Installation

This guide covers installing and getting started with the Kustomer Chat iOS SDK. The current version is 5.0.5.

Prerequisites

See Requirements.

Install the Kustomer Chat iOS SDK

Install the Chat iOS SDK files with one of the following methods:

• Swift Package Manager
• CocoaPods
• Manual installation (Xcode framework)

🚧

Starting with iOS version 2.6.0, the PubNub library is downloaded as a dependency if installing the SDK using the Swift Package Manager or Cocoapods.

Swift Package Manager installation

You can install the Kustomer Chat iOS files as a package dependency for your app. See Adding Package Dependencies to Your App in the Apple Developer portal to learn more.

To install with the Swift Package Manager:

1. Open or create your project in Xcode.

2. With your project open in Xcode, go to File > Swift Packages > Add Package Dependency.

   • If running the Kustomer Chat iOS SDK v4.1.1 or higher, enter https://github.com/kustomer/kustomer-ios-spm in the URL field.
   • If running an earlier version, enter https://github.com/kustomer/kustomer-ios.

3. Under Rules, select Up to next Major. Set the version to span 2.0.0 < 3.0.0, select Next.

CocoaPods installation

You can install the Kustomer Chat iOS files with the CocoaPods Swift dependency manager. To learn more, see the CocoaPods developer documentation.

To install with CocoaPods:

1. To your Podfile, add the following pod:

   pod 'KustomerChat'

2. Run pod install or pod update on your project.

   To learn more, see pod install vs. pod update in the CocoaPods developer documentation.

3. (Recommended) Add the following to your Podfile, to update all Pods to the minimum deployment target of the SDK.

   ```
   post_install do |installer|
     installer.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
       target.build_configurations.each do |config|
         config.build_settings['IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET'] = '12.0'
       end
     end
   end
   ```
   

Manual installation

You can install the Kustomer Chat iOS file manually in Xcode as an Xcode framework.

To install manually in Xcode:

1. In Xcode add KustomerChat.xcframework and to your project in the Frameworks, Libraries, and Embedded Content section. You can find the framework here.

2. After you add the framework to your project, check that it has the Embed & Sign attribute under Embed.

3. Add PubNub, Down, SnapKit, Reachability, NotificationView and Nantes using your preferred method. You can find details in their documentation here.

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If you add PubNub as a git submodule, you must install the PubNub version required by our podspec/package.swift.

Allow file uploads over chat

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:

Privacy - Camera Usage Description
Privacy - Media Library Usage Description
Privacy - Microphone Usage Description
Privacy - Photo Library Usage Description

Quick start

Import KustomerChat to your AppDelegate and call Kustomer.configure() to initiate chat.

Call Kustomer.configure() with or without options. Initialize chat with options to override settings in the SDK.

Initialize the Chat iOS SDK

To initialize the Chat iOS SDK:

1. Add import KustomerChat to your AppDelegate.
2. In the application(_:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:) method of your AppDelegate, call Kustomer.configure().

We've included a code sample below.

📘

Note

To use the code sample for your app, replace api key with an API key with the org.tracking role for your Kustomer organization.

import KustomerChat

func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
  Kustomer.configure(apiKey: "api key", options: nil, launchOptions: launchOptions)
}

Initialize the Chat iOS SDK with options

You can also use Kustomer.configure() to initialize the Chat iOS SDK with options to override settings in the SDK. For more information, see the KustomerOptions Class Reference.

We've included a code sample below.

📘

To use the code sample for your app, replace api key with an API key with the org.tracking role for your Kustomer organization.

import KustomerChat

func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
  
  let options = KustomerOptions()
  options.activeAssistant = .orgDefault
  options.brandId = "nonDefaultBrand"
  options.hideNewConversationButtonInClosedChat = true
  //see full api docs for all options
  
  Kustomer.configure(apiKey: "api key", options: options, launchOptions: launchOptions)

}

KustomerOptions class reference

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KustomerOptions API attributes

For additional configuration options for initialization, see the full list of all available KustomerOptions API attributes.

To learn how to build on Kustomer Chat further with the iOS SDK, see Overview: iOS SDK.

Open Kustomer Chat

The Kustomer Chat iOS SDK provides a modern interface for chat support and native knowledge base access through chat.

Use Kustomer.show() to open the Kustomer Chat interface from any part of your app.

📘

Build your own chat UI 🛠

You can override the Kustomer Chat UI and use the iOS Chat SDK with your own custom view controllers and interface. Use the ChatProviderand ChatListener classes to interact with the Kustomer API directly.

To learn more, see Build your own UI.

Customize Kustomer Chat

Admins in your Kustomer organization can configure basic chat settings directly in Kustomer. See Introduction to Kustomer Chat in the Kustomer Help Center to learn more.

See Overview: iOS SDK for a collection of guides on how to build on Kustomer Chat with the Chat SDK.