Cometchat Android V6 Calls

Ground truth: catalog android-v6.json + features.android-v6.json (voice-video-calls) + contracts.android-v6.json (voice-video-calls) + the live pages calling-integration, call-features, components/{call-buttons,incoming-call,outgoing-call,call-logs}, guide-call-log-details. Deep Calls-SDK behavior: the /calls/android docs tree. Verify symbols against the catalog; fetch params from docs; never trust memory.

Companion skills (read first)

• cometchat-android-v6-core — install, credentials (assets/cometchat-settings.json), initFromSettings → login → render, sizing (references/layout.md), the fetch map. Assumed here, never repeated.
• cometchat-android-v6-{kotlin,compose}-placement — where the incoming-call surface sits in the app shell.

Use this skill when

"add voice/video calling", "show call buttons in the chat", "handle incoming calls", "add a call history screen", "the call buttons aren't appearing", "call log details".

Calls package + version

Add the Calls SDK alongside your cohort's UI Kit artifact (never instead of it):

dependencies {
    implementation("com.cometchat:chatuikit-compose-android:6.0.5")   // or chatuikit-kotlin-android for XML Views
    implementation("com.cometchat:calls-sdk-android:5.0.4")
}

⚠️ REQUIRED whenever android.enableJetifier=true (which core mandates for the Chat SDK's pre-AndroidX transitive) — add a Jetifier ignore-list, or the build breaks the moment you add calling. calls-sdk-android 5.0.x bundles a React-Native stack (react-android / hermes / react-native-webrtc), and Jetifier cannot transform react-android-*.aar — so with Jetifier on, the build dies at checkDebugAarMetadata with Execution failed for JetifyTransform: react-android-0.77.2-debug.aar (the app compiled fine BEFORE calling; adding the artifact breaks it — verified 2026-09-10). These AARs are already AndroidX, so exclude them from Jetifier in gradle.properties:

android.jetifier.ignorelist=react-android,hermes-android,react-native-webrtc

⚠️ The artifact and the flag are a PAIR — setting either alone breaks the app.

· flag true, artifact missing → app crashes at launch (initFromSettings → initCometChatCalls → NoClassDefFoundError: CometChatCalls$SessionSettingsBuilder) · artifact present, flag false → calling components crash when used (RuntimeException: Please call the CometChatCalls.init() method …)

⚠️ BOTH are required — the artifact alone is not enough. uiKit.enableCalling: true in assets/cometchat-settings.json is what makes initFromSettings initialize CometChatCalls. Without it, CometChatCallLogs throws RuntimeException: Please call the CometChatCalls.init() method …; without the artifact it throws NoClassDefFoundError. Both compile fine — device-only failures (verified 2026-08-21).

The kit auto-detects the Calls SDK and activates calling. Also set "uiKit": { "enableCalling": true } in app/src/main/assets/cometchat-settings.json so CometChatUIKit.initFromSettings(...) initializes the Calls SDK through the telemetry-aware path (it auto-inits Calls when that flag is on). Dashboard: calling must be enabled for the app.

Header call buttons differ BY COHORT (verified vs installed 6.0.5 source):

• Views: automatic — CometChatMessageHeader's voice/video button visibility defaults follow CallsUtils.isCallingEnabled(), so the buttons render with no extra code once calling is enabled.
• Compose: NOT automatic — the CometChatMessageHeader composable defaults hideVoiceCallButton = true and hideVideoCallButton = true. Pass both explicitly:

  CometChatMessageHeader(user = user, hideVoiceCallButton = false, hideVideoCallButton = false)

  And do NOT use the header's auxiliaryView slot for other icons — it REPLACES the default auxiliary area that hosts the call buttons (they vanish). Extra header icons go in trailingView (see cometchat-android-v6-compose-components).

Call-flow ordering (BAKED — invariant)

1. Dependency + enableCalling → call buttons appear in the message header (Views: nothing to wire; Compose: pass hideVoiceCallButton = false, hideVideoCallButton = false — see above).
2. initFromSettings resolves → login resolves (as always) — calling is unavailable before that.

⚠️ Enabling calling in an app with EXISTING sessions — force a fresh login. CometChatUIKit.login() short-circuits when the same uid is already logged in (persisted session): it returns onSuccess WITHOUT calling loginCometChatCalls, so the Calls SDK never gets an auth token (verified vs 6.0.5 CometChatUIKit.kt login + on device 2026-08-25). Symptom: CometChatCallLogs shows a silent error state; logcat says User auth token cannot be null. When calling is FIRST enabled on an app whose users already have a session, users must re-login — CometChatUIKit.logout(...) then CometChatUIKit.login(...) (or force a fresh login path once, e.g. on a calling-feature version bump). During development, wire onError on CometChatCallLogs so this failure is not silent.

3. Register a GLOBAL call listener so an incoming call rings from anywhere in the app — the docs recommend an Application subclass, registering before the UI Kit is used:

import com.cometchat.chat.core.Call            // NOTE: chat.core, NOT chat.models
import com.cometchat.chat.core.CometChat

class BaseApplication : Application() {
    companion object {
        private val LISTENER_ID = "${BaseApplication::class.java.simpleName}${System.currentTimeMillis()}"
    }
    override fun onCreate() {
        super.onCreate()
        CometChat.addCallListener(LISTENER_ID, object : CometChat.CallListener() {
            override fun onIncomingCallReceived(call: Call) { /* show CometChatIncomingCall over the current screen */ }
            override fun onOutgoingCallAccepted(call: Call) { /* proceed to the ongoing-call surface */ }
            override fun onOutgoingCallRejected(call: Call) { /* dismiss the outgoing UI */ }
            override fun onIncomingCallCancelled(call: Call) { /* dismiss the incoming UI */ }
        })
    }
}

Register the Application class in the manifest (android:name=".BaseApplication"). Views: instantiate CometChatIncomingCall(context), set its call, set fitsSystemWindows = true, wire its error handler, and present it (dialog / full-screen overlay). Compose: hold the incoming Call in app-level state and render the incoming-call composable above your nav host — fetch the composable's params from components/incoming-call.md. 4. Permissions — request CAMERA and RECORD_AUDIO at runtime before a call starts (video needs both; audio-only needs RECORD_AUDIO); declare them in the manifest. The kit ships CometChatPermissionHandler / CometChatPermissionActivity — prefer them over a hand-rolled flow.

ℹ️ SoLoader / bundled React-Native native libs (know this before an ACTIVE call). calls-sdk-android 5.0.x bundles a React-Native stack (react-android / hermes / react-native-webrtc), declared at runtime scope in its POM — so they land on the runtime classpath and initFromSettings calls-init + CometChatCallLogs work with no extra deps (verified on device: init succeeds, call logs render). An active call surface loads those native .sos, which on RN ≥ 0.76 depend on SoLoader. If an active call fails to open with a SoLoader/UnsatisfiedLinkError/NoClassDefFoundError (React/JSI/ Hermes symbols), add the RN + SoLoader artifacts on the compile classpath and init SoLoader once in Application.onCreate before the first call surface:

// build.gradle.kts (only if an active call throws a SoLoader/native-link error)
implementation("com.facebook.react:react-android:0.77.2")   // match what calls-sdk-android pulls
implementation("com.facebook.soloader:soloader:0.12.1")
// Application.onCreate: SoLoader.init(this, OpenSourceMergedSoMapping)

Whether 5.0.x needs this for an active call is not yet settled from a single device — it is NOT needed for init or call logs. Verify with a real two-device call; treat this as the fix if (and only if) you hit that native-link error, not as an unconditional step.