Report offensive messages

Chat SDK provides a mechanism for users to report offensive content in messages directly from their applications.

In each case, a user must provide a reason for flagging a given message. As a result of flagging, a reported message gets published on the dedicated administrative channel (with the ID of PUBNUB_INTERNAL_MODERATION_{channel_id}) and an event of the Report type gets created.

As a developer, you can add custom logic that uses the emitted events and defines what an admin can later do with such reported messages. For example, an admin can delete an inappropriate message.

Message Persistence

To work with stored message data, you must enable Message Persistence for your app's keyset in the Admin Portal.

Flag/Report messages

report() lets you flag and report an inappropriate message to the admin.

All messages (events of type Report) reported on a given channel are sent to a PUBNUB_INTERNAL_MODERATION_{channel_id} channel which is a child channel for the main one where a reported message was published. For example, an event on a message reported on the support channel will be sent to the PUBNUB_INTERNAL_MODERATION_support channel.

Method signature

This method takes the following parameters:

message.report(
    reason: String,
    completion: ((Swift.Result<Timetoken, Error>) -> Void)? = nil
)

Input

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
reason	String	Yes	n/a	Reason for reporting/flagging a given message.

Output

Type	Description
((Swift.Result<Timetoken, Error>) -> Void)	Returned object with a value of any type.

Basic usage

Report the last message on the support channel as offensive.

// Reference the "support" channel

chat?.getChannel(channelId: "support") { channelResult in
  switch channelResult {
  case let .success(channel):
    if let channel = channel {
      // Get the last message from the channel’s history
      channel.getHistory(count: 1) { historyResult in
        switch historyResult {
        case let .success(historyResponse):
          if let message = historyResponse.messages.first {
            // Report the last message as offensive
            message.report(reason: "Offensive Content") { reportResult in
              switch reportResult {
              case .success(let timetoken):

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Get historical reported messages

getMessageReportsHistory() fetches a list of reported message events for a specified channel within optional time and count constraints, returning the events and a boolean indicating if there are more events to fetch.

This method prefixes the internal channel ID with a predefined string (INTERNAL_MODERATION_PREFIX) and calls the getEventsHistory method of the chat instance, passing along the constructed channel ID and any additional parameters.

Method signature

This method takes the following parameters:

channel.getMessageReportsHistory(
    startTimetoken: Timetoken? = nil,
    endTimetoken: Timetoken? = nil,
    count: Int = 25,
    completion: ((Swift.Result<(events: [EventWrapper], isMore: Bool), Error>) -> Void)?
)

Input

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
startTimetoken	Timetoken	No	n/a	The start timetoken for fetching the history of reported messages, which allows specifying the point in time where the history retrieval should begin.
endTimetoken	Timetoken	No	n/a	The end time token for fetching the history of reported messages, which allows specifying the point in time where the history retrieval should end.
count	Int	No	25	The number of reported message events to fetch from the history.

Output

Type	Description
((Swift.Result<(events: [EventWrapper], isMore: Bool), Error>) -> Void)	Returned object containing these fields: events and isMore.

Basic usage

Fetch historical messages reported on the support channel between the 1725100800000 (July 1, 2024, 00:00:00 UTC) and 1726780799000 (July 21, 2024, 23:59:59 UTC) timetokens.

// Define timetokens for the message history period
let startTimetoken: Timetoken = 1725100800000 // July 1, 2024, 00:00:00 UTC
let endTimetoken: Timetoken = 1726780799000 // July 21, 2024, 23:59:59 UTC

chat?.getChannel(channelId: "support") { channelResult in
  switch channelResult {
  case let .success(channel):
    if let channel = channel {
      // Fetch historical messages reported within the specified time frame
      channel.getMessageReportsHistory(
        startTimetoken: startTimetoken,
        endTimetoken: endTimetoken,
        count: 25
      ) { historyResult in
        switch historyResult {

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Listen to Report events

As an admin of your chat app, you can monitor all events emitted when someone reports an offensive message using the streamMessageReports() method.

You can use this method to create moderation dashboard alerts.

Events documentation

To read more about the events of type Report, refer to the Chat events documentation.

Method signature

This method has the following parameters:

channel.streamMessageReports(callback: @escaping (any Event<EventContent.Report>) -> Void) -> AutoCloseable

Input

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
callback	n/a	Yes	n/a	Callback function passed as a parameter. It defines the custom behavior to be executed when detecting new message report events.
→ event	(any Event<EventContent.Report>)	Yes	n/a	An instance of an event where the content is specifically related to a report.

Output

Type	Description
AutoCloseable	Interface that lets you stop receiving report-related updates (Report events) by invoking the close() method.

Basic usage

Print a notification for an offensive message reported on the support channel.

// Reference the "support" channel
chat?.getChannel(channelId: "support") { result in
  switch result {
  case let .success(channel):
    if let channel = channel {
      // Listen for report events on the 'support' channel
      let autoCloseable = channel.streamMessageReports { event in
        // Check if the event is for the 'support' channel
        if event.channelId == "support" {
          // Access the report details from the event's payload
          let reportPayload = event.payload
          let reportReason = reportPayload.reason
          // Print the notification
          if reportReason.lowercased() == "offensive" {
            print("Notification: An offensive message was reported on the 'support' channel by user \(event.userId). Reason: \(reportReason)")

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