Survicate Android SDK

The Survicate Android SDK will increase your app's size by approximately 4MB when obfuscated and uncompressed. Note that the SDK features a Time To Live (TTL) mechanism of 60 seconds. This means any modifications made to your survey will be reflected on your respondents' devices after a delay of up to 60 seconds.

Requirements

Using Survicate Mobile SDK requires an account at survicate.com. You can create your account here for free, or become invited to your company account by one of your colleagues.
Android Gradle Plugin in version 3.0.0+ (7.4.2+ when R8 is enabled).
Compatibility with Java 8 language features.
Respondent's device running Android version 5 or above.

Apps using Survicate SDK after February 1st 2025 will require:

CompileSdk version 34 or higher (for Survicate SDKs released after February 1st 2025).
Using Android Gradle Plugin version 8.1.1 or higher with compatible Gradle version (for Survicate SDKs released after February 1st 2025).
Using Survicate SDK version 4.0.0 or higher (versions below 4.0.0 are reaching EoL).

Installation

Installing using Maven

The recommended installation method.

Define https://repo.survicate.com Maven repository in one of the following ways:

Add Survicate SDK dependency to your app's build.gradle file.

Installing manually

Download Survicate for Android
Copy Survicate.aar to app/libs directory of your project.
Add dependencies for manual installation to your app's build.gradle file:

Show dependencies

Note: Keep in mind that when updating the version by manual installation, you need to update SDK dependencies versions too.

Configuration

The following configuration will require workspace key. You can get your workspace key in the Access Keys section of the Survicate panel.

Configure your workspace key in AndroidManifest.xml file. Create meta-data: com.survicate.surveys.workspaceKey.
Initialize the SDK in your application class using init() method. If your project doesn't have a custom application class yet, you'll need to create one. Make sure that your custom application class is defined in AndroidManifest.xml.

As an alternative to the main way of specifying the Workspace Key, you can also use the setWorkspaceKey() method.

Important:

Using setWorkspaceKey() method overrides the Workspace Key defined in the configuration.
setWorkspaceKey() method must be used before init() method is called.

ProGuard / R8

The SDK provides built-in proguard rules, so you don't have to specify them manually.

Included rules

Since 2.0.0 Survicate Android SDK depends on Coil library. Please refer to Coil website for more information about their proguard rules.

We recommend using the most recent version of Android Gradle Plugin with R8 enabled in gradle.properties file:

The minimum supported Gradle configuration when running ProGuard / R8:

Android Gradle Plugin: 7.4.2
Gradle: 7.5 (gradle-wrapper.properties)

Using SDK

Survicate allows you to launch precisely targeted surveys inside your app. In the Survicate Panel, you can set conditions that need to be met for the surveys to appear. Users matching conditions defined in the Survicate panel will see the survey automatically. Here's a list of conditions you can use to target your surveys:

Name of the screen that a user currently sees
Any application event
User attributes and identities
Device language
Operating system

Make sure to list all the screens and events described in your application. Once you got this covered, you or any person responsible for creating and managing surveys will be able to trigger surveys from the Survicate panel with no need for you to update the application.

Warning Warning The SDK utilizes SharedPreferences to store information used by the targeting engine described in this section. Clearing SharedPreferences will cause the targeting system to malfunction; f.e. by showing the same survey twice to a single user.

Targeting a survey by screen name

A survey can appear when a user is viewing a specific screen. For example, a survey can be triggered to show up on the application's home screen after a user spends more than ten seconds there. To set it up, you need to send information to Survicate about the user entering and leaving a screen.

Note: Multiple active screens are allowed. In specific, calling enterScreen() does not make the previous screen to be discarded. Be sure to call leaveScreen() when you no longer want the screen to be treated as active.

Screen name is case sensitive. If there's any discrepancy between what's declared in the ‘Screens’ tab of the Target section in the Survicate panel and the application code, the survey will not appear.

Events-based survey targeting

Survicate Android SDK allows you to launch surveys based on events your users trigger in your app. Your survey will show instantly after an event occurs in your app.

Event name and property keys are case sensitive. If there is any discrepancy between what's declared in the ‘Triggers’ tab of the Target section in the Survicate panel and the application code, the survey will not appear.

User identification & attributes

You can pass user attributes to Survicate as an additional layer of information about your users. Attributes can be used to:

Identify respondents (by default survey responses are anonymous).
Target surveys to specific users with Audience filters.
Recall information in survey questions (e.g. include user name).
Filter survey results.

Bear in mind that user attributes are cached. You only need to provide them once, e.g. when user logs in, not after each init(). You can also change their values at any time to trigger a survey.

Attribute types

String: any text, e.g. user name or e-mail.
Number: an integer or decimal.
Boolean: a logic value.
Date: a java.util.Date that can be used in date or time interval filters (the latter measure elapsed time from a given timestamp).

Special attributes

user_id: This corresponds to the "Logged-in status" in the panel's Audience filter. A user is considered logged-in when a trait with the "user_id" key has been set on the device, regardless of the value.
first_name, last_name, email: If none of these is specified, a response will be marked as Anonymous in the panel.

Additional notes

You can freely use custom attribute keys without the need to register them anywhere.
In some panel functionalities (e.g. autocompletion), the attribute key will be available only after a survey response with the given attribute is uploaded (unless the key was added in the panel manually). By that time, the trait is saved only locally on the user's device.
Note that the predefined attribute classes (UserTrait.UserId, UserTrait.FirstName, etc.) have been deprecated in version 4.0. Instead, you should use the UserTrait(key, value) constructor. You will find migration details in the deprecation messages.

Reseting user data for testing purposes

If you need to test surveys on your device, reset() method might be helpful. This method will reset all user data stored on your device (survey views, attributes, information about answered surveys for the targeting engine).

Event listeners

SDK allows you to utilize event listeners. You may find them useful to trigger actions in your application based on actions performed by respondents. Here's a list of events you can subscribe to:

survey_displayed - occurs when survey is loaded and appears in the User Interface
question_answered - occurs after a question is answered ( Survicate stores incomplete survey submissions )
survey_closed - occurs when a user closes the survey using the close button
survey_completed - occurs when a user finishes the survey

Deprecation note: The Survicate.setEventListener method has been deprecated since version 4.1.0. You should use the addEventListener and removeEventListener methods instead.

SurvicateAnswer properties (QuestionAnsweredEvent.answer)

Property	Type	Description
type	String	Answer type. One of: ['text', 'single', 'multiple', 'smiley_scale', 'rating', 'csat', 'numerical_scale', 'nps', 'date', 'form', 'matrix', 'button_close', 'button_next', 'button_link'].
id	Long?	Answer ID. Applicable only for types: ['single', 'smiley_scale', 'csat', 'rating', 'numerical_scale'].
ids	Set<Long>?	Selected answer IDs. Applicable only for type = ['multiple'].
value	String?	Text representation of an answer, e.g. "Happy" for smiley scale. A `null` value in case of a skipped question. Not applicable for call-to-action answers: ['button_close', 'button_next', 'button_link'].

The id, ids and value properties are provided only for the cases enlisted in the table above. Therefore, expect that there might be answer objects that consist only of the type property.

Changelog

5.5.1 (2024-12-19)

Fixed

An issue with the Android getNetworkCapabilities method that could occasionally cause exceptions during SDK initialization.

5.5.0 (2024-12-04)

New

You can now add a comment field to NPS, Smiley scale, Rating scale, Matrix, and Date question types. There is also a comment title available for all comment fields. You can use it to ask a question and give your respondents some context of what you would like to see in the comment.

Updated

AndroidX Annotation to 1.9.1
Coroutines Android to 1.9.0

5.4.0 (2024-10-22)

New

Each question type except Welcome message, Date, and Thank you screen can be set as mandatory or optional.

Improved

Accessibility features for Matrix question, survey progress indicator, and navigation buttons.

5.3.0 (2024-09-12)

New

Once an event is invoked in the app, its name and property names are also sent to Survicate’s panel now. They will be shown as suggestions when a user configures event targeting of a survey.

5.2.0 (2024-09-04)

New

New conditions are available in event targeting:
- Time delay after event occurrence.
- Number of event occurrences.
- Time of the first occurrence.
- Time of the last occurrence.
If multiple conditions are applied, all of them should be met for a survey to appear.

5.1.1 (2024-07-25)

Improved

More distinguishable emojis in the 3-choice Smiley scale.

Fixed

Excessive spacing between Smiley scale emojis in the 3-choice layout.
Back button icon color on dark backgrounds.
An issue where "Submit" was displayed instead of "Start Survey" on the welcome CTA point after navigating back to it.

5.1.0 (2024-07-17)

New

Navigation buttons are available now. When enabled, your survey respondents can go back to the previous questions, see their selected answers, and change them if necessary.

Improved

Higher resolution of Smiley scale icons.

Fixed

Propagating Matrix answer in SurvicateAnswer.value of event listener.
An issue that resulted in unexpected vertical padding for Matrix question in full screen mode.

5.0.0 (2024-06-10)

New

Matrix question type added.

Updated

AndroidX Annotation to 1.8.0
Coroutines Android to 1.8.1

Fixed

UI state bugs related to Activity's configuration changes.
Animation resource names that could conflict with resources of the app or other libraries.

4.4.0 (2024-04-30)

New

New targeting option available – event properties. You can add multiple properties to one event and join them with either “or” or “and” operator. Property names and values are case-sensitive. Only string values are supported.

Updated

AndroidX Annotation to 1.7.1
Coroutines Android to 1.8.0
Moshi to 1.15.1

Fixed

A bug that could prevent a survey from being displayed if a delay was set for multiple screens in the panel.
Horizontal mode support for Numerical Rating question for up to 5 items.

4.3.0 (2024-03-26)

New

More flexible survey recurring options are available now. You can specify how many days / weeks / months / years should pass before the survey can appear again. It’s also possible to set after how many days / weeks / months / years the survey should stop recurring.
If you run several mobile surveys, you can use survey throttling settings to specify a time frame that should pass between showing them. Use global throttling to set the same time frame for all your mobile surveys, or use survey level throttling to override the global settings and specify a different period before showing a particular survey.

4.2.0 (2024-03-15)

New

New targeting filter available – screen orientation (portrait mode or landscape mode targeting). You can either include or exclude one of the orientation modes.

4.1.1 (2024-02-26)

Improved

Performance enhancements in answers synchronization.
Support for the milliseconds part when parsing ISO date-time strings within a UserTrait.

4.1.0 (2024-02-08)

New

Events like onSurveyDisplayed, onQuestionAnswered, onSurveyClosed, and onSurveyCompleted now utilize specific event objects: SurveyDisplayedEvent, QuestionAnsweredEvent, SurveyClosedEvent, SurveyCompletedEvent.
The SDK now supports the registration of multiple event listeners.

Updated

Reverted Coil to version 2.4.0 for better compatibility with cross-platforms (compileSdk 34 is no longer required).

Fixed

An issue where SurveyActivity could crash when it was restored after process termination.
A race condition in the recalling feature.

4.0.2 (2024-01-09)

This version requires compileSdkVersion to be at least 34. If you are not ready to use API level 34, please stay on Survicate version 3.0.4.

Improved

Date format in user traits recalling.

Fixed

A bug where users could see the survey more times than specified in recurrence settings if the SDK was updated in the meantime.
Sending user attributes to the backend only when necessary.

4.0.1 (2023-12-11)

This version requires compileSdkVersion to be at least 34. If you are not ready to use API level 34, please stay on Survicate version 3.0.4.

Updated

Use NetworkCapabilities to check internet connection (API 24+).
Migrate to WindowCompat APIs for setting full-screen background.

Fixed

Issue with recurring period calculation.

4.0.0 (2023-11-30)

This version requires compileSdkVersion to be at least 34. If you are not ready to use API level 34, please stay on Survicate version 3.0.4.

New

User conditions targeting is changed to audience targeting: create an audience that will be available for usage among all your mobile surveys. Enable multiple audiences at the same time in one survey if necessary.
User attributes now support not only string values but also numbers, boolean, and datetime values.
New attribute operators are available to support new data types.
Survey audience can be set not only by including a set of respondents who met the required criteria but also by excluding those who should not see the survey.
AND/OR operators in audience targeting are switchable now: within one attribute filter that has several attributes in it and between different filters.

Fixed

Fixed invalid survey closing when the app has specified android:enableOnBackInvokedCallback="true" in the AndroidManifest.xml.

3.0.6 (2023-11-28)

Updated

This version requires compileSdkVersion to be at least 34. If you are not ready to use API level 34, please stay on Survicate version 3.0.4.
Creating User Trait requires a non-null key.
Added a Proguard rule for User Traits.

Fixed

An issue with saving User Traits that could cause a crash whenever the saved User Trait key was null.

3.0.5 (2023-11-20)

Updated

This version requires compileSdkVersion to be at least 34. If you are not ready to use API level 34, please stay on Survicate version 3.0.4.
AGP to 8.1.2
Kotlin to 1.9.10
AndroidX RecyclerView to 1.3.2
Coil to 2.5.0

Fixed

An issue where answers saved without internet were not synchronized in the next app sessions.
An issue with javadoc generation.

3.0.4 (2023-10-25)

Updated

Android TargetSdk to 33
AndroidX AppCompat to 1.6.1
AndroidX RecyclerView to 1.3.1
AndroidX Annotation to 1.7.3
Moshi to 1.15.0
Coil to 2.4.0

Fixed

An issue where workspaceKey metadata was not provided in AndroidManifest.xml would cause a crash.

3.0.3 (2023-09-27)

Fixed

Added image scaling to shapes rating questions to fit all answers on the screen in horizontal layout.
Fixed issue on Thank You question with the button's title not using text from survey settings.

3.0.2 (2023-08-11)

Fixed

Issue where in some cases the survey was not dismissible.

3.0.1 (2023-08-08)

Updated

AGP version to 8.1.0
Gradle version to 8.1.1
Kotlin version to 1.8.22
Removed Material Design dependency

3.0.0 (2023-07-25)

New

New logic settings have been added to all question types (except Welcome message, Date, and Thank you screen).

2.4.0 (2023-07-11)

New

Now it's possible to select how to position answer choices in the NPS question: vertically (default option) or horizontally.

Fixed

An issue in recurring surveys where in some cases survey progress was calculated incorrectly.
Adjusted text color for NPS descriptions in the classic theme.
Adjusted text color for forms disclaimer in the classic theme.

2.3.2 (2023-06-06)

Fixed

An issue when it was not possible to filter survey responses by language in the panel.
An issue where after synchronization failure the SDK was not respecting the refresh interval.
An issue in rating scale questions where in some cases the UI was not displayed correctly.

2.3.1 (2023-05-25)

Fixed

An issue where recalling fallback value was not respected when the related text answer is blank.

2.3.0 (2023-05-25)

New

Now while adding introduction or question texts, you can recall information from attributes passed to Survicate or from answers to other questions in the survey.

Updated

Updated Moshi to 1.13.0.

Fixed

An issue that could cause an ANR during SDK initialization.

2.2.0 (2023-05-04)

New

Surveys can be translated into an app language if a corresponding translation is added in the panel.

Fixed

On SDK initialization, the survey cache is cleared now, and only surveys fetched from the server are shown.

2.1.1 (2023-04-18)

Updated

Close animation for standard theme surveys.

Fixed

An issue where one survey in a session flag was not respected.
An issue where the survey delay trigger timer was restarted after any other screen or event was triggered.

2.1.0 (2023-04-06)

New

Rating question type added.
Question and introduction texts can be made bold, italic, or hyperlinked.
New look of a date picker in the date question type.

2.0.1 (2023-03-14)

Updated

Updated Proguard rules.

Improved

When using R8, Proguard rules are included automatically.

2.0.0 (2023-03-09)

New

21 new design themes.
2 new survey settings – “Progress bar” and “Remove Survicate branding”.
New customization options: add a company's logo or a survey sender's avatar and a greeting message from them.

1.7.7 (2023-02-14)

Improved

Accuracy of survey sampling.

1.7.6 (2023-01-17)

Updated

Removed character limit from text fields.

1.7.5 (2023-01-09)

Updated

Removed explicit setting of usesCleartextTraffic flag in Survicate SDK manifest file.

1.7.4 (2022-10-25)

Fixed

An issue causing concurrency-related exceptions when initializing Survicate.

1.7.3 (2022-10-12)

Fixed

An issue in Single Answer Question where in some cases switching from an answer with a comment with focus on input to an answer without a comment would cause a crash.
An issue where surveys with triggering by screen and events would not show.

1.7.2 (2022-09-20)

Fixed

An issue causing NPS button labels to be displayed in incorrect colors.

1.7.1 (2022-09-14)

Fixed

An issue causing concurrency-related exceptions when processing survey data.
Memory leak when closing a survey.

1.7.0 (2022-09-07)

Fixed

An issue causing exceptions on Android 6 and lower.

Updated

The minimum supported version of Android changed to 5 (API 21).

1.6.5 (2022-08-04)

Fixed

An issue causing concurrency-related exceptions when responses were processed to the server.
Answers for smiley scale questions could not be stored.

Updated

Removed TLSv1.1 and added TLSv1.3 support.

1.6.3 (2022-06-15)

Fixed

Tracking the SDK version for internal purposes.
A bug causing the SDK to send a single answer multiple times in some edge case scenarios.

1.6.1 (2022-05-27)

Fixed

A bug causing the SDK to crash when using custom audience targeting.

1.6.0 (2022-05-20)

New

Detailed answer value for the Smile scale question is provided in the Question answered event listener.

1.5.15 (2022-05-17)

Fixed

A bug causing the SDK to crash when using event-based targeting in some particular cases.

1.5.14 (2022-04-25)

Fixed

Memory leaks on the Survicate SDK backend communication.

1.5.13 (2022-04-13)

Fixed

Crash in landscape mode on the NPS screen.

1.5.12 (2022-03-21)

Fixed

ProGuard configuration has been improved to avoid exceptions.

1.5.11 (2022-03-18)

Fixed

A bug causing the SDK to crash when using event-based targeting in some particular cases.

1.5.10 (2022-03-15)

Fixed

In some cases, it was possible that the survey would reappear to some respondents when it shouldn’t.

1.5.9 (2022-03-03)

Updated

Version of Gradle used to build the SDK is now bumped to 7.2.

1.5.8 (2022-02-18)

Fixed

When setting the survey to appear to less than 1% of targeted users, the survey was not displayed.
The audience sampling feature in the targeting engine had issues with interpreting numbers with decimal points.

1.5.7 (2022-02-04)

Fixed

ProGuard configuration has been improved to avoid exceptions.

Updated

Survey settings Time to Live (TTL) reduced to 10 minutes.

1.5.6 (2022-01-20)

Fixed

In some cases, loading survey data from device storage caused the application to crash.

1.5.5 (2022-01-13)

Fixed

In some cases, using survey background overlay caused the application to crash.

1.5.3 (2021-12-10)

Updated

Improved initialization time on the Survicate SDK startup.

1.5.2 (2021-12-03)

Fixed

Memory leaks and initialization time on the Survicate SDK startup.

1.5.1 (2021-12-02)

Fixed

In some scenarios, respondents were asked to answer only the last survey question.

1.5.0 (2021-11-18)

New

Surveys can now be set to appear on a recurring basis. Respondents can answer the same mobile survey again and again on a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis.

Fixed

Crashing caused by missing overlay theme.

1.4.5 (2021-10-26)

New

Scale labels can now be displayed below the smiley scale question.

1.4.4 (2021-10-21)

New

Survey settings Time to Live (TTL) mechanism on the respondent's device. The mechanism ensures that the survey settings are up to date on the respondent's side. If the current version of survey settings is older than 60 minutes, the survey configuration is checked for updates.

Fixed

Memory leaks on the list-based questions views.

1.4.3 (2021-09-30)

Fixed

A bug causing the SDK to crash when the survey was about to appear in some cases.

1.4.2 (2021-09-29)

New

The method setWorkspaceKey() allows specifying the Survicate workspace key from code.

1.4.1 (2021-09-23)

New

Native support for Android X.

Fixed

ProGuard configuration has been improved to avoid exceptions. Please refer to the documentation to see how to configure the Survicate SDK with ProGuard.

1.3.0 (2021-06-15)

New

SDK uses the current respondent API v3 endpoints.

1.2.5 (2021-03-24)

Fixed

Visual bugs with padding and font size on CTA questions.

1.2.4 (2021-01-29)

Fixed

A bug causing the SDK to malfunction when it was initialized multiple times.

1.2.3 (2020-12-23)

Fixed

When tapping two answers simultaneously, the SDK crashed on some devices.

1.2.2 (2020-09-22)

New

It’s now possible to suppress a survey if another was answered during the current visit to your app.

1.2.1 (2020-06-17)

Fixed

A bug causing the SDK to crash when the “Survey invitation” question had “next step” logic branching configured.

1.2.0 (2020-04-22)

Fixed

A bug causing surveys not to appear when targeted only at logged-in users.
A minor issue causing the survey not to appear when targeted at multiple values of the same attribute.