Unread Reminders

Unread reminders notify users about messages they have not read. Use them to trigger emails, push notifications, or SMS.

When enabled, Stream Chat sends a webhook or SQS event when a user has an unread message in a channel (with 10 or fewer members) for longer than the configured interval.

Enabling Unread Reminders

Enable reminders for a channel type and configure the reminder interval.

// Enable reminders for the messaging channel type
await client.updateChannelType("messaging", {
  reminders: true,
});

// Change reminders interval to 1 hour (default is 5 minutes)
await client.updateAppSettings({ reminders_interval: 3600 });

# Enable reminders for the messaging channel type
client.update_channel_type("messaging", reminders=True)

# Change reminders interval to 1 hour
client.update_app_settings(reminders_interval=3600)

# Enable reminders for the messaging channel type
client.update_channel_type("messaging", reminders: true)

# Change reminders interval to 1 hour
client.update_app_settings(reminders_interval: 3600)

// Enable reminders for the messaging channel type
ChannelType.update("messaging").reminders(true).request();

// Change reminders interval to 1 hour
App.update().remindersInterval(3600).request();

// Enable reminders for the messaging channel type
$client->updateChannelType("messaging", ["reminders" => true]);

// Change reminders interval to 1 hour
$client->updateAppSettings(["reminders_interval" => 3600]);

// Enable reminders for the messaging channel type
client.UpdateChannelType(ctx, "messaging", map[string]interface{}{"reminders": true})

// Change reminders interval to 1 hour
client.UpdateAppSettings(ctx, &AppSettings{RemindersInterval: 3600})

// Enable reminders for the messaging channel type
await channelTypeClient.UpdateChannelTypeAsync(channelType.Name, new ChannelTypeWithStringCommandsRequest
{
  Reminders = true,
});

// Change reminders interval to 1 hour
await appClient.UpdateAppSettingsAsync(new AppSettingsRequest
{
  RemindersInterval = 3600,
});

// Enable in Dashboard: Open your application -> Channel Types -> Pick Channel Type -> Enable "Message Reminders"

The reminder interval can be set between 60 seconds and 86,400 seconds (24 hours). The default is 5 minutes.

Requirements

Reminders are sent only when all conditions are met:

The channel has 10 members or fewer
The channel type has reminders enabled
The channel has at least one unread message
The channel has read_events enabled
The unread message type is regular or system
The message is not deleted
The channel is not deleted

The default channel member limit is 10. To increase this limit, upgrade to an Enterprise plan and contact support.

Reminder Event

Reminder events contain all information needed to send notifications without additional API calls.

Event Fields

Field	Description
type	Event type: `user.unread_message_reminder`
user	The user who has unread messages
channels	Object containing channels with unread messages (up to 10 channels)
created_at	Timestamp when the event was sent

Channel Object Fields

Field	Description
channel	Channel object including member list
messages	Last 5 messages in the channel (in descending order)

{
  "type": "user.unread_message_reminder",
  "created_at": "2022-09-22T12:11:01.258013863Z",
  "user": {
    "id": "jose",
    "role": "user",
    "created_at": "2021-08-20T08:16:15.591073Z",
    "updated_at": "2022-09-22T12:07:39.675943Z",
    "last_active": "2022-09-21T09:49:09.750498Z",
    "banned": false,
    "online": false,
    "teams": ["blue"],
    "name": "jose"
  },
  "channels": {
    "messaging:!members-NsJg6rJv7n1wrpi4NyA5zNGBCpih_eYaQdY6KARmEHo": {
      "channel": {
        "id": "!members-NsJg6rJv7n1wrpi4NyA5zNGBCpih_eYaQdY6KARmEHo",
        "type": "messaging",
        "cid": "messaging:!members-NsJg6rJv7n1wrpi4NyA5zNGBCpih_eYaQdY6KARmEHo",
        "last_message_at": "2022-09-22T12:10:01.833367Z",
        "created_at": "2022-08-24T17:19:28.792836Z",
        "updated_at": "2022-08-24T17:19:28.792836Z",
        "frozen": false,
        "disabled": false,
        "member_count": 2,
        "members": [
          {
            "user_id": "jose",
            "user": {
              "id": "jose",
              "name": "jose"
            },
            "role": "member"
          },
          {
            "user_id": "pepe",
            "user": {
              "id": "pepe"
            },
            "role": "owner"
          }
        ]
      },
      "messages": [
        {
          "id": "8009180a-ef37-4818-b4fd-e69a7312d77e",
          "text": "hola",
          "type": "regular",
          "user": {
            "id": "pepe"
          },
          "created_at": "2022-09-22T12:05:05.641171Z"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Silent & System Messages

Reminders & Bookmarks