Custom Events

Java

Select your Platform:

Client SDKs

Backend SDKs

Custom events allow you to build more complex interactions within a channel or with a user.

To a channel

Confused about "To a channel"?

Let us know how we can improve our documentation:

Users connected to a channel, either as a watcher or member, can send custom events and have them delivered to all users watching the channel.

Custom events are enabled by default on all channel types, you can disable them using the Dashboard or the API the same way as you would manage other channel features (ie. replies, URL previews, ...)

Permissions

Like every client-side API request, sending a custom event includes a permission check. By default users that can read messages on a channel can also send custom events. Check the Auth & Permission section to find out more about how permissions can be customized for your application.

Keep in mind a clever user can send their own custom events. We recommend using the type attribute or custom data on the event to limit the kinds of events that are displayed to the recipient to ones that are safe e.g. if a bad actor sends a "password reset" or other malicious events, your client app should just ignore it.

To a user

Confused about "To a user"?

Let us know how we can improve our documentation:

This allows you to send custom events to a connected user. The event is delivered to all connected clients for that user.

It is only available with server-side authentication. A copy of the event is sent via web-hooks if it is enabled.

name	type	description	default
targetUserID	string	target user ID	-
data	object	event to be sent	-
data.type	string	type of the event	-

If the user doesn't exist, a 404 Not Found error is returned.

The type of the event shouldn't contain any . character otherwise a 400 Bad Request error is returned. This a character used for built-in events, see Event Object section for more details.