flutter_inapp_chat 0.4.0

A simple, complete chat system for Flutter with ready-to-use UI, image sharing, and view models, backed by Cloud Firestore, Appwrite, or Supabase.

Inapp Chat🔥💬

A simple, complete chat system for Flutter with ready-to-use UI, image sharing, and view models — backed by Cloud Firestore, Appwrite, or Supabase, your choice.

⛏️ Getting started

Add Inapp Chat to your project by following the instructions on the install page, then import the core package plus the backend you want to use:

import 'package:flutter_inapp_chat/inapp_chat.dart';
import 'package:flutter_inapp_chat/backends/firestore_chat_backend.dart';
// or: 'package:flutter_inapp_chat/backends/appwrite_chat_backend.dart'
// or: 'package:flutter_inapp_chat/backends/supabase_chat_backend.dart'

Importing only the backend(s) you use keeps cloud_firestore/ firebase_storage, appwrite, and supabase_flutter out of your build unless you actually reference them — package:flutter_inapp_chat/inapp_chat.dart itself stays backend-agnostic.

You can open chat page either via Material route or directly push the chat page

await openChatPage(BuildContext context, ChatEntity chatEntity);

or

InappChat().chatPageWidget(chatEntity)

📱 Example

Opening chat

final chatEntity = ChatEntity(
    onMessageSent: (message, chatEntity){
//
    },
    mainUser: mainUser,
    peers: peers,
    backend: FirestoreChatBackend(),
    path: chatPath,
    title: "FIFA 2022 Games",
);


//WAY 1
Navigator.push(
    context,
    InappChat().chatPageWidget(chatEntity),
);

//WAY 2
await openChatPage(context, chatEntity);
...

🔌 Backends

Every backend implements the same ChatBackend interface (load history, stream new messages, send a message, upload an image), so switching providers only means constructing a different one and handing it to ChatEntity.backend. path identifies where a conversation's messages live, in whatever form the chosen backend expects.

Firestore

ChatEntity(
    backend: FirestoreChatBackend(),
    path: "sport/football/2022/worldcup", // Firestore collection path
    ...
);

Messages are stored in the <path>/Activity subcollection. Requires cloud_firestore and firebase_storage to be configured for your app (Firebase.initializeApp(...)).

Appwrite

ChatEntity(
    backend: AppwriteChatBackend(
      endpoint: "https://cloud.appwrite.io/v1",
      projectId: "<project-id>",
      databaseId: "<database-id>",
      bucketId: "<bucket-id>",
    ),
    path: "worldcup-2022", // Appwrite table id
    ...
);

Each conversation is a table in databaseId, with one row per message and a timestamp string column (ISO 8601). Enable Realtime for the table.

Supabase

ChatEntity(
    backend: SupabaseChatBackend(bucketName: "chat-images"),
    path: "worldcup_2022", // Supabase table name
    ...
);

Requires Supabase.initialize(url: ..., anonKey: ...) to have run first. Each conversation is a Postgres table with an id (uuid, default gen_random_uuid()) primary key and a timestamp timestamptz column (default now()), with Realtime enabled.

Models 📦

Peer User 👨

Fields

• id - user Id
• image - user image url
• name - user display name

Chat Entity 📩

Fields

• mainUser - logged in user
• peers - Map of users <user ID, PeerUser>
• backend - the ChatBackend storing this chat (FirestoreChatBackend, AppwriteChatBackend, or SupabaseChatBackend)
• title - name of the chat (You can name group chats, can be nullable)
• path - where the messages/chat are stored, in the form backend expects
• onMessageSent - callback for when the message is saved

License ⚖️

• MIT

Issues and feedback 💭

If you have any suggestion for including a feature or if something doesn't work, feel free to open a Github issue for us to have a discussion on it.