Installation

This guide covers how to install the Chat React Native SDK. For a quick start guide, see Quick start: Chat React Native SDK.

Prerequisites

See Requirements.

Install the SDK

To install the Kustomer Chat React Native SDK, run the following command:

npm install @kustomer/chat-react-native

or

yarn add @kustomer/chat-react-native

then you can install the iOS native dependencies by running:

cd ios && pod install

or

npx pod-install

📘

Note for iOS

On iOS, PubNubSwift is a dependency of KustomerChat and needs its build_type overridden to static_framework in order to build properly.

You can do this using react-native-podfix which is a dependency of this package.

This runs a postinstall script, that will patch the Podfile of your project, and adds a post_install hook that will override the build_type of PubNubSwift.

You should not have to do anything else, just remember why that fix_pods call is in your Podfile.

Allow file uploads

iOS

To allow customers to upload files through chat, in Xcode add privacy descriptions to your Info.plist file for the user's camera roll, media library, and local documents:

<key>NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription</key>
<string>Allow access to your photo library to send to Support</string>
<key>NSPhotoLibraryAddUsageDescription</key>
<string>Allow access to your photo library to send to Support</string>
<key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
<string>Allow access to your camera to send to Support</string>
<key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key>
<string>Allow access to your microphone to send to Support</string>
<key>NSAppleMusicUsageDescription</key>
<string>Allow access to your music library to send to Support</string>

Android

By default, KustomerChat lists the CAMERA permission in its manifest. That can be removed by passing the tools:node="remove" attribute in your AndroidManifest.xml file:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" tools:node="remove" />

ProGuard

The package includes a proguard-rules.pro file n the android folder. If you encounter any issues, see the Proguard rules section of our Android documentation to add the rules manually.