A practical guide to the Freshdesk Mobile SDK

Let's be real: users expect to get help right inside your app now. Toggling over to their email or opening a browser feels clunky, and if they get stuck, they’re more likely to just give up. In-app support isn’t a bonus feature anymore; it’s a core part of keeping users happy and engaged.

This is where tools like the Freshdesk Mobile SDK come into play. It’s a popular way to embed support features directly into iOS and Android apps.

But just opening up a new way for users to contact you is only half the battle. In this guide, we’ll walk through what the Freshdesk Mobile SDK actually is, cover its main features, and talk honestly about its limitations. Most importantly, we'll get into how you can add a layer of AI to turn a simple chat window into an automated support engine that works around the clock.

What is the Freshdesk Mobile SDK?

The Freshdesk Mobile SDK is a toolkit that lets developers plug Freshdesk support features directly into a mobile app. The whole point is to give your users a smooth way to get help without ever leaving the experience you’ve built.

It’s part of the larger Freshworks product family and typically uses Freshchat for the actual messaging. You can think of it as a direct line connecting your app to your support team’s dashboard in Freshdesk.

On a basic level, it lets you do a few key things:

• Offer in-app messaging for real-time chats.

• Give users direct access to your knowledge base and FAQs.

• Automatically identify users so your agents have the context they need to help.

Core features of the Freshdesk Mobile SDK

So, what can you actually do with the SDK once it’s implemented in your app? Let's dig in.

In-app conversations and messaging

This is the big one. Users can start a chat, manage the conversation, and hopefully get their problem solved from a clean interface that feels like a natural part of your app. It handles things like images and video attachments, so users can send a quick screenshot of what’s going wrong, which is way more helpful than trying to describe it in words.

For your team, these conversations appear in the Freshdesk workspace like any other ticket. This keeps everything in one place, so agents aren't juggling multiple tools to talk to customers.

Self-service with integrated FAQs

A smart way to lighten your support team's load is to help users find their own answers. The SDK can pull your entire Freshdesk knowledge base into the app, allowing users to browse or search for articles on their own.

You can even get a bit clever with it by using tags to filter which FAQs show up where. For example, if a user is on the checkout screen, you could surface articles related to payments first. It’s a nice touch that can head off common questions before they even turn into support tickets.

User management and context

We've all been there: you contact support and have to repeat your name, email, and order number for the third time. It’s frustrating. The SDK helps you avoid putting your users through that by letting you pass their information directly to your agents.

When a chat starts, you can automatically send the user's name, email, and other custom details, like their current subscription plan or what they were doing in the app. The SDK also uses unique IDs to keep a user's conversation history tied to them across different devices, so the context is never lost if they get a new phone or log in somewhere else.

A look at setup and customization

While the experience for the end-user is pretty seamless, getting the SDK up and running does involve some work on the backend. Here’s a quick overview of what’s involved.

The setup process at a glance

First off, you’ll need a developer. This isn't a no-code solution you can set up in an afternoon. The process involves grabbing an App ID and App Key from your Freshdesk admin account, adding the SDK to your mobile project (using something like Maven for Android or Cocoapods for iOS), and then writing the code to initialize it in your app.

The good news is that it’s pretty flexible. Freshdesk supports native Android and iOS, plus cross-platform frameworks like React Native and Flutter, so it should fit into most development workflows.

Customizing the user experience

You don’t want a support widget that sticks out like a sore thumb. The SDK gives you options to change up the themes and colors so the support interface matches your brand's look and feel. It also supports multiple languages, which is essential if you have users all over the world.

Enabling push notifications

Push notifications are a must for in-app chat to work well. If a user sends a message, closes the app, and an agent replies ten minutes later, you need a way to let them know. This means you have to integrate the SDK with a push notification service like Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) for Android or Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) for iOS. It’s an extra step during setup, but it’s critical for making sure the conversation doesn't just die out.

Key limitations: Why the Freshdesk Mobile SDK is only half the battle

Having a great channel for in-app support is a fantastic starting point. But it doesn't fix the bigger problem of actually managing and scaling that support. The SDK gives you a door, but you still need someone to answer it every single time.

The manual workload problem

Here’s the catch: every single conversation that comes through the SDK lands in your queue and needs a human agent to handle it. This approach just doesn't scale. As your app grows, your support team has to grow right alongside it. That means hiring more people, which increases costs and often leads to longer wait times for your users.

The trapped knowledge problem

The SDK is great at displaying articles from your official knowledge base, but what about all the other places your company’s information lives? Most businesses have answers scattered across Confluence, Google Docs, Notion, or even just buried in the resolutions of past support tickets. The SDK can’t touch any of that.

To give customers truly complete answers, you need something that can pull from all your knowledge sources. An AI platform like eesel AI connects to everything, not just your help center, to find and deliver the right information instantly.

Automation: Complicated and inflexible

Freshdesk does have its own AI solution, called Freddy AI, but getting it to work the way you want can be a major project. It often requires a lot of setup, developer help, and keeps you tied to the Freshworks ecosystem.

Compare that to the self-serve approach of a tool like eesel AI. You can connect your Freshdesk account in a few minutes and immediately run simulations on thousands of your past tickets to see how it would perform. This kind of risk-free testing gives you full control, without needing to go through a long sales process or wait on developers.

Understanding AI and pricing

If you do want to add automation through Freshdesk, they’ll point you to their "Freddy AI" features, which are add-ons to the standard plans.

Here's a rough breakdown of how the pricing works:

Feature	Growth Plan	Pro Plan	Enterprise Plan
Base Price (per agent/mo, billed annually)	$15	$49	$79
Freddy AI Copilot (Agent Assist)	Not Available	$29/agent/month	$29/agent/month
Freddy AI Agent (Full Automation)	Not Available	$100 per 1,000 sessions (after first 500)	$100 per 1,000 sessions (after first 500)
Pro Plan + AI Copilot Bundle	N/A	$78/agent/month	N/A

Note: Prices are based on annual billing as of late 2024 and may change.

The thing to watch out for here is the session-based pricing for the fully automated AI. This model can lead to unpredictable costs that creep up on you, especially if your app has a busy month. You essentially get penalized for your own success, since more users asking for help means a much bigger support bill.

The better way: Power up your Freshdesk Mobile SDK support with eesel AI

Instead of getting locked into a complex and expensive native AI, you can use eesel AI as an intelligent layer on top of your existing Freshdesk setup. It improves the mobile SDK experience without making you switch helpdesks or overhaul your workflows.

Here’s why it’s a more practical approach:

• Get up and running in minutes. eesel AI is genuinely self-serve. Connect Freshdesk, point it to your other knowledge sources, and you can start running simulations right away. No sales calls required.

• Connect all your knowledge sources. eesel AI doesn't just read your official help articles. It learns from your past tickets, internal wikis in Confluence, Google Docs, and more, giving it the deep context needed to answer questions the SDK alone can't.

• Test it out with zero risk. The simulation mode is a huge advantage. It shows you exactly how many questions can be automated and what your return on investment will be before you turn the AI on for a single customer. You can tweak its behavior and roll it out slowly when you're ready.

• Pricing that actually makes sense. eesel AI’s plans are straightforward and based on features and capacity, not per-resolution fees. Your bill won’t jump just because you had a busy month. It's simple, predictable, and scales with your business, not against it.

Final thoughts on the Freshdesk Mobile SDK

The Freshdesk Mobile SDK is a solid tool for building an in-app support channel. It gives your users a convenient way to reach you and keeps all your conversations in one place.

But creating the channel is just the first step. To deliver the kind of instant, intelligent support that people expect today, you need a good automation layer. eesel AI offers a fast, flexible, and risk-free way to add that intelligence to your Freshdesk mobile experience, turning a simple chat window into a support powerhouse that's always on.

Ready to automate your Freshdesk Mobile SDK support?

The Freshdesk Mobile SDK provides the channel, but eesel AI provides the answers. Connect your helpdesk in minutes and see how many customer inquiries you can automate.

Start your free trial of eesel AI today.