari

11 or higher


Before you start

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Before installing Sendbird Chat SDK, you need to create a Sendbird application on the Sendbird Dashboard, which comprises everything required in a chat service including users, messages, and channels. You will need the App ID of your Sendbird application when initializing the Chat SDK.

Note: Each Sendbird application can be integrated with a single client app. Within the same application, users can communicate with each other across all platforms, whether they are on mobile devices or on the web.


Get started

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You can start building a modern messaging experience in your app by first installing Sendbird UIKit. This developer kit is an add-on feature to Sendbird Chat SDK so installing it will also install the core Chat SDK.

Step 1 Install UIKit

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You can install UIKit for React through npm. Enter the following code on the command line with npm. The minimum requirements listed above must be installed on your system to use npm.

If you're using React 16 or 17, add the following line:

npm install sendbird-uikit

If you're using React 18 or higher, add the following line:

npm install sendbird-uikit --force

When using yarn, enter the following command:

yarn add sendbird-uikit

Step 2 Implement UIKit to your web app

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Once you're done installing Sendbird UIKit, you can now implement it to your web app by using the App component. The App component is a group of essential UI components needed to build a functioning chat interface. You can also use our common components to your web app if you wish to make the interface more tailored to your needs.

Add the following pattern to use the App component:

import { App as SendBirdApp } from "sendbird-uikit";
import "sendbird-uikit/dist/index.css";

const App = () => {
    return (
        <div className="App">
            <SendBirdApp
                // Add the two lines below.
                appId={YOUR_APP_ID}    // Specify your Sendbird application ID.
                userId={USER_ID}    // Specify your user ID.
            />
        </div>
    );
};

The chat interface can expand up to the dimensions of your parent component. To achieve a full-screen mode, apply the following CSS rules to the parent element.

.App {
    height: 100vh;   // Add this line.
    width: 100vw;   // Add this line.
}

Step 3 Send your first message

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You can now run the app to send a message. First, create a group channel by clicking on the icon in the top-left corner. Then, you can select users you wish to invite as members to your channel. Once the channel has been created, enter your first message and send.

You've successfully sent your first message with Sendbird.


Use UIKit with SSR frameworks

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You can use UIKit with SSR frameworks such as Gatsby or NextJS by importing it dynamically on the client side. These frameworks support the following plug-in and workflow:

You may refer to NextJS' sample for better understanding. You will need your own Sendbird application ID and user ID to use the sample.


UIKit components

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ComponentDescription

SendBirdProvider

The context provider that stores Chat SDK for JavaScript and user information.

withSendBird

The higher-order component to access data from SendBirdProvider.

ChannelList

The UI component that renders channel components in a list.

Channel

The UI component that allows close interaction among a limited number of users.

ChannelSettings

The UI component that enables customized settings to be configured to each channel.

App

The app component that combines all of the above components.

The App component is a collection of all UIKit components needed to implement chat, and only requires the app ID and user ID to be configured.

List of properties

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RequiredTypeDescription

appId

string

The APP_ID of the Sendbird application.

userId

string

The unique ID of the user.

OptionalTypeDescription

accessToken

string

An opaque string that identifies the user. It is recommended that every user has their own access token and provides it upon login for security. (Default: null)

theme

string

A style applied to the app. Available themes are light and dark. (Default: light)

nickname

string

The user’s nickname. (Default: null)

profileUrl

string

The URL of the user’s profile image. (Default: null)

userListQuery

interface

The query factory class to retrieve a list of custom users. (Default: Chat SDK's ApplicationUserListQuery)

stringSet

object

The set of strings for UIKit components. This can override the default language. (Default: null)

colorSet

object

The set of colors used in the UIKit themes. This can overrides the default theme. (Default: null)

allowProfileEdit

boolean

Determines whether to allow the user to edit their profile. (Default: false)

disableUserProfile

boolean

Determines whether to display the profile preview section when the avatar is selected. If set to true, the profile preview section is not shown. (Default: false)

showSearchIcon

boolean

Determines whether to show the search icon in the channel title. (Default: false)

// Create a chat application.
import { App } from "sendbird-uikit";
import "sendbird-uikit/dist/index.css";

const MyApp = () => {
    <Route id={'/chat'}>
        <App
            appId={appId}
            userId={userId}
            nickname={nickname}
            profileUrl={profileUrl}
            accessToken={accessToken}
            theme={theme}
            userListQuery={userListQuery}
        />
    </div>
}