Syncfusion® .NET MAUI Chat (SfChat)

The Syncfusion .NET MAUI Chat control (SfChat) delivers a contemporary conversational UI for building chatbot interfaces, customer support screens, and multi-user messaging experiences. It supports rich message types, real-time typing indicators, suggestions, load-more history, swiping, and deep styling customization.

When to Use This Skill

• Building a chat UI, chatbot interface, or messaging screen in .NET MAUI
• Displaying conversations between two or more users
• Sending/receiving text, images, cards, hyperlinks, or date/time picker messages
• Implementing typing indicators, message suggestions, or load-more history
• Customizing message appearance, shapes, delivery states, or themes
• Adding swipe actions, time-break grouping, or attachment buttons
• Localizing the chat UI or enabling accessibility features

Component Overview

SfChat is a powerful, customizable conversational control that:

• Shows incoming and outgoing messages in a chat layout
• Supports text, avatars, timestamps, and custom message designs
• Binds easily to data using ItemsSource and MVVM
• Allows UI customization with templates and styles
• Automatically aligns and groups user and other messages
• Includes a built-in text input with send functionality
• Supports interactions like sending and tapping messages
• Can display rich content like images or custom layouts
• Provides smooth scrolling and auto-scroll to new messages
• Offers full control over appearance (colors, fonts, bubbles)

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Documentation and Navigation Guide

Getting Started

📄 Read: references/getting-started.md

• NuGet installation (Syncfusion.Maui.Chat)
• Handler registration in MauiProgram.cs
• Basic SfChat initialization in XAML and C#
• ViewModel setup with Messages and CurrentUser
• Binding messages to the chat control
• Running the application

Messages

📄 Read: references/messages.md

• TextMessage, DatePickerMessage, TimePickerMessage, CalendarMessage
• HyperlinkMessage, ImageMessage, CardMessage
• Delivery states (ShowDeliveryState, DeliveryState enum, custom icons)
• Pin message (AllowPinning, PinnedMessages, events, template)
• Message template and ChatMessageTemplateSelector
• Customizable incoming/outgoing views
• Message spacing, shape, timestamp format, avatar/author visibility
• Sending messages, keyboard, multiline input, hide input view

Data Binding

📄 Read: references/data-binding.md

• Binding ObservableCollection<object> to Messages
• CurrentUser differentiation of sender/receiver
• Custom data models with IMessage / ITextMessage
• ItemsSourceConverter for external model binding
• Dynamically updating messages at runtime

Suggestions

📄 Read: references/suggestions.md

• Chat-level suggestions (SfChat.Suggestions)
• Message-level suggestions (TextMessage.Suggestions)
• SuggestionItemSelected event and command
• Customizing suggestion item templates

Typing Indicator

📄 Read: references/typing-indicator.md

• Enabling the typing indicator (ShowTypingIndicator)
• Setting author and message on TypingIndicator
• Customizing appearance
• Showing/hiding dynamically

Load More

📄 Read: references/load-more.md

• Enabling load more (LoadMoreBehavior)
• LoadMore event and LoadMoreCommand
• Loading older messages on scroll
• IsLazyLoading property
• Disabling after all messages are loaded

Events & Commands

📄 Read: references/events.md

• SendMessage / SendMessageCommand
• ImageTapped / ImageTappedCommand
• CardTapped / CardCommand
• SuggestionItemSelected
• MessagePinned / MessageUnpinned
• LoadMore / LoadMoreCommand
• Handling and cancelling event args

Styles & Appearance

📄 Read: references/styles.md

• Incoming and outgoing message styling
• Message input view styling
• Time-break and typing indicator styling
• Suggestion view styling
• MessageShape options
• Theme support (Material 3, Fluent)

Accessibility & Localization

📄 Read: references/accessibility-localization.md

• WCAG 2.0 compliance
• Keyboard navigation and screen reader support
• AutomationId for UI testing
• Localization with .resx resource files
• Supported localizable strings
• RTL layout support

Scrolling

📄 Read: references/scrolling.md

• Programmatic scroll to a specific message (ScrollToMessage)
• Auto-scroll to bottom on new message (CanAutoScrollToBottom)
• Scroll to bottom floating button (ShowScrollToBottomButton)
• Customizing the scroll to bottom button (ScrollToBottomButtonTemplate)
• Scrolled event and ChatScrolledEventArgs (IsBottomReached, IsTopReached, ScrollOffset)

Advanced Features

📄 Read: references/advanced-features.md

• Message swiping (left/right, SwipeStarted, SwipeEnded, swipe templates)
• Time-break grouping (custom time-break template)
• Attachment button (adding, customizing, AttachmentButtonView)
• Liquid glass effect (enabling, platform support, customization)
• MessageSpacing configuration
• Hiding the message input view (ShowMessageInputView)

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