Get started with Business Messaging UIKit

This guide gets you started with the Business Messaging API. You'll learn how to set up your account, create a project, and send your first message to diverse channels such as an in-app channel, push notification, SMS, WhatsApp, and more.

This quick-start guide follows the steps below:

Step 1 Decide what to integrate: UIKit or SDK

Note: This guide handles UIKit integration only. A guide for SDK integration will be available soon.

Step 2 Create a Sendbird application in our Sendbird Dashboard

Step 3 Create Business Messaging channels in Sendbird Dashboard

Step 4 Create a template in Sendbird Dashboard

Step 5 Set up a mobile app with UIKit

Step 6 Send a message to a user's device

• Channel: The platform or medium through which messages are sent. For Sendbird Business Messaging, channels include in-app, push notification, SMS, WhatsApp, and Kakao Alim Talk.

• Template: The format that defines the design of your message. A template can consist of multiple channels or just a single channel with their own UI design and thus can be repeatedly used for multiple times with the same nature of campaigns or messages.

• Message and notification: The communication delivered to the end user. You can send a notification from Sendbird Dashboard or through a RESTful API.

• Notification Event: Events related to notifications, such as delivery, view, and click. You can track these events in SDK or in UIKit to measure the performance of your notifications or use them as a trigger of other actions.

• Variable: Dynamic content within a template, such as a customer’s name.

We offer two different development kits to integrate the Business Messaging API into your application: UIKit and SDK. Choose one that fits your business needs before getting started with the integration process. The difference between the two is summarized below:

We recommend starting with the UIKit sample to determine if it meets your needs.

• Android UIKit for Business messaging Sample

• iOS UIKit for Business messaging Sample

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First, create an account with us in Sendbird Dashboard and an application within it. Each Sendbird application within your account is independent, which means that the settings of an application don't affect those of the others. For example, one app can be used as a staging environment while another app can be used for the production application.

We offer five types of channels in Sendbird Business Messaging: in-app, push notification, SMS, WhatsApp, and Kakao Alim Talk.

This guide focuses on In-app and Push notification channels as other channels such as SMS and WhatsApp require an additional setup and approval from the service providers.

In-app messages are centralized within the app, allowing users to access and interact with messages at their convenience. By offering contextual, customizable communication, in-app notifications enhance user engagement and retention while improving the overall app experience. The following image shows an example of an in-app channel view.

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Each Sendbird application is automatically provided with a single Push notification channel by default. Therefore, you don't need to create one manually.

If you need to integrate a SMS or Kakao Alim Talk channel into your application or simply test out the features of Business Messaging on an actual device, contact one of our representatives for the setup.

Once all channels are set, move on to create Templates.

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Templates are an integral part of Sendbird Business Messaging and currently is the only way to send notifications. Templates have an omni-channel nature to them - meaning a single template can contain multiple channels like in-app, push notifications, and SMS channels as well as sequencing the message delivery conditions for optimized user engagement.

Sendbird Business Messaging has the concept of variables - where a single set of variables within a single template are shared across the multiple channels added into the template. For example, a variable labelled {first_name} in the image above can be used across all types of channels seamlessly.

While creating a template, you can set a Sequence. This feature configures a series of steps Business Messaging takes to deliver a notification across the added channels. To learn more, see our guide on Sequence.

Note: We recommend the following combination for the Sequence feature: send to the most economical channels (in-app + push) together in step 1, with KakaoTalk as step 2 and SMS as step 3. You can find the exact conditions here.

Using our UIKit can accelerate your go-to-market strategy by reducing the burden of developing and implementing UI components. It also simplifies maintenance as Sendbird handles the storage and rendering of the in-app message channel. The UIKit offers full customization of both messages and the message channels through the features available in Sendbird Dashboard.

Integrating the UIKit into your mobile app is simple but vary depending on your platform. Below are the steps by platform:

Note: If you want to see a running example, we recommend you try out our UIKit sample app for Android and UIKit sample app for iOS.

Each of the following guides contains instructions for both iOS and Android.

1. Installation

2. Channel Rendering

3. Push Notifications

There are two ways to send a message: through the Dashboard or through the API.

Sending notifications through the Dashboard can be useful when you want to send notifications in bulk to a mass group of users for cases such as announcements, marketing promotions, or any updates to a group of users.

• User list: You can either specify the name or ID of each target or upload a CSV file in the Dashboard, depending on the target size.

  • CSV file: the default limit being 100,000 users in a single batch.

  • Input individual users: up to 10,000 users.

• Template: sending notifications requires a template to be created and available. The template must obtain template approval if a Kakao Alim Talk or WhatsApp channel is included.

Note: If you need a higher number of users, contact your Sendbird account manager or executive.

Refer to our user guide on how to send a notification from dashboard for detailed instructions.

The API is used to send automated messages from an external system such as a transaction system. Commonly used are use cases such as transaction alerts, account updates, as well as user event-based marketing messages. through the api, you can send notifications in realtime to a single user, or in batch to a bulk set of users.

There are three types of notifications you can send through the API:

To use the Platform API for sending notifications, ensure you have your base URL and API token at hand, which are accessible through your account or API settings here.

Refer to the Platform API guide for detailed steps on how to send notifications through a RESTful API request.

curl -X POST "https://api-{application_id}.notifications.sendbird.com/v1/notifications/messages" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Api-Token: {master_api_token or secondary_api_token}"
-d '{
    "template": {
        "key": "appointment-reminder",
        "variables": {
            "sendbird-user_1": {
                "name": "Bob Barker",
                "appointment_number": "32893"
            }
        },
        "notification_push_data": {  
          "key": "value1",
          "key2": "value2"
        }
    },
    "targets": ["sendbird-user_1"], 
    "mode": "realtime",
    "tag": "appointments",
    "title": "Appointment Reminder"
}'

Here are some of the next steps you can take to further optimize your Business Messaging experience:

• Additional channels: We also support SMS, WhatsApp, and Kakao Alim Talk channels. Refer to each guide to set up these channels.

• Monitoring and Analytics: Monitor the performance of your notifications and campaigns through the Sendbird Dashboard. You can track metrics such as delivery, open rates, and click-through rates.

• User insights: User Insights provides a detailed overview of individual user communications, offering capabilities beyond those of traditional CRM systems. This feature is especially valuable for teams that require in-depth user data, such as customer support.

• Webhooks: Webhooks allow you to receive real-time notifications about events that occur in your Sendbird application. You can use webhooks to trigger actions in your application, such as sending an email or updating a database, based on events that occur in Sendbird.

• Integration with external platforms: We support Braze, CleverTap. Refer to each guide to set up these integrations.