AddheaderContent and footerContent slots to Messages composable

[tafelnl]

Goal

The Messages component now supports optional header and footer content parameters for enhanced customization. Developers can add custom composable content at the top and bottom of the message list to display supplementary information, action controls, or additional UI elements, while maintaining full backward compatibility with existing implementations.

Resolves: https://linear.app/stream/issue/AND-1074

Implementation

Using the slots that are also used for similar composables.

Testing

This can be tested by providing this composables with the headerContent and footerContent params.

☑️Contributor Checklist

General

• I have signed the Stream CLA (required)
• Assigned a person / code owner group (required)
• Thread with the PR link started in a respective Slack channel (required internally)
• PR targets the develop branch
• PR is linked to the GitHub issue it resolves

Code & documentation

• New code is covered by unit tests
• Comparison screenshots added for visual changes
• Affected documentation updated (KDocs, docusaurus, tutorial)

☑️Reviewer Checklist

• UI Components sample runs & works
• Compose sample runs & works
• UI Changes correct (before & after images)
• Bugs validated (bugfixes)
• New feature tested and works
• All code we touched has new or updated KDocs
• Check the SDK Size Comparison table in the CI logs

[VelikovPetar]

Before we can merge the PR, you will need to do couple of things:

1. Run ./gradlew detekt - and fix any findings
2. Run ./gradlew apiDump spotlessApply and commit the changes - to update the public .api baseline
3. Ensure the PR description matches the pull request template
4. Ensure the PR has the label pr:new-feature
5. Make sure you have signed the Stream CLA

[coderabbitai]

Walkthrough

Two new optional composable parameters, headerContent and footerContent, are added to the Messages composable function. Rendering hooks are introduced in LazyColumn to place these components at the top and bottom of the message list respectively, without affecting existing loading indicators or item rendering logic.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
New Composable Parameters stream-chat-android-compose/src/main/java/io/getstream/chat/android/compose/ui/messages/list/Messages.kt	Added headerContent and footerContent optional parameters to Messages composable. Integrated rendering hooks into LazyColumn to display footerContent at the top and headerContent at the bottom of the message list as single list items.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~8 minutes

Poem

🐰 A footer here, a header there,
New composable slots placed with care,
The messages flow, content takes flight,
Your chat lists now perfectly bright! 🎉

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 2 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 0.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (2 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The pull request title accurately describes the main change: adding headerContent and footerContent slots to the Messages composable, which aligns with the actual modifications made to the file.
Description check	✅ Passed	The PR description covers all key sections: Goal clearly states the purpose, Implementation describes the approach, and Testing explains how to validate the change.

_{✏️ Tip: You can configure your own custom pre-merge checks in the settings.}

✨ Finishing Touches

• 📝 Generate docstrings (stacked PR)
• 📝 Generate docstrings (commit on current branch)

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Post copyable unit tests in a comment

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[coderabbitai]

🧹 Nitpick comments (1)

stream-chat-android-compose/src/main/java/io/getstream/chat/android/compose/ui/messages/list/Messages.kt (1)

177-181: Prefer idiomatic content() over content.invoke().

Both invocation sites use the explicit .invoke() form, which is unnecessarily verbose in Kotlin.

♻️ Proposed fix

         footerContent?.let { content ->
             item {
-                content.invoke()
+                content()
             }
         }

         headerContent?.let { content ->
             item {
-                content.invoke()
+                content()
             }
         }

Also applies to: 215-219

🤖 Prompt for AI Agents

Verify each finding against the current code and only fix it if needed.

In
`@stream-chat-android-compose/src/main/java/io/getstream/chat/android/compose/ui/messages/list/Messages.kt`
around lines 177 - 181, Replace explicit lambda invocation calls using .invoke()
with idiomatic direct calls: change content.invoke() to content() for the
footerContent lambda in Messages.kt (the footerContent?.let { content -> item {
content.invoke() } } block) and likewise replace any other occurrences (e.g.,
the similar block around lines 215-219) so the lambda is invoked as content().

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against the current code and only fix it if needed.

Nitpick comments:
In
`@stream-chat-android-compose/src/main/java/io/getstream/chat/android/compose/ui/messages/list/Messages.kt`:
- Around line 177-181: Replace explicit lambda invocation calls using .invoke()
with idiomatic direct calls: change content.invoke() to content() for the
footerContent lambda in Messages.kt (the footerContent?.let { content -> item {
content.invoke() } } block) and likewise replace any other occurrences (e.g.,
the similar block around lines 215-219) so the lambda is invoked as content().

[tafelnl]

Before we can merge the PR, you will need to do couple of things:

1. Run ./gradlew detekt - and fix any findings
2. Run ./gradlew apiDump spotlessApply and commit the changes - to update the public .api baseline
3. Ensure the PR description matches the pull request template
4. Ensure the PR has the label pr:new-feature
5. Make sure you have signed the Stream CLA

I resolved all these, except for the label one, which I'm not able to do because of permissions

[tafelnl]

Awesome, thanks guys!

[VelikovPetar]

Hey @tafelnl,
Thank you for the contribution! We have couple more PRs that we need to merge by the end of this week, and we will publish the new version including this change on Friday the latest!

[stream-public-bot]

🚀 Available in v6.33.0