Getting Started with .NET MAUI Chat

8 Jul 20269 minutes to read

This section guides you through setting up and configuring a Chat in your .NET MAUI application. Follow the steps below to add a basic Chat to your project.

To quickly get started with the .NET MAUI Chat, watch this video:

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure the following are set up:

  1. Install .NET 9 SDK or later.
  2. Set up a .NET MAUI environment with Visual Studio 2022 v17.12 or later.

Step 1: Create a new .NET MAUI project

  1. Go to File > New > Project and choose the .NET MAUI App template.
  2. Name the project and choose a location. Then, click Next.
  3. Select the .NET framework version and click Create.

Step 2: Install the Syncfusion® MAUI Chat NuGet package

  1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the project and choose Manage NuGet Packages.
  2. Search for Syncfusion.Maui.Chat and install the latest version.
  3. Ensure the necessary dependencies are installed correctly, and the project is restored.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure the following are set up:

  1. Install .NET 9 SDK or later.
  2. Set up a .NET MAUI environment with Visual Studio Code.
  3. Ensure that the .NET MAUI workloads are installed and configured as described here.

Step 1: Create a new .NET MAUI project

  1. Open the command palette by pressing Ctrl+Shift+P and type .NET:New Project and enter.
  2. Choose the .NET MAUI App template.
  3. Select the project location, type the project name and press Enter.
  4. Then choose Create project.

Step 2: Install the Syncfusion® MAUI Chat NuGet package

  1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the project and choose Manage NuGet Packages.
  2. Search for Syncfusion.Maui.Chat and install the latest version.
  3. Ensure the necessary dependencies are installed correctly, and the project is restored.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure the following are set up:

  1. Install .NET 9 SDK or later.
  2. Set up a .NET MAUI environment with JetBrains Rider 2024.3 or later.
  3. Make sure the MAUI workloads are installed and configured as described here.

Step 1: Create a new .NET MAUI project

  1. Go to File > New Solution, Select .NET (C#) and choose the .NET MAUI App template.
  2. Enter the Project Name, Solution Name, and Location.
  3. Select the .NET framework version and click Create.

Step 2: Install the Syncfusion® MAUI Chat NuGet package

  1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the project and choose Manage NuGet Packages.
  2. Search for Syncfusion.Maui.Chat and install the latest version.
  3. Ensure the necessary dependencies are installed correctly, and the project is restored. If not, Open the Terminal in Rider and manually run: dotnet restore

Step 3: Register Syncfusion Core Handler

Make sure to add the namespace.

using Syncfusion.Maui.Core.Hosting;

Register the Syncfusion core handler in your CreateMauiApp method of MauiProgram.cs file to use Syncfusion controls.

builder.ConfigureSyncfusionCore();

Step 4: Define Model and View Model

The SfChat control is data-bound and displays a collection of messages exchanged between users. Hence, messages should be created and bound to the control.

Create a simple message collection as shown in the following code example in a new class file. Save it as ViewModel.cs file.

using System.Collections.ObjectModel;

public class GettingStartedViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    private ObservableCollection<object> messages;
    private Author currentUser;

    public GettingStartedViewModel()
    {
        this.messages = new ObservableCollection<object>();
        this.currentUser = new Author() { Name = "Nancy" };
        this.GenerateMessages();
    }

    public ObservableCollection<object> Messages
    {
        get
        {
            return this.messages;
        }

        set
        {
            this.messages = value;
        }
    }

    public Author CurrentUser
    {
        get
        {
            return this.currentUser;
        }
        set
        {
            this.currentUser = value;
            RaisePropertyChanged("CurrentUser");
        }
    }

    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

    public void RaisePropertyChanged(string propName)
    {
        if (this.PropertyChanged != null)
        {
            this.PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propName));
        }
    }

    private void GenerateMessages()
    {
        this.messages.Add(new TextMessage()
        {
            Author = currentUser,
            Text = "Hi guys, good morning! I'm very delighted to share with you the news that our team is going to launch a new mobile application.",
        });

        this.messages.Add(new TextMessage()
        {
            Author = new Author() { Name = "Andrea", Avatar = "Andrea.png" },
            Text = "Oh! That's great.",
        });

        this.messages.Add(new TextMessage()
        {
            Author = new Author() { Name = "Harrison", Avatar = "Harrison.png" },
            Text = "That is good news.",
        });

        this.messages.Add(new TextMessage()
        {
            Author = new Author() { Name = "Margaret", Avatar = "Margaret.png" },
            Text = "Are we going to develop the app natively or hybrid?",
        });

        this.messages.Add(new TextMessage()
        {
            Author = currentUser,
            Text = "We should develop this app in .NET MAUI, since it provides native experience and performance.",
        });
    }
}

Step 5: Import the Chat namespace

Add the following namespace in your XAML or C#.

xmlns:syncfusion="clr-namespace:Syncfusion.Maui.Chat;assembly=Syncfusion.Maui.Chat"
using Syncfusion.Maui.Chat;

Step 6: Add the Chat component

Create a ViewModel instance and set it as the Chat’s BindingContext. This enables property binding from ViewModel class.

To load the messages to SfChat, bind the message collection to the Messages property of Chat and bind the CurrentUser to differentiate the incoming and outgoing messages.

<ContentPage xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/dotnet/2021/maui"
            xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
            xmlns:syncfusion="clr-namespace:Syncfusion.Maui.Chat;assembly=Syncfusion.Maui.Chat"
            xmlns:local="clr-namespace:MauiChat"             
            x:Class="MauiChat.MainPage">

    <ContentPage.BindingContext>
        <local:GettingStartedViewModel />
    </ContentPage.BindingContext>

    <syncfusion:SfChat x:Name="sfChat"
                    Messages="{Binding Messages}"
                    CurrentUser="{Binding CurrentUser}"/>
    </syncfusion:SfChat>
</ContentPage>
SfChat sfChat = new SfChat();
GettingStartedViewModel viewModel = new GettingStartedViewModel(); 
this.sfChat.Messages = viewModel.Messages; 
this.sfChat.CurrentUser = viewModel.CurrentUser;

The following screenshot illustrates the result of the above code.

Syncfusion .NET MAUI Chat control

You can download the Chat Getting Started sample from GitHub