Reactions

caution

If you're moving from older versions to 11.0.0 then make sure to read "Introducing new reactions" release guide to help you transition to the new implementation.

The Stream Chat API provides built-in support for adding reactions to messages. The component library provides three default components to enable reaction selection and display:

• ReactionSelector - allows the connected user to select a reaction on a message
• ReactionsList - displays the reactions added to a message
• SimpleReactionsList - displays a minimal list of the reactions added to a message

Basic Usage

By default, the ReactionSelector and ReactionsList components are included within MessageSimple. To render reaction UI within a custom Message UI component, import both components (or SimpleReactionsList for a lightweight view) and render conditionally.

const CustomMessage = () => {
  // consume `MessageContext`
  const { message, showDetailedReactions } = useMessageContext();

  return (
    <div>
      {showDetailedReactions && <ReactionSelector />}
      // render remaining custom Message UI
      {message.latest_reactions && <ReactionsList reactions={message.latest_reactions} />}
    </div>
  );
};

<Chat client={client}>
  <Channel channel={channel} Message={CustomMessage}>
    <MessageList />
    <MessageInput />
  </Channel>
</Chat>;

UI Customization

Be default, the ReactionSelector component provides the following reaction options and corresponding emojis:

• like
• love
• haha
• wow
• sad
• angry - removed in 11.0.0

The defaultMinimalEmojis data set that populates the default reaction options can be found in the emojiData file in the component library.

To override the default selection set, provide your own array of MinimalEmoji type objects and pass into the reactionOptions prop on the ReactionSelector component. You can also override the default handleReaction function by adding the handleReaction prop.

caution

If custom reactionOptions are supplied to the ReactionSelector component, then the same data set needs to be delivered to the ReactionsList component so the display for processed reactions has the same emoji objects.

const customReactions = [
  // add array of custom `ReactionEmoji` type objects here
];

const customReactionHandler = (reactionType, event) => {
  // add custom handler logic here
};

const CustomMessage = () => {
  // consume `MessageContext`
  const { message, showDetailedReactions } = useMessageContext();

  return (
    <div>
      {showDetailedReactions && (
        <ReactionSelector
          handleReaction={customReactionHandler}
          reactionOptions={customReactions}
        />
      )}
      // render remaining custom Message UI
      {message.latest_reactions && <ReactionsList reactionOptions={customReactions} />}
    </div>
  );
};

<Chat client={client}>
  <Channel channel={channel} Message={CustomMessage}>
    <MessageList />
    <MessageInput />
  </Channel>
</Chat>;

To completely override the ReactionSelector and ReactionsList components in MessageSimple, pass your own custom components as props to the Channel.

const CustomReactionSelector = (props) => {
  // add custom reaction selector component here
};

const CustomReactionsList = (props) => {
  // add custom reactions list component here
};

<Chat client={client}>
  <Channel
    channel={channel}
    ReactionSelector={CustomReactionSelector}
    ReactionsList={CustomReactionsList}
  >
    <MessageList />
    <MessageInput />
  </Channel>
</Chat>;

Sorting reactions

By default, reactions are sorted alphabetically by type. You can change this behavior by passing the sortReactions prop to the MessageList (or VirtualizedMessageList).

In this example, we sort the reactions in the descending order by the number of users:

function sortByReactionCount(a, b) {
  return b.reactionCount - a.reactionCount;
}

<Chat client={client}>
  <Channel
    channel={channel}
    ReactionSelector={CustomReactionSelector}
    ReactionsList={CustomReactionsList}
  >
    <MessageList sortReactions={sortByReactionCount} />
    <MessageInput />
  </Channel>
</Chat>;

Similarly, the sortReactionDetails prop can be passed to the MessageList (or VirtualizedMessageList) to sort the list of reacted users. The default implementation used by the reactions list modal dialog sorts users alphabetically by name.

For better performance, keep the sorting functions memoized with useCallback, or declare it in either global or module scope.

ReactionSelector Props

additionalEmojiProps (removed in 11.0.0)

Additional props to be passed to the NimbleEmoji component from emoji-mart.

Type
object

Avatar

Custom UI component to display a user's avatar.

Type	Default
component	Avatar

detailedView

If true, shows the user's avatar with the reaction.

Type	Default
boolean	true

handleReaction

Function that adds/removes a reaction on a message (overrides the function stored in MessageContext).

Type	Default
(reactionType: string, event: React.BaseSyntheticEvent) => Promise<void>	MessageContextValue['handleReaction']

latest_reactions

An array of the reaction objects to display in the list (overrides message.latest_reactions from MessageContext).

Type
array

own_reactions

An array of own reaction objects to display in the list (overrides message.own_reactions from MessageContext).

Type
array

reaction_counts

An object that keeps track of the count of each type of reaction on a message (overrides message.reaction_counts from MessageContext).

Type
{ [key: reactionType]: number }

reactionOptions

A list of the currently supported reactions on a message.

Version	Type	Default
>=4.0.0	array	defaultMinimalEmojis
^11.0.0	array	defaultReactionOptions

reverse

If true, adds a CSS class that reverses the horizontal positioning of the selector.

Type	Default
boolean	false

ReactionsList Props

additionalEmojiProps (removed in 11.0.0)

Additional props to be passed to the NimbleEmoji component from emoji-mart.

Type
object

handleFetchReactions

Function that loads the message reactions (overrides the function stored in MessageContext).

Type	Default
() => Promise<void>	MessageContextValue['handleFetchReactions']

The default implementation of handleFetchReactions, provided via the MessageContext, limits the number of loaded reactions to 1200. Use this prop to provide your own loading implementation:

const MyCustomReactionsList = (props) => {
  const { channel } = useChannelStateContext();
  const { message } = useMessageContext();

  function fetchReactions() {
    return channel.getReactions(message.id, { limit: 42 });
  }

  return <ReactionsList handleFetchReactions={fetchReactions} />;
};

onClick

Custom on click handler for an individual reaction in the list (overrides the function stored in MessageContext).

Type	Default
(event: React.BaseSyntheticEvent) => Promise<void> | void	MessageContextValue['onReactionListClick']

own_reactions

An array of the own reaction objects to distinguish own reactions visually (overrides message.own_reactions from MessageContext).

Type
array

reaction_counts

An object that keeps track of the count of each type of reaction on a message (overrides message.reaction_counts from MessageContext).

Type
{ [key: reactionType]: number }

reactionOptions

A list of the currently supported reactions on a message.

Version	Type	Default
>=4.0.0	array	defaultMinimalEmojis
^11.0.0	array	defaultReactionOptions

reactions

An array of the reaction objects to display in the list (overrides message.latest_reactions from MessageContext).

Type
array

reverse

If true, adds a CSS class that reverses the horizontal positioning of the selector.

Type	Default
boolean	false

sortReactionDetails

Comparator function to sort the list of reacted users. Should have the same signature as an array's sort method. This prop overrides the function stored in MessageContext.

Type	Default
(this: ReactionResponse, that: ReactionResponse) => number	alphabetical order

sortReactions

Comparator function to sort reactions. Should have the same signature as an array's sort method. This prop overrides the function stored in MessageContext.

Type	Default
(this: ReactionSummary, that: ReactionSummary) => number	alphabetical order

SimpleReactionsList Props

additionalEmojiProps (removed in 11.0.0)

Additional props to be passed to the NimbleEmoji component from emoji-mart.

Type
object

handleFetchReactions

Function that loads the message reactions (overrides the function stored in MessageContext).

Type	Default
() => Promise<void>	MessageContextValue['handleFetchReactions']

handleReaction

Function that adds/removes a reaction on a message (overrides the function stored in MessageContext).

Type	Default
(reactionType: string, event: React.BaseSyntheticEvent) => Promise<void>	MessageContextValue['handleReaction']

own_reactions

An array of the own reaction objects to distinguish own reactions visually (overrides message.own_reactions from MessageContext).

Type
array

reaction_counts

An object that keeps track of the count of each type of reaction on a message (overrides message.reaction_counts from MessageContext).

Type
{ [key: reactionType]: number }

reactionOptions

A list of the currently supported reactions on a message.

Version	Type	Default
>=4.0.0	array	defaultMinimalEmojis
^11.0.0	array	defaultReactionOptions

reactions

An array of the reaction objects to display in the list (overrides message.latest_reactions from MessageContext).

Type
array