Chat Button

The ability to deep link to a group chat on Bunch as described in this document is not yet available to developers. To learn more about which parts of the Bunch developer platform are already available and what's coming next check Our Roadmap

Starting a Group Chat on Bunch

Similar to how players in your game can go directly to a Bunch party with Party Button, you can integrate Chat Button to let players chat together on Bunch. Below is an example of how the Chat Button button could look into your game to allow players to start a group chat with their clan mates on Bunch.

How does it work?

The Chat Button is a simple button in your game, which opens a deep link to the Bunch app. The best button placement and design depends on the game so we're happy to work together to provide design guidelines (to ensure it's consistent with Bunch branding and fits your game's look & feel) and figure out the best placement in your game.

The way Bunch handles the underlying deep link will ensure that all players who are in the same group context in your game will be taken to the same group chat when tapping on the button. As such tapping the button will open the Bunch app on the group chat screen and provide an easy way for players to come back to the game. The group chat is persistent in the Bunch app, so players will be able to continue chatting even when outside of your game, which can be useful when for example coordinating clan activities in the game. If a player who taps on the Chat Button, doesn't have the Bunch mobile app installed yet, they will have an option to download it from the app store, and - if they do - will be taken through express onboarding process to ensure the time to the expected experience of being in the group chat is as short as possible.

Chat Button link

The link you need to open when someone taps on the Chat Button looks like this:

https://bunch.live/chatButton?gameKey={$gamekey}&groupID={$groupid}

where the {$gamekey} is the unique game identifier assigned to your game by Bunch during the Game Hub setup process and {$groupid} is a unique identifier generated by your game for the group the player is in. Bunch will use the combination of the two, to create a unique Bunch group chat and add the player to it.

⚠️

It's extremely important that the groupid is dynamically set to reflect the group (often called a clan id, a guild id, an alliance id, etc.) the player is in. Otherwise it may result in players having bad experience of being connected to strangers instead of people they expected to chat with.

The Chat Button link can also include additional optional parameters as listed below:

https://bunch.live/chatButton?gameKey={$gamekey}&groupID={$groupid}&
								playerID={$playerid}&
								source={$source}

{$playerid}: Gamer tag of the player inside your game. This helps us personalize the player's experience on Bunch, which is particularly important if they don't have the Bunch account set up yet.
{$source}: Unique string that identifies from where in your game the player opened a Bunch session. This helps us better track how your player cohorts perform on Bunch and work with you to optimize it.

Next steps

Bunch Chat Button is most powerful when used in a game which offers optimized experience for people coming to the game from a Bunch party. Learn more about it in Optimizing your game section.

Party Button offers similar functionality to the Chat Button, but enables a party experience experience instead of group chat. This can be useful in a different context like friends playing in a multiplayer session.

Integrating Bunch SDK enables the Bunch experience embedded in your game and doesn't require players to leave the game or even have the Bunch app installed.