Setting up Mobile Inbox on Android – Iterable Support Center

Apps using version 3.2.0 and later of Iterable's Android SDK can save in-app messages to an inbox. This inbox displays a list of saved in-app messages and allows users to read them at their convenience. The SDK provides a default user interface for the inbox, which can be customized to match your brand's styles. This document describes how Android developers can add Iterable's Mobile Inbox functionality to your mobile app.

To learn how to use Iterable to send in-app messages that users can save to a mobile inbox, read Sending In-App Messages.

IMPORTANT

Versions 3.2.0 and higher of Iterable's Android SDK depend on the AndroidX support libraries. Migrate your app to use AndroidX before using version 3.2.0 or higher.

# In this article

Installing Iterable's Android SDK
Displaying the mobile inbox
Syncing a mobile inbox across many devices
Customizing the mobile inbox
Further reading

# Installing Iterable's Android SDK

To add a mobile inbox to your Android app, first install Iterable's Android SDK.

# Displaying the mobile inbox

IMPORTANT

Iterable's mobile inbox UI is fragment-based: IterableInboxFragment requires a FragmentManager, so its host must be a FragmentActivity (or its descendant, AppCompatActivity). Compose-first apps often use a plain ComponentActivity as their host, which has no FragmentManager—hosting the inbox fragment there crashes when the fragment is attached. If your app is Compose-first, change the host activity's base class to FragmentActivity / AppCompatActivity before adding the inbox. (Iterable's Android SDK doesn't currently provide a Compose-native inbox.)

Note that this requirement applies to the inbox UI only. Starting with SDK version 3.9.0, in-app messages themselves render correctly in Compose-first apps. For more information, see In-App Messages on Android.

In your app, show the mobile inbox when the user selects a specific tab or taps a particular button.

To show the inbox as a tab:

When using a Navigation component, add the IterableInboxFragment to the navigation graph XML:

<fragment
    android:id="@+id/inboxFragment"
    android:name="com.iterable.iterableapi.ui.inbox.IterableInboxFragment"
    android:label="Inbox"
    tools:layout="@layout/iterable_inbox_fragment" />

To show the inbox as a separate activity in response to a button tap:

Use the provided InboxActivity wrapper:

Kotlin

startActivity(Intent(context, IterableInboxActivity::class.java))

Java

startActivity(new Intent(getContext(), IterableInboxActivity.class));

# Syncing a mobile inbox across many devices

Iterable's iOS and Android SDKs automatically sync a mobile inbox across all the devices on which a user has logged in to your app. Additionally, they sync the read state for each message.

If you're not using one of Iterable's mobile SDKs:

To determine whether or not a message has been read, examine its read field, as returned by GET /api/inApp/getMessages.
To mark a message as read, call POST /api/events/trackInAppOpen.

NOTE

For more information about cross-device read state syncing, see:

Iterable's Android SDK, v3.2.12 release notes
Iterable's iOS SDK, v6.2.21 release notes

# Customizing the mobile inbox

To learn how to customize the mobile inbox in an Android app, read Customizing Mobile Inbox on Android.

# Further reading

User guides:

Developer documentation:

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