March Product Update: Android SDK 1.0, CLI Setup, and Easier Chat Integration

March was a productive month for the Ethora team, and we’re glad to share major updates with you. We delivered three big improvements and a bunch of smaller ones to make chat integration even easier and faster.

Android SDK 1.0.0 – Simplified Setup

Now you don’t need any manual setup or repository cloning – install it directly via Gradle using JitPack. No friction, just a simple flow of your Android SDK.

Additionally, we added some smaller features. At first glance – just UI details, yet in practice, they mean a lot:

• Unread message badges for chat rooms. It’s a baseline UX that devs expect out of the box, and now there’s no need to build this feature from scratch
  
• A “single-room mode” for apps that only need one conversation. Simplified chat integration if you don’t need multiple rooms, as you don’t have to handle switching logic
  
• The ability to pass a JWT token directly and let the SDK handle the rest. It provides devs with complete control over authentication, compatible with any backend

On top of that, we cleaned up several issues that had been reported:

• Fixed authentication edge cases when using email login
  
• Resolved UI crashes tied to certain configurations
  
• Improved initial load performance and error handling

Overall, the goal here was stability. Less guessing, fewer surprises.

A Better Way to Start: CLI Setup Tool

Now you can get full onboarding in one flow with one command. Just run:

[npx @ethora/setup]

And then follow a guided flow to:

• Register your account
  
• Create an app
  
• Generate credentials
  
• Write configuration directly into the SDK

If you’re using Android, it will even patch key files for you automatically. The idea is simple: you shouldn’t need to leave your terminal to get started.

Moving Toward Backend-Controlled Auth (JWT)

We’ve also shifted more of the authentication flow toward JWT-based integration. Instead of relying on SDK-managed login flows, you can now pass a token from your backend and let the chat component handle the rest.

This makes it easier to plug Ethora into your system. Also, if you already have users, sessions, or auth in place, this approach will feel a lot more natural.

Chat Experience Improvements

Alongside the bigger changes, we continued improving the core chat experience: 

• Push notifications support
• Media sharing (images and files)
• Inline previews for shared content 
• Smoother pagination and message loading 
• Animation fixes and UI consistency improvements

Nothing flashy here – just making sure the basics work the way they should.

Under the Hood

We also made several backend and structural improvements:

• Fixed issues with pagination (limit/offset) 
• Improved API reliability and authentication handling
• Brought back missing admin features like broadcast tools and push settings 
• Added basic end-to-end testing coverage 
• Reorganized the repositories into a clearer monorepo structure

What’s Next?

We’re continuing in the same direction: 

• Improving iOS parity 
• Expanding documentation, especially around JWT integration 
• Smoothing out onboarding even further 
• Adding more real-world examples and templates 

If March was about stability and setup, the next phase is about clarity and adoption.

Conclusion

If you’ve been curious about Ethora, this is a good time to take another look. Register for free and start with the CLI:

[npx @ethora/setup]

Or plug the Android SDK into your project and see how quickly you can get a working chat up and running.