Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure your Android project meets the following requirements:- Android Gradle Plugin: 8.0 or higher.
- minSdkVersion: 21 or higher.
- compileSdkVersion: 34 or higher.
- Kotlin Compatibility: Apply the
kotlin-android
plugin in your app module’sbuild.gradle
or ensure your Android Gradle Plugin is on 8.4.0 or higher.
- apply
kotlin-android
plugin in app’s build.gradle file.
- Or Update Android Gradle Plugin 8.4.0+
Related Google issue regarding usage of the Jetpack Compose dependency versions 1.6+.Android Gradle Plugin:
If you are using AGP 8.8.0+, the Android Gradle Plugin will automatically use Build Tools version 35.0.0, regardless of the value you specify.
To ensure full compatibility with our SDK, please upgrade your app’s target and compile SDK version to 35.
Installation
The library is distributed through Maven Central. Add the Userpilot module to your build.gradle as a dependency as shown in the code sample below, and replace the<latest_version>
with the latest release version).
Initialization
To use Userpilot, initialize it once in your Application class. This ensures the SDK is ready as soon as your app starts. Update your Application class. Replace<APP_TOKEN>
with your Application Token, which can be fetched from your Environments Page.
Note for Apps Using AndroidX Startup
If your application **also uses **androidx.startup.InitializationProvider
, you should not set tools:node="ignore"
on this provider to disable it. Doing so will prevent Userpilot SDK from being initialized correctly.
Instead, make sure to merge the provider declarations using:tools:node="merge"
This ensures that your custom initializers and the Userpilot initializer both get registered properly.
Using the SDK
Once initialized, the SDK provides straightforward APIs for identifying users, tracking events, and screen views.Identifying Users (Required)
This API is required to identify unique users and companies (groups of users) alongside their properties. Once identified, all subsequent tracked events and screens will be attributed to that user.ImportantIt’s crucial to call the Userpilot identify function; without it, Userpilot won’t be able to recognize your users, and mobile content won’t be displayed to them.
- On user authentication (login): Immediately call
identify
when a user signs in to establish their identity for all future events. - On app launch for authenticated users: If the user has a valid authenticated session, call
identify
at app launch. - Upon property updates: Whenever user or company properties change.
- Key
id
is required in company properties, to identify a unique company. - Userpilot supports String, Numeric, and Date types.
- Make sure you’re sending date values in ISO8601 format.
- If you are planning to use Userpilot’s localization features, make sure you are passing user property
locale_code
with a value that adheres to ISO 639-1 format. - Userpilot’s reserved properties’ have pre-determined types and improve profiles interface in the dashboard:
- Use key
email
to pass the user’s email. - Use key
name
to pass the user’s or company’s name. - Use key
created_at
to pass the user’s or company’s signed up date.
- Use key
Notes
- Make sure your User ID source is consistent across all of your platform installations (Web, Android, and iOS).
- While properties are optional, they are essential in Userpilot’s segmentation capabilities. We encourage you to set the properties with the people who are responsible for Userpilot integration
Tracking Screens (Required)
Callingscreen
is crucial for unlocking Userpilot’s core engagement and analytics capabilities. When a user navigates to a particular screen, invoking screen
records that view and triggers any eligible in-app experiences. Subsequent events are also attributed to the most recently tracked screen, providing context for richer analytical insights. For these reasons, we strongly recommend tracking all of your app’s screen views.
Tracking Events
Log any meaningful action the user performs. Events can be button clicks, form submissions, or any custom activity you want to analyze. Optionally, you can pass metadata with the event to provide specific context.Logging Out
When a user logs out, calllogout()
to clear the current user context. This ensures subsequent events are no longer associated with the previous user.
Anonymous Users
If a user is not authenticated, callanonymous()
to track events without a user ID. This is useful for pre-signup flows or guest user sessions.
Anonymous users are counted towards your Monthly Active Users usage. You should take your account’s MAU limit into consideration before applying this API.
Experience
Triggers a specific experience programmatically using it’s ID. This API allows you to manually initiate an experience within your application.Configurations (Optional)
If you have additional configuration needs, you can pass a custom configuration to Userpilot’s constructor. Userpilot provides interfaces for implementing listeners or handlers to Userpilot events. Implement these interfaces and pass them in your config on initialization if you need to.Navigation Handler
Defines how your app handles deep link route triggers configured in Userpilot experiences, requiring you to route the user to the appropriate location.UserPilotNavigationHandler
. When a deep link with a defined schema and host is present in the manifest file, the SDK will open the corresponding activity. If the link is external, the SDK will handle it appropriately. For complete control over link handling, you can override the UserPilotNavigationHandler
interface. This allows you to customize the behavior for all types of links as per your requirements.
The useInAppBrowser
flag which work when you didn’t implement UserpilotNavigationHandler
determines whether to open URLs using an in-app browser (e.g., Chrome Custom Tabs) or fall back to the system browser or a different method.
- **When **
useInAppBrowser
**is **true
:
The application will open the given URL using Chrome Custom Tabs, providing a faster, more integrated experience with features like shared cookies, toolbar customization, and seamless return to the app. - **When **
useInAppBrowser
**is **false
or not set :
The app may open the URL using the default system browser or another fallback approach.
Analytics Listener
Receives callbacks whenever the SDK tracks an event, screen, or identifies a user. Use this if you want to integrate with another analytics tool.Experience Listener
Receives callbacks when Userpilot experiences start, complete, or are dismissed, as well as changes in their step-by-step progression. Implement this if you want to pipe this data to a destination, or react to user action.Push Notifications
Userpilot SDK supports handling push notifications to help you deliver targeted messages and enhance user engagement.Prerequisites
It is recommended to configure your Android push settings in the Userpilot Settings Studio before setting up push notifications in your app. To obtain the required keys and configuration details, please refer to the Android Push Notification Guide.Setting up
This guide assumes this is the first time code is being added to your project related to setting up push notifications using Google services (Firebase Cloud Messaging). In the case your project is already configured for push, proceed to Step 2.Step 1. Add Firebase Follow the steps in the official Google documentation on How to add Firebase to your project.
Step 2. Request Notifications Permission Starting from Android 13 (API level 33), apps **must explicitly request the **
POST_NOTIFICATIONS
permission in order to display push notifications.
- Declare the Permission in the Manifest
- Request the Permission at Runtime
<service>
. Go to your Manifest file and add:
UserpilotFirebaseMessagingService
to your service class.
Step 4. Deep Linking: Launching Your App When a Notification is Clicked To ensure your app opens automatically when a Userpilot push notification is clicked, you need to configure an
intent-filter
in your app’s **entry **Activity
in Manifest.xml
.
This configuration enables deep linking based on a custom scheme defined in your app.
Define the Deep Link Scheme In your userpilot.xml
configuration file, you should have defined a value for userpilot_push_notification
, check Step 5.
Update Manifest file to include the intent-filter as below. Make sure to set host="sdk"
.
activity
, pass intent to userpilot SDK to handle it.
Step 5. Customizing The Userpilot SDK allows for some customizations that will change how your messages will be delivered to your end users. These properties are set as
<resources>
properties. In order change those properties create a file under res/values
and set it to desired values.