Android Chat Bubbles: Building iOS Style Chat in Android

The blog post provides a detailed guide on creating custom live chat message bubbles in Android, resembling those found in WhatsApp and iMessage, using Stream Chat's UI Components. It starts by outlining prerequisites, including familiarity with Android, Kotlin, and a Stream account, before delving into the process of integrating Stream's ChannelList and ChannelViewModel to list and view chat channels. The tutorial emphasizes customization through a custom message view using BubbleMessageViewHolderFactory, which enables the creation of chat bubbles with styles and layouts that mimic popular messaging apps. The guide explains how to implement message rendering logic, including text alignment, color, padding, and the use of drawable resources to create message tails. It also covers how to handle different message types, such as date separators, to enhance the chat experience. The post concludes by highlighting the flexibility of Stream's components, allowing developers to either use default views or customize them extensively for a tailored chat interface.