--- source_url: https://www.pubnub.com/docs/sdks/android/api-reference/message-actions title: Message Actions API for Android SDK updated_at: 2026-05-28T11:16:44.671Z --- > Documentation Index > For a curated overview of PubNub documentation, see: https://www.pubnub.com/docs/llms.txt > For the full list of all documentation pages, see: https://www.pubnub.com/docs/llms-full.txt # Message Actions API for Android SDK :::warning Unsupported docs PubNub no longer maintains Android SDK docs, but our [Java SDK](https://www.pubnub.com/docs/sdks/java) or [Kotlin SDK](https://www.pubnub.com/docs/sdks/kotlin) are fully compatible with the Android platform and you can use them to build mobile apps, ensuring stable software development. ::: Use message actions to add or remove metadata on published messages. Common uses include receipts and reactions. Clients subscribe to a channel to receive message action events. Clients can also fetch past message actions from Message Persistence, either on demand or when fetching original messages. :::tip Reactions "Message Reactions" is a specific application of the Message Actions API for emoji or social reactions. ::: :::note Message Actions vs. Message Reactions **Message Actions** is the flexible, low-level API for adding any metadata to messages (read receipts, delivery confirmations, custom data), while **Message Reactions** specifically refers to using Message Actions for emoji/social reactions. In PubNub [Core](https://www.pubnub.com/docs/sdks) and [Chat](https://www.pubnub.com/docs/chat/overview) SDKs, the same underlying Message Actions API is referred to as **Message Reactions** when used for emoji reactions - it's the same functionality, just different terminology depending on the use case. ::: ## Add message action :::warning Requires Message Persistence Enable Message Persistence for your key in the [Admin Portal](https://admin.pubnub.com/) as described in the [support article](https://support.pubnub.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051974791-How-do-I-enable-add-on-features-for-my-keys-). ::: Add an action to a published message. The response includes the added action. ### Method(s) Use this Android method: ```java this.pubnub.addMessageAction() .channel(String) .messageAction(PNMessageAction); ``` | Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | channel | String | Yes | | Channel name to add the message action to. | | messageAction | PNMessageAction | Yes | | Message action payload (type, value, message timetoken). | | async | PNCallback | Yes | | Callback of type `PNAddMessageActionResult`. | ### Sample code ```java pubnub.addMessageAction() .channel("my_channel") .messageAction(new PNMessageAction() .setType("reaction") .setValue("smiley_face") .setMessageTimetoken(15701761818730000L) ) .async(new PNCallback() { @Override public void onResponse(PNAddMessageActionResult result, PNStatus status) { if (!status.isError()) { System.out.println(result.getType()); System.out.println(result.getValue()); System.out.println(result.getUuid()); System.out.println(result.getActionTimetoken()); System.out.println(result.getMessageTimetoken()); } else { status.getErrorData().getThrowable().printStackTrace(); } } }) ``` ### Returns The `addMessageAction()` operation returns a `PNAddMessageActionResult` which contains the following operations: | Method | Description | | --- | --- | | `getType()`Type: `String` | Message action type. | | `getValue()`Type: `String` | Message action value. | | `getUuid()`Type: `String` | Publisher of the message action. | | `getActionTimetoken()`Type: `Long` | Timestamp when the message action was created. | | `getMessageTimetoken()`Type: `Long` | Timestamp when the message was created that the action belongs to. | #### PNMessageAction | Method | Description | | --- | --- | | `setType()`Type: `String` | Message action type. | | `setValue()`Type: `String` | Message action value. | | `setMessageTimetoken()`Type: `Long` | Timetoken of the target message. | ## Remove message action :::warning Requires Message Persistence Enable Message Persistence for your key in the [Admin Portal](https://admin.pubnub.com/) as described in the [support article](https://support.pubnub.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051974791-How-do-I-enable-add-on-features-for-my-keys-). ::: Remove a previously added action from a published message. The response is empty. ### Method(s) Use this Android method: ```java this.pubnub.removeMessageAction() .channel(String) .messageTimetoken(Long) .actionTimetoken(Long); ``` | Parameter | Description | | --- | --- | | `channel` *Type: String | Channel name to remove the message action from. | | `messageTimetoken` *Type: Long | Timetoken of the target message. | | `actionTimetoken` *Type: Long | Timetoken of the message action to remove. | | `async` *Type: PNCallback | Callback of type `PNRemoveMessageActionResult`. | ### Sample code ```java pubnub.removeMessageAction() .channel("my_channel") .messageTimetoken(15701761818730000L) .actionTimetoken(15701775691010000L) .async(new PNCallback() { @Override public void onResponse(PNRemoveMessageActionResult result, PNStatus status) { if (!status.isError()) { // result has no actionable data // it's enough to check if the status itself is not an error } else { status.getErrorData().getThrowable().printStackTrace(); } } }); ``` ### Returns The `removeMessageAction()` operation returns no actionable data. ## Get message actions :::warning Requires Message Persistence Enable Message Persistence for your key in the [Admin Portal](https://admin.pubnub.com/) as described in the [support article](https://support.pubnub.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051974791-How-do-I-enable-add-on-features-for-my-keys-). ::: Get a list of message actions in a channel. The response sorts actions by the action timetoken in ascending order. :::note Truncated response The number of message actions in the response may be truncated when internal limits are hit. If the response is truncated, a `more` property is returned with additional parameters. Send iterative calls to Message Persistence, adjusting the parameters to fetch more message actions. ::: ### Method(s) Use this Android method: ```java this.pubnub.getMessageActions() .channel(String) .start(Long) .end(Long) .limit(Integer); ``` | Parameter | Description | | --- | --- | | `channel` *Type: StringDefault: n/a | Channel name to list message actions for. | | `start`Type: LongDefault: n/a | Message action timetoken for the start of the range (exclusive). | | `end`Type: LongDefault: n/a | Message action timetoken for the end of the range (inclusive). | | `limit`Type: IntegerDefault: 100 | Maximum number of actions to return. Default/Maximum is `100`. | | `async` *Type: PNCallbackDefault: n/a | Callback of type `PNGetMessageActionsResult`. | ### Sample code ```java pubnub.getMessageActions() .channel("my_channel") .async(new PNCallback() { @Override public void onResponse(PNGetMessageActionsResult result, PNStatus status) { if (!status.isError()) { List actions = result.getActions(); for (PNMessageAction action : actions) { System.out.println(action.getType()); System.out.println(action.getValue()); System.out.println(action.getUuid()); System.out.println(action.getActionTimetoken()); System.out.println(action.getMessageTimetoken()); } } else { status.getErrorData().getThrowable().printStackTrace(); } } }); ``` ### Returns The `getMessageActions()` operation returns a list of `PNGetMessageActionsResult` objects, each containing the following operations: | Method | Description | | --- | --- | | `getType()`Type: `String` | Message action type. | | `getValue()`Type: `String` | Message action value. | | `getUuid()`Type: `String` | Publisher of the message action. | | `getActionTimetoken()`Type: `Long` | Timestamp when the message action was created. | | `getMessageTimetoken()`Type: `Long` | Timestamp when the message was created that the action belongs to. | ### Other examples #### Fetch messages with paging ```java public static void main(String args[]){ getMessageActionsWithPaging("my_channel", System.currentTimeMillis() * 10_000L, new Callback() { @Override public void onMore(List actions) { System.out.println("Next set of actions: " + actions.size()); } @Override public void onDone() { System.out.println("All actions fetched"); } }); } /** * Fetches 5 message actions at a time, recursively and in a paged manner. * * @param channel The channel where the message is published, to fetch message actions from. * @param start The timetoken which indicates from where to start fetching message actions. * @param callback The callback to dispatch fetched message actions to. */ static void getMessageActionsWithPaging(String channel, Long start, Callback callback) { pubnub.getMessageActions() .channel(channel) .start(start) .limit(5) .async(new PNCallback() { @Override public void onResponse(PNGetMessageActionsResult result, PNStatus status) { if (!status.isError() && !result.getActions().isEmpty()) { callback.onMore(result.getActions()); getMessageActionsWithPaging(channel, result.getActions().get(0).getActionTimetoken(), callback); } else { callback.onDone(); } } }); } interface Callback { void onMore(List actions); void onDone(); } ``` ## Terms in this document * **Channel** - A pathway for sending and receiving messages between devices, created automatically when you first use it, that can handle any number of users and messages for different communication needs, like 1-1 text chats, group conversations, and other data streaming. * **Channel pattern** - A way to group and analyze channel data to track performance metrics like message counts and user engagement over time with PubNub Insights.