# Channel Capabilities

Channel capabilities lets clients understand which features are available. Each channel payload contains the `own_capabilities` field which is essentially a list of actions that user is allowed to perform.

Channel capabilities are affected by a number of factors including:

- [User Permissions](/chat/docs/<framework>/chat_permission_policies/)

- [Channel Type](/chat/docs/<framework>/channel-level_settings/) settings

- [Channel-level](/chat/docs/<framework>/channel-level_settings/) settings

Capabilities is the preferred way of deciding which actions should be available in the user interface.

<admonition type="info">

Please avoid performing comparisons like `user.role == 'user'` in your client code and rely on Channel Capabilities instead. This makes your code more flexible and adaptive to your app configuration

</admonition>

## Channel Capabilities

| Name                   | What it indicates                                                                                |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| ban-channel-members    | Ability to ban channel members                                                                   |
| connect-events         | Ability to receive connect events                                                                |
| create-call            | Ability to create a call                                                                         |
| delete-any-message     | Ability to delete any message from the channel                                                   |
| delete-channel         | Ability to delete channel                                                                        |
| delete-own-message     | Ability to delete own messages from the channel                                                  |
| flag-message           | Ability to flag a message                                                                        |
| freeze-channel         | Ability to freeze or unfreeze channel                                                            |
| join-call              | Ability to join a call                                                                           |
| join-channel           | Ability to join channel (add own membership)                                                     |
| leave-channel          | Ability to leave channel (remove own membership)                                                 |
| mute-channel           | Ability to mute a channel                                                                        |
| pin-message            | Ability to pin a message                                                                         |
| quote-message          | Ability to quote a message                                                                       |
| read-events            | Ability to receive read events                                                                   |
| search-messages        | Ability to use message search                                                                    |
| send-custom-events     | Ability to send custom events                                                                    |
| send-links             | Ability to attach links to messages                                                              |
| send-message           | Ability to send a message                                                                        |
| send-reaction          | Ability to send reactions                                                                        |
| send-reply             | Ability to reply to a message                                                                    |
| send-typing-events     | Ability to send typing events                                                                    |
| set-channel-cooldown   | Ability to enable or disable slow mode                                                           |
| skip-slow-mode         | Indicates that the user is allowed to post messages as usual even if the channel is in slow more |
| slow-mode              | Indicates that channel slow mode is active                                                       |
| typing-events          | Ability to send and receive typing events                                                        |
| update-any-message     | Ability to update any message in the channel                                                     |
| update-channel         | Ability to update channel data                                                                   |
| update-channel-members | Ability to update channel members                                                                |
| update-own-message     | Ability to update own messages in the channel                                                    |
| upload-file            | Ability to upload message attachments                                                            |

---

This page was last updated at 2025-08-15T14:15:25.779Z.

For the most recent version of this documentation, visit [https://getstream.io/chat/docs/unity/channel_capabilities/](https://getstream.io/chat/docs/unity/channel_capabilities/).