Input UI

The Input UI component consumes the MessageInputContext and handles the display and functionality for the message input in a channel. The Input UI component is typically a combination of subcomponents that each consume context and are responsible for one aspect of the message input (ex: text input or emoji picker).

Basic Usage

To use your own custom Input UI component, utilize the Input prop on either the Channel or MessageInput component. Adding the prop to Channel will inject your component into the ComponentContext and adding to MessageInput will override any value stored in context. So if both props are added, the value delivered to MessageInput will take precedence.

const CustomInput = () => {
  // consume `MessageInputContext` and render custom component here
};

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

UI Customization

MessageInputFlat is designed to serve as a guide in helping build a custom Input UI component. At a high level, this pre-built, default component wraps a subset of composable components that each serve specific logic and design-based purposes.

For example, if we strip MessageInputFlat down to its core pieces and simplify it a bit, the component return resembles the following snippet:

<WithDragAndDropUpload>
  <QuotedMessagePreview />
  <UploadsPreview />
  <EmojiPicker />
  <ChatAutoComplete />
  <FileUploadButton />
  <SendButton />
</WithDragAndDropUpload>

We recommend building an Input UI component in a similar way. You can mix and match any of the UI subcomponents and arrange in a layout that meets your design specifications. All of these UI subcomponents are exported by the library and may be used within your custom Input UI component. Each subcomponent consumes the MessageInputContext and requires no/minimal props to run.

For a detailed example, review the Input UI Customization example.

Props