Guides and Surveys Android SDK

Amplitude's Guides and Surveys Android SDK enables you to deploy Guides and Surveys in your Android applications.

Requirements

The Guides and Surveys Android SDK requires:

• Android API Level 24 (Android 7.0) or higher
• Kotlin 1.8.22 or newer
• Amplitude Android-Kotlin SDK 1.0 or higher.

Install and initialize the SDK

Add the following dependencies to your application's build.gradle.kts file:

dependencies {
    // Amplitude Engagement SDK
    implementation("com.amplitude:amplitude-engagement-android:1.0+")

    // Amplitude Analytics SDK (required dependency)
    implementation("com.amplitude:analytics-android:1.+")
}

Initialize the SDK

import com.amplitude.android.engagement.AmplitudeEngagement
import com.amplitude.android.engagement.AmplitudeInitOptions

// Initialize the SDK
val amplitudeEngagement = AmplitudeEngagement(
    context = applicationContext,
    apiKey = "YOUR_API_KEY",
    options = AmplitudeInitOptions()
)

// Add the plugin to your Amplitude instance
val amplitude = Amplitude(applicationContext)
amplitude.add(amplitudeEngagement.getPlugin())

Configuration options

Boot the SDK

// Basic boot with user ID
amplitudeEngagement.boot(userId = "USER_ID")

// Advanced boot with options
val bootOptions = AmplitudeBootOptions(
    user = AmplitudeEndUser(
        userId = "USER_ID",
        deviceId = "DEVICE_ID",
        userProperties = mapOf("key" to "value")
    )
)
amplitudeEngagement.boot(bootOptions)

Enable screen tracking (optional)

Required for screen targeting and the Time on Screen trigger.

// Track screen views to trigger guides based on screens
amplitudeEngagement.screen("HomeScreen")

Enable element targeting (optional)

Pin and tooltip guides require the ability for the SDK to target specific elements on screen.

Jetpack Compose

Use Amplitude Engagement's .amplitudeView modifier to tag Jetpack Compose views. Pass your instance of AmplitudeEngagement as a parameter to .amplitudeView. Configure a CompositionLocalProvider and access it in your view hierarchy or pass your instance as a parameter to your composable views.

// Jetpack Compose Tagging

@Composable
fun MyView() {
    // Use your instance of Amplitude Engagement by creating a Composition context or passing as a param
    val engagement = LocalEngagement.current

    Box() {
        Button(modifier = Modifier.amplitudeView(engagement, "my-button"))
    }
}

Non-Jetpack Compose

Guides and Surveys also supports non-Jetpack Compose views. The SDK uses the tag, contentDescription, or resourceName fields to check for a matching selector. You need to set only one of these.

Configure this in your existing layout XMLs or programmatically by setting the properties on the view instance.

<!-- in my_layout.xml -->
<LinearLayout>
    <Button
        <!-- Set either contentDescription or tag to your desired selector -->
        android:contentDescription="my-button"
        android:tag="my-button" />
</LinearLayout>

// Non Jetpack Compose Programmatic Tagging
val button = Button(this)

// Set the contentDescription
button.contentDescription = "my-button"
// Or, set the tag
button.tag = "my-button"

Manage themes

Configure the visual theme mode if your app supports light and dark modes.

// Set the theme mode
amplitudeEngagement.setThemeMode(ThemeMode.DARK) // Options: LIGHT, DARK, SYSTEM

Reset

Reset a guide or survey to a specific step.

amplitudeEngagement.reset(key = "GUIDE_KEY", stepIndex = 0)

List

Retrieve a list of all live guides and surveys along with their status.

val guidesAndSurveys = amplitudeEngagement.list()

Show

Display a specific guide or survey. Ignores any targeting rules and limits except for page targeting.

amplitudeEngagement.show(key = "GUIDE_KEY")

Forward event

If you don't use the plugin, but want to trigger Guides using events, call forwardEvent with any events want to use as triggers.

// Forward events from Amplitude to trigger guides
val event = BaseEvent()
amplitudeEngagement.forwardEvent(event)

Close all

Close all active guides and surveys.

amplitudeEngagement.closeAll()

Simulate Guides and Surveys for preview

To use preview mode to test a guide or survey in your app, configure a custom URL scheme.

Locate the mobile URL scheme

In Amplitude, navigate to your Project's settings.

On the General tab, locate the URL scheme (mobile) field. Copy its value, for example, amp-abc123.

Add the URL scheme in Android Studio

Add the following intent filter to the main activity to your project's AndroidManifest.xml file:

<activity android:name=".MainActivity">
    <intent-filter>
    <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
    <!-- Add your URL scheme from Amplitude Dashboard here -->
    <!-- ex: android:scheme="amp-12345" -->
    <data android:scheme="<your-unique-scheme-id>" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

URL handling for preview links

// In your Activity
override fun onNewIntent(intent: Intent?) {
    super.onNewIntent(intent)
    amplitudeEngagement.handlePreviewLinkIntent(intent)
}