Summary

In this chapter, we explored various aspects of building a messaging app for Android. We discussed different approaches for sending and receiving messages, such as using WebSockets with Ktor or Firebase Firestore. We also covered how to structure the app using Clean Architecture principles, with separate layers for data, domain, and presentation, to ensure a well-organized and maintainable code base, and saw how easy is to introduce changes (for example, a change in the messages provider) if our architecture components are well decoupled.

Then, we delved into handling connection errors and synchronization issues using Kotlin coroutines and Flow, implementing error handling and retry mechanisms for a seamless user experience. Additionally, we examined the importance of push notifications in messaging apps and demonstrated their implementation using FCM, from setting up FCM in a project to handling incoming notifications.

By the end of this chapter, you should have a comprehensive...