Sample chat UI

The Unity Chat SDK ships with a ready-made chat UI prefab so you can bring up a working chat screen without writing any UI code.

Starter sample

This prefab is a starter sample you copy into your project and customize. Treat it as a reference implementation, not a production UI component.

Key security

The controller exposes publishKey, subscribeKey, and secretKey as serialized inspector fields, which means they are saved into the scene file. For production, load keys from secure storage or use an Access Manager token issued by your server, and never commit secret keys to source control.

What is included

The sample lives under Assets/PubnubChat/Samples~/UIChatPrefab/ in the Unity Chat SDK repository and contains three files:

File	Type	Purpose
PubnubChatUI.prefab	Unity prefab	Canvas with a scroll view for messages, a text input, and a send button. Drop it into a scene to get a full chat layout.
PubnubChatUIController.cs	MonoBehaviour	Initializes the Chat SDK, creates a public conversation, optionally fetches recent message history, listens for incoming messages, and sends new messages from the input field.
PubnubMessageUIController.cs	MonoBehaviour	Renders a single message as a left- or right-aligned bubble with a metadata line (user ID and timestamp).

Prerequisites

Install and initialize the Unity Chat SDK before using the sample. Refer to Initial configuration.

Import the sample

The prefab is distributed as a UPM package sample:

1. In Unity Editor, open Window -> Package Manager.
2. Select the Pubnub Chat package from the list.
3. Expand the Samples section and click Import next to Pubnub Chat - Example UI Prefab.
4. Unity copies the sample into Assets/Samples/Pubnub Chat/<version>/Pubnub Chat - Example UI Prefab/.

Use the sample

1. Open the scene where you want the chat to appear. Make sure it contains an EventSystem (Unity adds one automatically when you drop the prefab into an empty scene).
2. Drag PubnubChatUI.prefab from the imported sample folder into the scene hierarchy.
3. Select the prefab root object and fill in the inspector fields under Pubnub settings with your PubNub keys, a user ID, and the channel ID you want to join. For the field reference, see Inspector reference.
4. Press Play. The controller creates a public conversation, wires up the send button and input field, and starts receiving messages on the channel.

Inspector reference

PubnubChatUIController

* required

Parameter	Description
publishKey * Type: string Default: n/a	Publish Key from your PubNub keyset.
subscribeKey * Type: string Default: n/a	Subscribe Key from your PubNub keyset.
secretKey Type: string Default: n/a	Secret Key used for server-side operations. Leave empty for client builds.
userId * Type: string Default: n/a	Unique User ID that identifies the current user.
channelId * Type: string Default: n/a	Identifier of the public channel the sample joins on start. If the channel already exists, the controller reuses it.
fetchChannelHistoryOnStart Type: bool Default: false	When true, the controller loads the last five hours of messages (up to displayedMessagesLimit) into the scroll view on start.
displayedMessagesLimit Type: int Default: 50	Maximum number of messages shown at once. Older messages are removed from the UI when this limit is reached.
messageUIPrefab * Type: PubnubMessageUIController Default: n/a	Prefab used to render each message bubble. Pre-wired in the sample to a bubble prefab under the same folder.
scrollView * Type: ScrollRect Default: n/a	Scroll view that contains the message list.
scrollViewContent * Type: RectTransform Default: n/a	Content transform under the scroll view where message instances are parented.
information * Type: TextMeshProUGUI Default: n/a	Header label that displays the active channel ID.
messageInput * Type: TMP_InputField Default: n/a	Input field where the user types new messages.
sendButton * Type: Button Default: n/a	Button that publishes the text currently in messageInput.

PubnubMessageUIController

* required

Parameter	Description
TheirBubble * Type: GameObject Default: n/a	Container shown when the message was sent by another user.
TheirText * Type: TextMeshProUGUI Default: n/a	Text component inside TheirBubble that displays the message body.
TheirMeta * Type: TextMeshProUGUI Default: n/a	Metadata line (user ID and timestamp) for messages received from others.
MyBubble * Type: GameObject Default: n/a	Container shown when the current user sent the message.
MyText * Type: TextMeshProUGUI Default: n/a	Text component inside MyBubble that displays the message body.
MyMeta * Type: TextMeshProUGUI Default: n/a	Metadata line for messages sent by the current user.

Controller source

The controller handles the full lifecycle: it creates a Chat instance, creates or reuses a public Channel with the configured ID, optionally loads history, binds OnMessageReceived, and calls Connect() to start receiving live messages. On destroy, it removes the button, input, and message listeners so scene transitions leave no dangling subscriptions.

1

Customize

Use the prefab as a starting point and adapt it to your game:

Customization	Description
Theming	Create prefab variants of PubnubChatUI.prefab to swap backgrounds, fonts, and colors without losing upstream updates.
Message bubbles	Edit the PubnubMessageUIController prefab to restyle MyBubble and TheirBubble, change TextMeshPro fonts, or add avatar slots. Extend Initialize() to accept the data you need.
Channel types	Replace chat.CreatePublicConversation(channelId) with CreateGroupConversation() or CreateDirectConversation() to target private rooms.
More real-time events	Subscribe to additional channel events like typing indicators, presence, and read receipts.
Secure keys	Move publishKey, subscribeKey, and secretKey out of the inspector and into a runtime source such as a server-issued Access Manager token.