Channel object

Channel is an object that refers to a single chat room.

Properties

The Channel object has the following properties:

class Channel {
    id: string,
    name?: string,
    custom?: ObjectCustom,
    description?: string,
    updated?: string,
    status?: string,
    type?: ChannelType
}

Parameter	Type	Description
id	string	Unique identifier for the channel. Verify the channel ID with our validator.
name	string or undefined	Display name or title of the channel.
custom	ObjectCustom or undefined	Any custom properties or metadata associated with the channel in the form of a JSON. Values must be scalar only; arrays or objects are not supported. App Context filtering language doesn’t support filtering by custom properties.
description	string or undefined	Brief description or summary of the channel's purpose or content.
updated	string or undefined	Timestamp for the last time the channel was updated or modified.
status	string or undefined	Current status of the channel, like online, offline, or archived.
type	ChannelType or undefined	One of the available channel types: direct (1:1) group (multiple people, restricted by invitation) public (open chat for a large audience, anyone can join it) unknown for channels created using the JavaScript SDK instead of Chat SDK, whose type provided in channel metadata is different than the three default Chat SDK types.

API limits

To learn about the maximum length of parameters used to set channel metadata, refer to REST API docs.

Methods

You can call the following methods on the Channel object.

Click on each method for more details.

• connect()
• createMessageDraft()
• createMessageDraftV2()
• delete()
• deleteFile()
• forwardMessage()
• getFiles()
• getHistory()
• getMessage()
• getMessageReportsHistory
• getMembers()
• getPinnedMessage()
• getTyping()
• getUserRestrictions()
• getUsersRestrictions()
• getUserSuggestions()
• invite()
• inviteMultiple()
• isPresent()
• join()
• leave()
• pinMessage()
• registerForPush()
• sendText()
• setRestrictions()
• startTyping()
• stopTyping()
• streamPresence()
• streamReadReceipts()
• streamMessageReports
• streamUpdates()
• (static) streamUpdatesOn()
• update()
• unpinMessage()
• unregisterFromPush()
• whoIsPresent()

Use case

For example, you can use the Channel object methods to:

• Let users send messages.
• Create and manage a 1:1, group, or public channel (chat).
• Invite others to join the channel.
• Configure a typing indicator to track when someone in the room is writing a message.
• Register the channel for mobile push notifications, not to miss a single message.