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Presence

Track which users are online and active in your chat app. Display user status (online, offline, active, away) and show when users were last active.

The Chat SDK provides two types of presence tracking:

Type	Description	Data source
Channel presence	Real-time tracking of users subscribed to specific channels	Presence API
Global presence	App-wide activity tracking based on timestamps	`lastActiveTimestamp` property

Channel presence provides real-time updates through the Presence API. Use streamPresence() to track who connects or disconnects.

Global presence uses the lastActiveTimestamp property on User objects. Configure the update interval (default: 10 minutes, minimum: 1 minute) during initialization with storeUserActivityTimestamps.

Channel presence

These methods let you monitor who is subscribed to a given channel ("present" on that channel).

Requires Presence

All channel presence methods in this section require that Presence is enabled for your app's keyset in the Admin Portal.

You can retrieve similar information for presence with different methods by calling them on the User, Channel, or Chat object. Depending on the chosen method, you must provide a different input information set.

Return channels where user is present

You can return a list of channels where a given user is present with:

wherePresent() called on the User object
wherePresent() called on the Chat object.

Both of these methods have the same name and give the same output. The only difference is that you call a given method either on the Chat or the User object. Depending on the object, you either have to specify the ID of the user whose presence you want to check or not because it's already known.

Under the hood

Method signature

These methods take the following parameters:

wherePresent() (on the User object)
```
1user.wherePresent(): Promise<string[]>
```

wherePresent() (on the Chat object)

1chat.wherePresent(
2    id: string
3): Promise<string[]>

Input

Parameter	Required in the `User` object method	Required in the `Chat` object method	Description
`id` Type: `string` Default: n/a	No	Yes	Unique identifier (up to 92 UTF-8 characters) of the user whose presence you want to check.

Output

Type	Description
`Promise<string[]>`	List of all channel IDs on which the given user is present.

Errors

Whenever the user ID is required, and you try to check a user without providing their ID, you will receive the ID is required error.

Sample code

Get a list of channels on which the support_agent_15 user is present.

wherePresent() (on the User object)

1// reference the user you want to check
2const user = await chat.getUser("support_agent_15")
3// invoke the "wherePresent()" method
4const channelIds = await user.wherePresent()

wherePresent() (on the Chat object)

1// reference the "chat" object and invoke the "wherePresent()" method.
2const channelIds = await chat.wherePresent(
3    "support_agent_15"
4)

Check user's channel presence

You can return information if the user is present on a specified channel with:

isPresentOn() called on the User object
isPresent() called on the Channel object.
isPresent() called on the Chat object.

All of these methods give the same output. The only difference is that you call a given method on the User, Channel, or Chat object. Depending on the object, you have to specify the ID of the user whose presence you want to check, the channel ID where you want to check user's presence, or both user and channel IDs.

Under the hood

Method signature

These methods take the following parameters:

isPresentOn() (on the User object)

1user.isPresentOn(
2    channelId: string
3): Promise<boolean>

isPresent() (on the Channel object)

1channel.isPresent(
2    userId: string,
3): Promise<boolean>

isPresent() (on the Chat object)

1chat.isPresent(
2    userId: string,
3    channelId: string
4): Promise<boolean>

Input

Parameter	Required in the `User` object method	Required in the `Channel` object method	Required in the `Chat` object method	Description
`userId` Type: `string` Default: n/a	No	Yes	Yes	Unique ID (up to 92 UTF-8 characters) of the user whose presence you want to check.
`channelId` Type: `string` Default: n/a	Yes	No	Yes	Unique identifier of the channel where you want to check the user's presence.

Output

Type	Description
`Promise<boolean>`	Returns information on whether a given user is present on a specified channel (`true`) or not (`false`).

Errors

Whenever the user ID or the channel ID is required, and you try to check the user's presence on a given channel without providing either the user ID or the channel ID, you will receive the User ID is required or the Channel ID is required error.

Sample code

Find out if the support_agent_15 user is present on the support channel.

isPresentOn() (on the User object)

1// reference the user whose presence you want to check
2const user = await chat.getUser("support_agent_15")
3// invoke the "isPresentOn()" method
4const isPresentOn = user.isPresentOn(
5    "support"
6)

isPresent() (on the Channel object)

1// reference the channel on which you want to check the user's presence
2const channel = await chat.getChannel("support")
3// invoke the "isPresent()" method
4const isPresent = await channel.isPresent(
5    "support_agent_15"
6)

isPresent() (on the Chat object)

1// reference the "chat" object and invoke the "isPresent()" method.
2const isPresent = await chat.isPresent(
3    "support_agent_15",
4    "support"
5)

Return all users present on channel

You can return a list of users present on the given channel with:

whoIsPresent() called on the Channel object
whoIsPresent() called on the Chat object.

Both of these methods have the same name and give the same output. The only difference is that you call a given method either on the Chat or the Channel object. Depending on the object, you either have to specify the ID of the channel where you want to check all present users or not because it's already known.

Under the hood

Method signature

These methods take the following parameters:

whoIsPresent() (on the Channel object)

1channel.whoIsPresent(
2    params?: {
3        limit?: number,
4        offset?: number
5    }
6): Promise<string[]>

whoIsPresent() (on the Chat object)

1chat.whoIsPresent(
  id: string,
  params?: {
      limit?: number,
      offset?: number
  }
7): Promise<string[]>

Input

Parameter	Required in the `Channel` object method	Required in the `Chat` object method	Description
`id` Type: `string` Default: n/a	No	Yes	Unique identifier of the channel where you want to check all present users.
`params` Type: `object` Default: n/a	No	No	Object containing optional pagination parameters.
→ `limit` Type: `number` Default: `1000`	No	No	Maximum number of occupants to return per channel. Valid range: 0-1000. Use `0` to get occupancy counts without user details.
→ `offset` Type: `number` Default: n/a	No	No	Zero-based starting index for pagination. Returns occupants starting from this position in the list. Must be >= 0.

Output

Type	Description
`Promise<string[]>`	List of all user IDs that are present on the given channel.

Errors

Whenever the channel ID is required, and you try to check a channel without providing its ID, you will receive the ID is required error.

Sample code

Get a list of users that are present on the support channel.

whoIsPresent() (on the Channel object)

1// reference the channel where you want to check all present users
2const channel = await chat.getChannel("support")
3// invoke the "whoIsPresent()" method
4const userIds = await channel.whoIsPresent()

whoIsPresent() (on the Chat object)

1// reference the "chat" object and invoke the "whoIsPresent()" method.
2const userIds = await chat.whoIsPresent(
3    "support"
4)

Get presence updates

Get up-to-date information about the real-time presence of users in the specified channel by subscribing to Presence events. The streamPresence() method lets you constantly track who connects to or disconnects from the channel and visually represent that in your chat app through some status, like offline, online, active, away, or any other.

Under the hood

Method signature

This method takes the following parameters:

1channel.streamPresence(
2    callback: (userIds: string[]) => unknown
3): Promise<() => void>

Input

* required

Parameter	Description
`callback` * Type: n/a Default: n/a	Callback function passed as a parameter. It defines the custom behavior to be executed when detecting new user presence events.
→ `userIds` * Type: `string[]` Default: n/a	Returns an updated array of user IDs.

Output

Type	Description
`Promise<() => void>`	Function you can call to disconnect (unsubscribe) from the channel and stop receiving `presence` events.

Sample code

Get user presence updates on support channel.

1const channel = await chat.getChannel("support")
2const stopUpdates = channel.streamPresence((userIds) => {
3  console.log("Currently present users: ", userIds)
4})
5// after some time...
6stopUpdates()

Global presence

The Chat SDK lets you configure your app to track the user's last online activity - this gives near real-time visibility into the availability of other chat members, allowing you to see whether someone is offline or available and reach out to them to start immediate communication.

Using this online activity information provided by the Chat SDK, you can later configure your app to display different statuses next to user profiles, like offline, online, active, away or any other.

This feature relies on the lastActiveTimestamp property set in milliseconds on the User object. This property stands for the Unix timestamp (numeric value representing the number of seconds since January 1, 1970) for the last time the user was active in a chat app. To track this, you must explicitly state that when configuring your app during the Chat SDK initialization by:

Setting the storeUserActivityTimestamps parameter to true.
Deciding how frequently a user's online activity will be updated by configuring the storeUserActivityInterval option - the default value is set to 600000 milliseconds (10 minutes) and the minimum value is 60000 milliseconds (1 minute).

If you set these options, you can track a user's global presence through the active method that relies on the above setup. If the user showed no online activity within the defined period of time, they are considered inactive.

Check user's app presence

active is a getter method called on the User object that lets you check whether a user has recently been active in the chat app based on their last activity timestamp and a configured interval.

Required configuration

To track the user's online activity, you must first configure the storeUserActivityTimestamps and storeUserActivityInterval parameters when initializing the Chat SDK.

Method signature

This method has the following signature:

1user.active: boolean

Properties

Property Description

Property	Description
`active` Type: `boolean`	Returned info on whether the user is active (`true`) or not active (`false`) on the channel. The returned value depends strictly on how you configure your chat app during initialization - if you set the `storeUserActivityInterval` parameter to the default `600000` milliseconds (10 minutes) and the user has been active in the app within the last 10 minutes (based on their `lastActiveTimestamp` property), the `active` method returns `true`.

active

Type: boolean

Returned info on whether the user is active (true) or not active (false) on the channel. The returned value depends strictly on how you configure your chat app during initialization - if you set the storeUserActivityInterval parameter to the default 600000 milliseconds (10 minutes) and the user has been active in the app within the last 10 minutes (based on their lastActiveTimestamp property), the active method returns true.

Sample code

Check if the user support_agent_15 has been recently active (assuming you configured the chat app to use the default activity interval value).

1// reference the "support_agent_15" user
2const user = await chat.getUser("support_agent_15")
3

4// check if the user has been active in the last 10 minutes
5user.active

Check user's last online activity

Required configuration

To track the user's online activity, you must first configure the storeUserActivityTimestamps and storeUserActivityInterval parameters when initializing the Chat SDK.

Let's assume you configured your app to track the user's online activity and update it every 2 minutes. You can retrieve information on the user's last online activity directly from the User object, convert it to a human-readable date (using external date and time libraries), and display it next to the user's profile in your chat app. Thanks to that, other app users will be able to see the last time the given user was online.

Sample code

Show the Unix timestamp when support_agent_15 was last time active in an app.

1// reference the "support_agent_15" user
2const user = await chat.getUser("support_agent_15")
3

4user.lastActiveTimestamp

Channel presence​

Requires Presence

Return channels where user is present​

Under the hood

Method signature​

Input​

Output​

Errors​

Sample code​

Check user's channel presence​

Under the hood

Method signature​

Input​

Output​

Errors​

Sample code​

Return all users present on channel​

Under the hood

Method signature​

Input​

Output​

Errors​

Sample code​

Get presence updates​

Under the hood

Method signature​

Input​

Output​

Sample code​

Global presence​

Check user's app presence​

Required configuration

Method signature​

Properties​

Sample code​

Check user's last online activity​

Required configuration

Sample code​

Channel presence

Return channels where user is present

Method signature

Input

Output

Errors

Sample code

Check user's channel presence

Method signature

Input

Output

Errors

Sample code

Return all users present on channel

Method signature

Input

Output

Errors

Sample code

Get presence updates

Method signature

Input

Output

Sample code

Global presence

Check user's app presence

Method signature

Properties

Sample code

Check user's last online activity

Sample code