Package selection guidance compiled from public package information, community data, and project usage.
The Stream Chat Flutter SDK enables developers to build custom, real-time chat experiences in Flutter applications using Dart. It provides a robust set of tools for messaging features such as text, images, and file sharing, with support for online presence, typing indicators, and message reactions. The SDK integrates seamlessly across Android, iOS, Web, macOS, Windows, and Linux platforms, offering consistent performance and design. With strong scalability and security, it's ideal for apps requiring reliable, feature-rich communication.
Use cases
Real-time team collaboration
Customer support chat interfaces
Social media messaging
Multiplayer game chat
E-commerce buyer-seller communication
Key features
Real-time message delivery
Cross-platform compatibility
Message reactions and typing indicators
Online user presence tracking
File and image attachment support
Suitable for
Developers building chat-heavy apps
Teams needing scalable messaging solutions
Apps requiring multiplatform chat
Startups wanting rapid chat integration
Considerations
Requires Stream account and API key
Additional backend setup for authentication
Potential learning curve for advanced features
Dependent on Stream's infrastructure stability
Original README
Original README snapshot from the linked source repository. Visit the repository for the latest content.
Version 10 is a major update to the Stream Chat Flutter SDK:
Modern redesign — refreshed channel list, message list, composer, reactions, avatars, and media viewer with a cleaner, more polished default look.
Unified design system — design tokens (colors, typography, spacing, icons) are now consistent across all Stream SDK platforms. Theming is rebuilt around StreamTheme, a Flutter ThemeExtension registered on MaterialApp.theme.
Cross-platform name alignment — APIs and component names now match their iOS, Android, React, and React Native counterparts (e.g. StreamMessageComposer, StreamChannelListItem).
StreamComponentFactory — a single customization entry point that replaces the scattered builder slots that previously lived on each widget.
Cookbook — new task-oriented recipes for common customizations.
See the V10 Migration Guide for a full list of breaking changes and upgrade instructions.
Features
The UI package ships an extensive set of performant and customizable widgets:
Rich media messages with Markdown rendering
Reactions
Threads and quoted replies
Typing and read indicators
Channel and message lists
Message composer with autocomplete triggers (@ mentions, / commands)
Image, video, and file uploads with previews and a built-in media gallery viewer
Voice messages
Polls
Drafts
Pinned messages
Message reminders
Message actions context menu (reply, edit, copy, pin, delete, flag, mute, block, and more)
Message search
Giphy support
AI assistant streaming responses
Push notifications (Firebase, APN, and Huawei)
Offline storage and optimistic updates
Static and live location sharing
Localization
and a lot more.
Sample App
Check out the sample_app in this repository — a fully functional messenger built with stream_chat_flutter that demonstrates the SDK's core features end to end. It is the recommended reference when wiring things up in your own app.
Stream is free for most side and hobby projects. To qualify, your project/company needs to have fewer than five team members and under $10,000 in monthly revenue.
For complete pricing details, visit our Chat Pricing Page.
Packages
Stream Chat Dart is a monorepo built using Melos. Individual packages can be found in the packages directory; configuration and top-level commands live in melos.yaml.
The SDK is layered — each package builds on top of the previous:
The full UI SDK. Includes a set of reusable and customizable UI widgets on top of the core and low-level client packages. This is the recommended starting point for most apps.
We recommend using stream_chat_flutter for most apps. Unless your UI is completely different from the common industry standard, you should be able to customize the built-in widgets to match your needs.
Use stream_chat_flutter_core if you need full UI control but want the data/state logic handled for you.
Use stream_chat directly for maximum control over architecture, UI, and data.
You can also mix and match — it is common to use the UI SDK for most screens and drop down to the low-level client for specific operations.
Getting Started
To get started, run bootstrap after cloning the project:
melos bootstrap
The best place to start is the Flutter Chat Tutorial.
It teaches you how to use this SDK and shows how to make frequently required changes.
Every package folder also includes a fully functional example with setup instructions.
Bug fixes and behavior improvements cause a patch version bump.
New features are shipped with an increased minor version.
Incompatible API changes cause a major version increase.
Occasionally, the SDK can include visual changes (whitespace, color, sizing) in minor versions as we continuously improve the default look of our UI widgets.
We've recently closed a $38 million Series B funding round and we keep actively growing.
Our APIs are used by more than a billion end-users, and you'll have a chance to make a huge impact on the product within a team of the strongest engineers all over the world.
