Channel entity

The Channel object represents a single chat room where users can send and receive messages.

Properties

The Channel interface has the following properties:

1interface Channel {
2    val chat: Chat
3    val id: String
4    val name: String?
5    val custom: Map<String, Any?>?
6    val description: String?
7    val updated: String?
8    val status: String?
9    val type: ChannelType?
10

11    ...
12}

Parameter	Description
chat Type: Chat	Reference to the main Chat object.
id Type: String	Unique identifier for the channel. Verify the channel ID with our validator.
name Type: String	Display name or title of the channel.
custom Type: Map<String, Any?>	Any custom properties or metadata associated with the channel in the form of a map of key-value pairs. App Context filtering language doesn’t support filtering by custom properties.
description Type: String	Brief description or summary of the channel's purpose or content.
updated Type: String	Timestamp for the last time the channel was updated or modified.
status Type: String	Current status of the channel, like online, offline, or archived.
type Type: ChannelType	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 Kotlin 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

The Channel object exposes the following methods.

• connect()
• createMessageDraft
• delete()
• deleteFile()
• forwardMessage()
• getFiles()
• getHistory()
• getMessage()
• getMessageReportsHistory()
• getMembers()
• getPinnedMessage()
• getTyping()
• getUserRestrictions()
• getUsersRestrictions()
• invite()
• inviteMultiple()
• isPresent()
• join()
• leave()
• pinMessage()
• registerForPush()
• sendText()
• setRestrictions()
• startTyping()
• stopTyping()
• streamPresence()
• streamReadReceipts()
• streamMessageReports
• streamUpdates()
• 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.