CometChat Unreal Engine SDK

We're launching the CometChat Unreal Engine SDK, a native UE5 plugin that integrates real-time chat directly into multiplayer games and interactive experiences.

The SDK ships with full support for both Blueprint and C++, so you can wire up a working chat system whether you're prototyping visually or building a production title in code.

Supported platforms include:

Minimum requirements:

Why does this matter to me as a game developer?

Adding chat to a game is not as simple as dropping in a library.

Every game engine has different constraints around threading, UI rendering, and event systems. A real-time chat SDK needs to play nicely with all of them. For Unreal specifically, that means running all callbacks on the Game Thread so you can update UI safely, exposing async operations as Blueprint-friendly nodes with clear success and failure outputs, and fitting into the existing Subsystem architecture so the SDK lifecycle is automatically managed alongside your game instance.

Most solutions in this space hand you a REST API and leave the Unreal integration to you. The CometChat Unreal SDK is purpose-built for UE5, with a plugin architecture that handles all of that automatically.

Key features and capabilities

Blueprint and C++ support

The plugin exposes every SDK operation through both Blueprint async nodes and a native C++ API. You get the same capabilities either way.

In Blueprints, every operation has On Success and On Failure exec pins, making error handling explicit and visual. In C++, you access the same underlying subsystem directly.

UCometChatSubsystem

The SDK is built around a UGameInstanceSubsystem, which means it's created automatically when your game starts and lives for the full duration of the game instance. You don't manage its lifecycle manually. Access it from any Actor or Widget with a standard Get Subsystem call.

Latent async nodes

All network operations, including login, sending messages, fetching history, and group management, are exposed as latent async Blueprint actions. They don't block the game thread and surface results through clean success and failure output pins.

Real-time delegates

Incoming messages, presence updates, typing indicators, delivery receipts, and connection state changes all arrive via multicast delegates on the Subsystem. Every delegate fires on the Game Thread, so you can update your UI directly in the callback without any additional thread-switching.

What's included out of the box

How does installation work?

The plugin ships with two installation paths.

Option 1: Precompiled binaries (no build required)

Copy the CometChatSdk/ plugin folder from the SDK repository into your project's Plugins/CometChat/ directory, download the precompiled binaries for your engine version, extract them into the same directory, enable the plugin in your .uproject file, and open your project in Unreal Editor. No compilation step needed.

Option 2: Build from source

Copy the plugin source into your project's Plugins/ directory, regenerate project files, and build.

Once installed, add CometChat as a module dependency in your game's .Build.cs file, then call Configure on the CometChatSubsystem with your App ID and Region before making any other SDK calls.

What's interesting about the tech behind this?

The plugin is structured into three distinct layers, and understanding them helps you use it effectively.

UCometChatSubsystem is the single owner of the SDK lifecycle. Because it's a UGameInstanceSubsystem, Unreal manages its creation and destruction automatically. You never instantiate it directly.

Latent async nodes are the Blueprint-facing surface of every SDK operation. They follow the standard Unreal async action pattern, which means they work correctly with Blueprint's execution graph and never block frame execution.

Real-time delegates are how the SDK pushes events to your game. Rather than polling or requiring you to set up listeners manually, you bind to the Subsystem's delegates before login and events arrive automatically. Because all delegates fire on the Game Thread, you can drive UI updates directly from them.

There's also a ready-to-use CometChatGroupChatBox widget included in the plugin if you want a working group chat UI without building one from scratch.

Reference links

SDK repository: https://github.com/cometchat/chat-sdk-unreal/tree/v1 

Documentation overview: https://www.cometchat.com/docs/sdk/unreal/overview 

Setup guide: https://www.cometchat.com/docs/sdk/unreal/setup 

Nivedita Bharathy

Product Marketing Specialist , CometChat

Nivedita Bharathy is a Product Marketing Specialist at CometChat with experience spanning AI startups, incubators, and enterprise SaaS. A Boston University graduate and avid reader, she specializes in transforming complex technology into compelling narratives that resonate with both technical and business audiences.