Create channels

Channel naming

Before creating channels, take the time to carefully plan your naming strategy. Stick to consistent naming conventions and structure your channels thoughtfully. This preparation helps you avoid increased complexity, performance bottlenecks, and scalability issues, ensuring your app remains manageable and efficient as it grows.

Create channels (Channel objects) of one of these types:

Requires App Context

To store data about channels, you must enable App Context for your app's keyset in the Admin Portal.

No support for channel groups

Chat SDKs don't support channel groups. We recommend using a Core SDK to manage channel groups.

Create direct channel​

Direct channels enable private conversations between two users, letting one person initiate the chat and send an invitation to another person for:

  • Personal conversations - you can engage in private conversations with friends, family, or colleagues, sharing personal updates, discussing sensitive matters, or planning social events.

  • Professional collaboration - you can use 1:1 chat to have focused discussions, exchange confidential information, provide feedback, or coordinate tasks with colleagues and business partners.

CreateDirectConversation() is a method that:

  1. Creates a direct (one-on-one) channel type.
  2. Sets channel membership for the channel owner (so that they can join the channel).
  3. Invites the other user to join the channel. As a result, an event of the invite type gets created. You can listen to these events in your chat app and notify the invited users.

If you call this method to create a channel for users that already had a conversation which was not deleted, this conversation is retrieved.

Receive messages

Note that you still have to call the Connect() method to subscribe to message event listeners and start receiving messages on the channel.

Method signature​

This method takes the following parameters:

1chat.CreateDirectConversation(
2    User user, 
3    string channelId = "", 
4    ChatChannelData? channelData = null,
5    ChatMembershipData? membershipData = null)
6

7public class ChatChannelData
8{
9    public string Name { get; set; } = string.Empty;
10    public string Description { get; set; } = string.Empty;
11    public Dictionary<string, object> CustomData { get; set; } = new ();
12    public string Updated { get; internal set; } = string.Empty;
13    public string Status { get; set; } = string.Empty;
14    public string Type { get; set; } = string.Empty;
15}

Input​

* required
ParameterDescription
user *
Type: User
Default:
n/a
User that you invite to join a channel.
channelId
Type: string
Default:
Guid.NewGuid()
ID of the direct channel. If no value is provided a random Guid() will be generated and set as the Channel ID.
channelData
Type: object
Default:
null
Information about the channel.
 → Name
Type: string
Default:
string.Empty
Display name for the channel.
 → Description
Type: string
Default:
string.Empty
Additional details about the channel.
 → CustomData
Type: Dictionary<string, object>
Default:
new ()
Any custom properties or metadata associated with the channel.
 → Updated
Type: string
Default:
string.Empty
Timestamp indicating when the channel was last updated or modified.
 → Status
Type: string
Default:
string.Empty
Current status of the channel, such as online, offline, or archived.
 → Type
Type: string
Default:
string.Empty
Type of the channel, like direct.
API limits

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

Output​

This method returns a Task<ChatOperationResult<CreatedChannelWrapper>> with the following data:

ParameterDescription
CreatedChannel
Type: Channel
Returned object containing the updated channel metadata.
HostMembership
Returned object containing the updated host (channel owner) metadata.
InviteesMemberships
Type: List<Membership>
Single-item list containing the updated data of the invited user.

Sample code​

Invite agent-007 to a 1:1 conversation to talk about customer XYZ.

1

Create group channel​

Group channels enable communication among multiple users, promoting collaboration and teamwork. A user can initiate a group chat and invite others to be channel members for:

  • Team collaboration - members of a project team can use group chat to share updates, exchange ideas, ask questions, and provide status updates. This boosts real-time collaboration and productivity and ensures everyone stays on the same page.

  • Community building - group chat allows like-minded individuals to connect, discuss shared interests, organize events, and build strong communities around specific topics, hobbies, or professional fields.

Such a chat type is restricted by invitation, and you can access it only when invited.

CreateGroupConversation() is a method that:

  1. Creates a group channel type.
  2. Sets channel membership for the channel owner (so that they can join the channel).
  3. Invites other users to join the channel.
Receive messages

Note that you still have to call the Connect() method to subscribe to message event listeners and start receiving messages on the channel.

Method signature​

This method takes the following parameters:

1chat.CreateGroupConversation(
2    List<User> users, 
3    string channelId = "", 
4    ChatChannelData? channelData = null,
5    ChatMembershipData? membershipData = null)
6

7public class ChatChannelData
8{
9    public string Name { get; set; } = string.Empty;
10    public string Description { get; set; } = string.Empty;
11    public Dictionary<string, object> CustomData { get; set; } = new ();
12    public string Updated { get; internal set; } = string.Empty;
13    public string Status { get; set; } = string.Empty;
14    public string Type { get; set; } = string.Empty;
15}

Input​

* required
ParameterDescription
users *
Type: List<User>
Default:
n/a
List of users that you invite to join a channel. You can invite a maximum number of 100 users at once as this is the limitation set by the App Context API that the InviteMultiple() method calls.
channelId
Type: string
Default:
Guid.NewGuid()
ID of the group channel. If no value is provided a random Guid() will be generated and set as the Channel ID.
channelData
Type: ChatChannelData
Default:
null
Information about the channel.
 → Name
Type: string
Default:
string.Empty
Display name for the channel.
 → Description
Type: string
Default:
string.Empty
Additional details about the channel.
 → CustomData
Type: Dictionary<string, object>
Default:
new ()
Any custom properties or metadata associated with the channel.
 → Updated
Type: string
Default:
string.Empty
Timestamp indicating when the channel was last updated or modified.
 → Status
Type: string
Default:
string.Empty
Current status of the channel, such as online, offline, or archived.
 → Type
Type: string
Default:
string.Empty
Type of the channel, like group.
API limits

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

Output​

This method returns a Task<ChatOperationResult<CreatedChannelWrapper>> with the following data:

ParameterDescription
CreatedChannel
Type: Channel
Returned object containing the updated channel metadata.
HostMembership
Type: Membership
Returned object containing the updated host (channel owner) data.
InviteesMemberships
Type: List<Membership>
Returned object containing the updated metadata of the invited users.

Sample code​

Create a group conversation and invite agent-007 and agent-008 to have weekly syncs on customer XYZ.

1

Create public channel​

Supported features

The public channel type comes with certain limitations in place - you'll get errors when trying to implement such Unity Chat SDK features as typing indicator or read receipts in public channels since these features are neither useful nor practical for large audiences.

Public channels let users engage in open conversations with many people. Unlike group chats, anyone can join public channels. Example use cases include:

  • Knowledge sharing and Q&A - public chats provide a platform for users to seek advice, share knowledge, and participate in discussions related to specific topics, fostering a community-driven environment.

  • Events and webinars - organizations can host public chats during live events, webinars, or panel discussions, allowing attendees to interact with presenters, ask questions, and share insights in real time.

CreatePublicConversation() is a method that creates such a public channel type with specified metadata.

Receive messages

Note that you still have to call the Connect() method to subscribe to message event listeners and start receiving messages on the channel.

Method signature​

This method takes the following parameters:

1chat.CreatePublicConversation(
2    string channelId = "", 
3    ChatChannelData? additionalData = null
4)
5

6public class ChatChannelData
7{
8    public string Name { get; set; } = string.Empty;
9    public string Description { get; set; } = string.Empty;
10    public Dictionary<string, object> CustomData { get; set; } = new ();
11    public string Updated { get; internal set; } = string.Empty;
12    public string Status { get; set; } = string.Empty;
13    public string Type { get; set; } = string.Empty;
14}

Input​

* required
ParameterDescription
channelId
Type: string
Default:
Guid.NewGuid()
ID of the group channel. If no value is provided a random Guid() will be generated and set as the Channel ID.
channelData
Type: ChatChannelData
Default:
null
Information about the channel.
 → Name
Type: string
Default:
string.Empty
Display name for the channel.
 → Description
Type: string
Default:
string.Empty
Additional details about the channel.
 → CustomData
Type: Dictionary<string, object>
Default:
new ()
Any custom properties or metadata associated with the channel.
 → Updated
Type: string
Default:
string.Empty
Timestamp indicating when the channel was last updated or modified.
 → Status
Type: string
Default:
n/a
Current status of the channel, such as online, offline, or archived.
 → Type
Type: string
Default:
n/a
Type of the channel, like public.
API limits

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

Output​

TypeDescription
Task<ChatOperationResult<Channel>>
Async task with the created Channel object.

Sample code​

Create a public ask-support channel.

1
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