Cometchat Android V6 Kotlin Customization

Ground truth: catalog android-v6.json + the live Theming/Customization pages. Slot and style setters below were verified against the INSTALLED 6.0.5 source. Fetch exact token names from color-resources; never invent a token or a setter.

⚠️ Kotlin XML Views cohort — theming is XML theme attributes, slots are ViewHolder listeners. The Compose cohort (CometChatTheme {} + style data classes) is a separate skill.

Companion skills (read first)

• cometchat-android-v6-core — install, credentials, init/login, the fetch map. Assumed here, never repeated.
• cometchat-android-v6-kotlin-components — what exists; this skill changes how it looks/behaves.

Use this skill when

"match the chat to our brand", "use our fonts", "support dark mode", "restyle the conversation rows or bubbles", "replace the empty/loading/error view", "add an option to the message long-press menu", "render a custom message type", "highlight #hashtags", "translate the UI", "change notification sounds". Theming lives HERE — there is no separate theming skill.

Customization mechanism map (pick the smallest one that does the job)

Theming — the top mechanism (BAKED; the rest of the table is a FETCH)

Extend the kit theme, then apply it in the manifest:

xmlCopy code
<!-- app/src/main/res/values/themes.xml -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="CometChatTheme.DayNight">
    <item name="cometchatPrimaryColor">#F76808</item>
</style>
<!-- AndroidManifest.xml: <application android:theme="@style/AppTheme" …> -->

Programmatic equivalent: CometChatTheme.setPrimaryColor(Color.parseColor("#F76808")).

Brownfield — an app with its own design system NEVER re-parents its application theme. CometChatTheme.DayNight parents Theme.MaterialComponents.DayNight.NoActionBar; re-parenting a Material3 host breaks its own screens (Material3-only attrs stop resolving), while skipping the kit theme crashes kit inflation (unresolved ?attr/cometchat*). Keep the host theme and SCOPE the derived style to where kit views live: manifest android:theme on the chat Activities + ContextThemeWrapper for fragment/tab-embedded views — recipe: kotlin-placement Placement 2. App-wide re-parenting (above) is the greenfield path.

Dark mode — follow the system by default. Add res/values-night/themes.xml overriding the same attributes (cometchatPrimaryColor, cometchatBackgroundColor1, cometchatTextColorPrimary, …); Android applies it automatically. A theme can also be scoped to one Activity (theme-introduction §"Apply a Theme to a Specific Activity"). Override only the tokens you actually brand so future kit versions stay consistent.

What's swappable — slots, verified against 6.0.5

Lists (CometChatConversations, and the same shape on CometChatUsers/CometChatGroups/CometChatGroupMembers): setItemView · setLeadingView · setTitleView · setSubtitleView · setTrailingView — each takes a ConversationsViewHolderListener (a createView/bindView pair), not a View. Plus setEmptyView/setErrorView/setLoadingView (plain View), setOptions/setAddOptions for the long-press menu, setOverflowMenu, and setConversationsRequestBuilder(...) to scope the data.

Message list — per-region providers, each a BubbleViewProvider: setLeadingViewProvider · setHeaderViewProvider · setContentViewProvider · setReplyViewProvider · setBottomViewProvider · setStatusInfoViewProvider · setThreadViewProvider · setFooterViewProvider.

Custom message types — BubbleFactory (NOT message templates)

kotlinCopy code
class ContactBubbleFactory : BubbleFactory() {
    override fun getCategory(): String = CometChatConstants.CATEGORY_CUSTOM
    override fun getType(): String = "contact"
    override fun createContentView(context: Context): View = ContactCardView(context)
    override fun bindContentView(
        view: View, message: BaseMessage,
        alignment: UIKitConstants.MessageBubbleAlignment,
        holder: RecyclerView.ViewHolder?, position: Int
    ) { (view as ContactCardView).bind(message) }
}
messageList.setBubbleFactories(listOf(ContactBubbleFactory()))

createContentView() runs before the message is known (only the factory key is available); the message arrives in bindContentView(). Optional: createBubbleView/bindBubbleView (replace the whole bubble), createLeadingView, getBubbleStyle.

⚠️ The old v5 template API is absent from the shipped 6.0.5 artifact — CometChatMessageTemplate, setTemplates, setType, setCategory, setBubbleView, setMessageReceipt do not compile (logged internally). The docs message-template page was corrected upstream (verified 2026-09-09): it is now "Message Bubble Factory" and teaches BubbleFactory. Use BubbleFactory.

The rule

Custom UI goes INSIDE the component — a slot, a state view, a menu option, a formatter, a bubble factory — never a hand-built row stacked over a kit list, never a forked component. If no slot exists for what's needed, fetch the component's .md twin before inventing UI; if there genuinely is no hook, say so rather than re-implementing the component.

Common pitfalls

Hardcoding hex per screen instead of theming once · inventing a token name (fetch color-resources) · styling only light mode (no values-night) · passing a View where a ViewHolderListener/BubbleViewProvider is required · stacking custom views on top of kit components · re-implementing a list to change one row · emitting CometChatMessageTemplate from the docs page · filtering data client-side instead of scoping the request builder.

Verify it works

Compile: ./gradlew :app:assembleDebug # in YOUR app (native-fence.mjs is a pack-repo gate, not installed by the CLI). On device: the brand color appears on kit surfaces; toggle system dark mode → the UI follows with readable contrast; a slotted view renders INSIDE its component; state views appear on empty/error/loading; a custom message type renders through its factory; a changed menu option shows on long-press.