Sendbird Migration

LAST EDIT Mar 18 2024

Migrating data from Sendbird to Stream Chat is easy. Sendbird lets you export chat data from your account. The Stream Dashboard supports importing data exported from Sendbird.

When rebuilding your chat functions with Stream, there are some key differences to keep in mind.

Channel Types

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Sendbird has 2 channel types:

  • Open channels

  • Group channels

Stream Chat has 5 built-in channel types:

  • livestream

  • messaging

  • commerce

  • gaming

  • team

Stream Chat also supports creating your own channel types. This allows you to configure the features and permissions to exactly fit your use case.

Usually, you’ll want to use the “livestream” chat type if you’re using a Sendbird open channel.

Channels

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Instead of the getChannel and channel.enter, Stream uses 1 API call to both get and enter a channel.

The concept of UserMessage and FileMessage in Sendbird is replaced using a Message with a list of attachments.

Thumbnails

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Sendbird requires you to specify different thumbnails up-front. Stream lets you request different image sizes at read time.

Private vs. Public Groups

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This difference is handled by Stream’s permission system. You can allow or not allow non-members to edit the list of members for a channel.

You can query users