Channel

The Channel component is a React Context provider that wraps all the logic, functionality, and UI for an individual chat channel. It provides four separate contexts to its children:

• ChannelStateContext - stateful data (ex: messages or members)
• ChannelActionContext - action handlers (ex: sendMessage or openThread)
• ComponentContext - custom component UI overrides (ex: Avatar or Message)
• TypingContext - object of currently typing users (i.e., typing)

Basic Usage

The Channel component does not inject any UI, so its implementation is fairly simple and can be handled in one of two ways, both with and without a ChannelList component. If you are using a ChannelList, do not add a channel object as a prop on Channel. However, in the absence of a ChannelList, the channel prop is required. By default, the ChannelList sets the active channel object, which is then injected it into the ChannelStateContext, so manual prop passing is not required.

Example 1 - without ChannelList

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

Example 2 - with ChannelList

<Chat client={client}>
  <ChannelList />
  <Channel>
    <MessageList />
    <MessageInput />
  </Channel>
</Chat>

Any child of the Channel component has access to the contexts referenced above. Each context can be accessed with one of our custom hooks, which must be imported individually.

const { messages } = useChannelStateContext();
const { sendMessage } = useChannelActionContext();
const { Avatar } = useComponentContext();
const { typing } = useTypingContext();

Registering custom components

In case you would like to customize parts of your chat application, you can do that by passing custom components to Channel component props. All the title-cased props are reserved for the custom components overriding the SDK defaults. The list of all customizable components - the component context - can be found in the ComponentContext documentation.

Example of registering custom Avatar component

import {
  Channel,
  ChannelList,
  Chat,
  MessageInput,
  MessageList,
} from "stream-chat-react";
import { CustomTooltip } from "../Tooltip/CustomTooltip";

const Avatar = ({ image, title }) => {
  return (
    <>
      <CustomTooltip>{title}</CustomTooltip>
      <div className="avatar-image">
        <img src={image} alt={title} />
      </div>
    </>
  );
};

export const App = (
  <Chat client={client}>
    <ChannelList />
    <Channel Avatar={Avatar}>
      <MessageList />
      <MessageInput />
    </Channel>
  </Chat>
);

Props

channel

The currently active StreamChat channel instance to be loaded into the Channel component and referenced by its children.

const channel = client.channel("messaging", {
  members: ["nate", "roy"],
});

acceptedFiles

A list of accepted file upload types.

activeUnreadHandler

Custom handler function that runs when the active channel has unread messages and the app is running on a separate browser tab.

Attachment

Custom UI component to display a message attachment.

AttachmentPreviewList

Custom UI component to display an attachment previews in MessageInput.

AutocompleteSuggestionHeader

Custom UI component to override the default suggestion header component.

AutocompleteSuggestionItem

Custom UI component to override the default suggestion Item component.

AutocompleteSuggestionList

Custom UI component to override the default List component that displays suggestions.

Avatar

Custom UI component to display a user’s avatar.

channelQueryOptions

Optional configuration parameters used for the initial channel query. Applied only if the value of channel.initialized is false. If the channel instance has already been initialized (channel has been queried), then the channel query will be skipped and channelQueryOptions will not be applied.

In the example below, we specify, that the first page of messages when a channel is queried should have 20 messages (the default is 100). Note that the channel prop has to be passed along channelQueryOptions.

import { ChannelQueryOptions } from "stream-chat";
import { Channel, useChatContext } from "stream-chat-react";

const channelQueryOptions: ChannelQueryOptions = {
  messages: { limit: 20 },
};

type ChannelRendererProps = {
  id: string;
  type: string;
};

const ChannelRenderer = ({ id, type }: ChannelRendererProps) => {
  const { client } = useChatContext();
  return (
    <Channel
      channel={client.channel(type, id)}
      channelQueryOptions={channelQueryOptions}
    >
      {/* Channel children */}
    </Channel>
  );
};

CooldownTimer

Custom UI component to display the slow mode cooldown timer.

DateSeparator

Custom UI component for date separators.

doDeleteMessageRequest

Custom action handler to override the default client.deleteMessage(message.id) function.

The function can execute different logic for message replies compared to messages in the main message list based on the parent_id property of StreamMessage object:

import { Channel, StreamMessage } from 'stream-chat-react';
import type { MyStreamChatGenerics } from './types';

const doDeleteMessageRequest = async (message: StreamMessage<MyStreamChatGenerics>) => {
    if (message.parent_id) {
        // do something before / after deleting a message reply
    } else {
        // do something before / after deleting a message
    }
}

const App = () => (
  {/* more components */}
    <Channel doDeleteMessageRequest={ doDeleteMessageRequest }>
        {/* more components */}
    </Channel>
  {/* more components */}
);

doMarkReadRequest

Custom action handler to override the default channel.markRead request function (advanced usage only). The function takes two arguments:

doSendMessageRequest

Custom action handler to override the default channel.sendMessage request function (advanced usage only).

doUpdateMessageRequest

Custom action handler to override the default client.updateMessage request function (advanced usage only).

dragAndDropWindow

If true, chat users will be able to drag and drop file uploads to the entire channel window.

EditMessageInput

Custom UI component to override default edit message input.

emojiSearchIndex

Custom search mechanism instance or object to enable emoji autocomplete.

EmojiPicker

Custom UI component to be rendered in the MessageInput component, see Emoji Picker guide for more information.

EmptyPlaceholder

Custom UI component to be shown if no active channel is set, defaults to null and skips rendering the Channel component.

EmptyStateIndicator

Custom UI component to be displayed when the MessageList or VirtualizedMessageList is empty.

enrichURLForPreview

A global flag to toggle the URL enrichment and link previews in MessageInput. The feature is disabled by default. It can be overridden on Thread and MessageList level through additionalMessageInputProps or directly on MessageInput level through urlEnrichmentConfig prop. See the guide Link Previews in Message Input for more.

enrichURLForPreviewConfig

Global configuration for link preview generation in all the MessageInput components. See the guide Link Previews in Message Input for more.

FileUploadIcon

Custom UI component for file upload icon.

GiphyPreviewMessage

Custom UI component to render a Giphy preview in the VirtualizedMessageList.

giphyVersion

The Giphy version to render - check the keys of the Image Object for possible values.

HeaderComponent

Custom UI component to render at the top of the MessageList.

imageAttachmentSizeHandler

A custom function to provide size configuration for image attachments

initializeOnMount

Allows to prevent triggering the channel.watch() (triggers channel query HTTP request) call when mounting the Channel component (the default behavior) with uninitialized (channel.initialized) Channel instance. That means that no channel data from the back-end will be received neither channel WS events will be delivered to the client. Preventing to initialize the channel on mount allows us to postpone the channel creation in the Stream’s DB to a later point in time, for example, when a first message is sent:

import { useCallback } from 'react';
import {
  getChannel,
  MessageInput as StreamMessageInput,
  MessageInputProps,
  MessageToSend,
  useChannelActionContext,
  useChatContext,
} from 'stream-chat-react';
import { Message, SendMessageOptions } from 'stream-chat';

import { useChannelInitContext } from '../../context/ChannelInitProvider';
import type { MyStreamChatGenerics } from '../../types';

export const MessageInput = (props: MessageInputProps) => {
  const { client } = useChatContext();
  const { sendMessage } = useChannelActionContext();
  const { setInitializedChannelOnMount } = useChannelInitContext();

  const submitHandler: MessageInputProps['overrideSubmitHandler'] = useCallback(
    async (
      message: MessageToSend<MyStreamChatGenerics>,
      channelCid: string,
      customMessageData?: Partial<Message<MyStreamChatGenerics>>,
      options?: SendMessageOptions,
    ) => {
      const [channelType, channelId] = channelCid.split(':');
      const channel = client.channel(channelType, channelId);
      if (!channel.initialized) {
        await getChannel({ channel, client });
        setInitializedChannelOnMount(true);
      }

      await sendMessage(message, customMessageData, options);
    },
    [client, sendMessage, setInitializedChannelOnMount],
  );

  return <StreamMessageInput {...props} overrideSubmitHandler={submitHandler} />;
};

markReadOnMount

Configuration parameter to mark the active channel as read when mounted (opened). By default, the channel is marked read on mount.

Input

Custom UI component handling how the message input is rendered.

LinkPreviewList

Custom component to render link previews in MessageInput.

LoadingErrorIndicator

Custom UI component to be shown if the channel query fails.

LoadingIndicator

Custom UI component to render while the MessageList is loading new messages.

maxNumberOfFiles

The maximum number of attachments allowed per message, defaults to the Stream Chat API maximum.

Message

Custom UI component to display a message in the standard MessageList.

MessageDeleted

Custom UI component for a deleted message.

MessageListNotifications

Custom UI component that displays message and connection status notifications in the MessageList.

MessageNotification

Custom UI component to display a notification when scrolled up the list and new messages arrive.

MessageOptions

Custom UI component for message options popup.

MessageRepliesCountButton

Custom UI component to display message replies.

MessageStatus

Custom UI component to display message delivery status.

MessageSystem

Custom UI component to display system messages.

MessageTimestamp

Custom UI component to display a timestamp on a message. This does not include a timestamp for edited messages.

See also Timestamp.

MessageBouncePrompt

Custom UI component for the content of the modal dialog for messages that got bounced by the moderation rules.

ModalGallery

Custom UI component for viewing message’s image attachments.

multipleUploads

Whether to allow multiple attachment uploads on a message.

onMentionsClick

Custom action handler function to run on click of an @mention in a message.

onMentionsHover

Custom action handler function to run on hover of an @mention in a message.

optionalMessageInputProps

If dragAndDropWindow prop is true, the props to pass to the MessageInput component (overrides props placed directly on MessageInput).

PinIndicator

Custom UI component to override default pinned message indicator.

QuotedMessage

Custom UI component to override quoted message UI on a sent message.

QuotedMessagePreview

Custom UI component to override the message input’s quoted message preview.

ReactionSelector

Custom UI component to display the reaction selector.

ReactionsList

Custom UI component to display the list of reactions on a message.

SendButton

Custom UI component for send button.

shouldGenerateVideoThumbnail

You can turn on/off thumbnail generation for video attachments

skipMessageDataMemoization

If true, skips the message data string comparison used to memoize the current channel messages (helpful for channels with 1000s of messages).

ThreadHead

Custom UI component to be displayed at the beginning of a thread. By default, it is the thread parent message. It is composed of Message context provider component and ThreadStart component. The latter can be customized by passing custom component to Channel props. The ThreadHead component defaults to and accepts the same props as MessageSimple.

ThreadHeader

Custom UI component to display the header of a Thread.

ThreadInput

Custom UI component to replace the MessageInput of a Thread. For the applications using theme version 1, the default is MessageInputSmall. Applications using theme version 2 will use MessageInputFlat by default.

ThreadStart

Custom UI component to display the start of a threaded MessageList.

Timestamp

Custom UI component to display a date used in timestamps. It’s used internally by the default MessageTimestamp, and to display a timestamp for edited messages.

TriggerProvider

Optional context provider that lets you override the default autocomplete triggers.

TypingIndicator

Custom UI component for the typing indicator.

UnreadMessagesNotification

Custom UI component that indicates a user is viewing unread messages. It disappears once the user scrolls to UnreadMessagesSeparator.

UnreadMessagesSeparator

Custom UI component inserted before the first message marked unread.

videoAttachmentSizeHandler

A custom function to provide size configuration for video attachments

VirtualMessage

Custom UI component to display a message in the VirtualizedMessageList.