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Installation

Add the Pulse Android SDK to your project and initialize it.

Requirements​

  • minSdk 21+
  • Android Gradle Plugin 8.3.0+
Optional — minSdk below 26 (core library desugaring)

Only if minSdk is below 26. In the app module build.gradle:

android {
    compileOptions {
        coreLibraryDesugaringEnabled true
    }
}

dependencies {
    coreLibraryDesugaring 'com.android.tools:desugar_jdk_libs:2.1.4'
}

See Android library desugaring.

Step 1 — Add Dependency​

dependencies {
    implementation("org.dreamhorizon:pulse-android-sdk:LATEST_VERSION")
}

Check Maven Central for the latest version.

Step 2 — Initialize​

Initialize in your Application class as early as possible in onCreate().

Main thread required

Call initialize() on the main thread. Several instrumentations register listeners on the main thread at startup — deferring or moving initialization to a background thread will cause them to silently not work.

import com.pulse.android.sdk.PulseSDK
import com.pulse.android.api.otel.PulseDataCollectionConsent

class MainApplication : Application() {
    override fun onCreate() {
        super.onCreate()

        PulseSDK.INSTANCE.initialize(
            application = this,
            apiKey = "your-api-key",
            dataCollectionState = PulseDataCollectionConsent.ALLOWED,
        )
    }
}

That's all that's required. With this basic configuration, the SDK starts collecting:

  • ✅ Native crashes (uncaught exceptions + JVM crashes)
  • ✅ ANR detection
  • ✅ Activity and Fragment screen lifecycle
  • ✅ App startup timing
  • ✅ Slow and frozen frame detection
  • ✅ Network connectivity changes (WiFi / cellular transitions)
  • ✅ Session tracking
  • ✅ Device and OS attributes (device.model, os.version, etc.)
Want more?

See Configuration for opt-in instrumentations — including session replay, click tracking, HTTP monitoring, and location.

Step 3 — Verify​

if (PulseSDK.INSTANCE.isInitialized()) {
    Log.d("Pulse", "SDK initialized successfully")
}

Telemetry will start appearing in your Pulse dashboard within seconds of the first launch.

This covers the basics — but Pulse offers much more through initialize(): instrumentation toggles, session config, consent control, custom headers, disk buffering, and more. See Configuration for the full parameter reference.

Next Steps​