User Presence

User presence allows you to show when a user was last active and if they are online right now. This feature can be enabled or disabled per channel type in the channel type settings.

Listening to Presence Changes

To receive presence updates, you need to watch a channel or query channels with presence: true. This allows you to show a user as offline when they leave and update their status in real time.

// If you pass presence: true to channel.watch it will watch the list of user presence changes.
// Note that you can listen to at most 10 users using this API call
const channel = client.channel("messaging", "my-conversation-123", {
  members: ["john", "jack"],
  color: "green",
});

const state = await channel.watch({ presence: true });

// queryChannels allows you to listen to the members of the channels that are returned
// so this does the same thing as above and listens to online status changes for john and jack
const channels = await client.queryChannels(
  { color: "green" },
  { last_message_at: -1 },
  { presence: true },
);

// You need to be watching some channels/queries to be able to get presence events.
// Here are two different ways of doing that:

// 1. Watch a single channel with presence = true set
val watchRequest = WatchChannelRequest().apply {
  data["members"] = listOf("john", "jack")
  presence = true
}
channelClient.watch(watchRequest).enqueue { result ->
  if (result.isSuccess) {
    val channel: Channel = result.data()
  } else {
    // Handle result.error()
  }
}

// 2. Query some channels with presence = true set
val channelsRequest = QueryChannelsRequest(
  filter = Filters.and(
    Filters.eq("type", "messaging"),
    Filters.`in`("members", listOf("john", "jack")),
  ),
  offset = 0,
  limit = 10,
).apply {
  presence = true
}
client.queryChannels(channelsRequest).enqueue { result ->
  if (result.isSuccess) {
    val channels: List<Channel> = result.data()
  } else {
    // Handle result.error()
  }
}

// Finally, subscribe to presence to events
client.subscribeFor<UserPresenceChangedEvent> { event ->
  // Handle change
}

class PresenceObservingChannelVC: ChatChannelVC, EventsControllerDelegate {
  let eventsController: EventsController!

  override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    eventsController.delegate = self
  }

  func eventsController(_ controller: EventsController, didReceiveEvent event: Event) {
    if let event = event as? UserPresenceChangedEvent {
      showUser(event.user, isOnline: event.user.isOnline)
    }
  }
}

// If you pass presence: true to channel.watch it will watch the list of user presence changes.
// Note that you can listen to at most 10 users using this API call
final channel = client.channel(
 'messaging',
 id: 'flutterdevs',
 extraData: {
  'name': 'Flutter devs',
 },
);

await channel.watch({
 'presence': true,
});

// queryChannels allows you to listen to the members of the channels that are returned
// so this does the same thing as above and listens to online status changes for john and jack

final filter = {
 "type": "messaging",
 "members": {
  "\$in": ["john"]
 }
};

final sort = [SortOption("last_message_at", direction: SortOption.DESC)];

final channels = await client.queryChannels(
 filter: filter,
 sort: sort,
 options: {
  'presence': true,
 }
);

// You need to be watching some channels/queries to be able to get presence events.
// Here are two different ways of doing that:

// 1. Watch a single channel with presence = true set
constexpr EChannelFlags AllFlags = EChannelFlags::Watch | EChannelFlags::State | EChannelFlags::Presence;
const FChannelProperties Properties{TEXT("messaging"), TEXT("unrealdevs")};
Client->QueryChannel(Properties, AllFlags);

// 2. Query some channels with 'presence' set
Client->QueryChannels(
  FFilter::Equal(TEXT("type"), TEXT("messaging")),  // Channel filter
  {},                         // Sort options
  AllFlags                      // Flags
);

// Finally, subscribe to presence to events
Client->On<FUserPresenceChangedEvent>(
  [](const FUserPresenceChangedEvent& Event)
  {
    // Handle change
  });

// You need to be watching some channels/queries to be able to get presence events.
// Here are two different ways of doing that:

// 1. Watch a single channel with presence = true set
WatchChannelRequest watchRequest = new WatchChannelRequest();
watchRequest.setPresence(true);
watchRequest.getData().put("members", Arrays.asList("john", "jack"));
channelClient.watch(watchRequest).enqueue(result -> {
  if (result.isSuccess()) {
    Channel channel = result.data();
  } else {
    // Handle result.error()
  }
});

// 2. Query some channels with presence events
int channelsOffset = 0;
int channelsLimit = 10;
FilterObject channelsFilter = Filters.and(
    Filters.eq("type", "messaging"),
    Filters.in("members", Arrays.asList("john", "jack"))
);
QuerySorter<Channel> channelsSort = new QuerySortByField<>();
int messageLimit = 0;
int memberLimit = 0;
QueryChannelsRequest channelsRequest = new QueryChannelsRequest(
    channelsFilter,
    channelsOffset,
    channelsLimit,
    channelsSort,
    messageLimit,
    memberLimit
);
client.queryChannels(channelsRequest).enqueue(result -> {
  if (result.isSuccess()) {
    List<Channel> channels = result.data();
  } else {
    // Handle result.error()
  }
});

// Finally, Subscribe to events
client.subscribeFor(
    new Class[]{UserPresenceChangedEvent.class},
    event -> {
      // Handle change
    }
);

// Get a channel
var channel = await Client.GetOrCreateChannelWithIdAsync(ChannelType.Messaging, "my-channel-id");

// Members are users belonging to this channel
var member = channel.Members.First();

// Each member object contains a user object. A single user can be a member of many channels
var user = member.User;

// Each user object exposes the PresenceChange event that will trigger when Online status changes
user.PresenceChanged += (userObj, isOnline, isActive) =>
{

};

A users online status change can be handled via event delegation by subscribing to the user.presence.changed event the same you do for any other event.

Presence Data Format

Whenever you read a user the presence data will look like this:

// Get a channel
var channel = await Client.GetOrCreateChannelWithIdAsync(ChannelType.Messaging, "my-channel-id");

// Members are users belonging to this channel
var member = channel.Members.First();

// Each member object contains a user object. A single user can be a member of many channels
var user = member.User;

var message = channel.Messages.First();

// Each message contains the author user object
var user2 = message.User;

// Presence related fields on a user object
var isOnline = user.Online;
var lastActive = user.LastActive;

guard let member = channelController.channel?.lastActiveMembers.first else { return }
let isOnline = member.isOnline
let lastActiveAt = member.lastActiveAt

The online field indicates if the user is online. The status field stores text indicating the current user status.

The last_active field is updated when a user connects and then refreshed every 15 minutes.

To mark your user as invisible, you can update your user to set the invisible property to true. Your user will remain invisible even if you disconnect and reconnect. You must explicitly set invisible to false in order to become visible again.

// become invisible
await client.upsertUser({
  id: "unique_user_id",
  invisible: true,
});

// become visible
await client.upsertUser({
  id: "unique_user_id",
  invisible: false,
});

// Get local user object
var localUserData = await Client.ConnectUserAsync("api-key", "user-id", "user-token");

// Or like this
var localUserData2 = Client.LocalUserData;

// Get local user object
var localUser = localUserData.User;

// Check local user invisibility status
var isInvisible = localUser.Invisible;

// Mark invisible
await localUser.MarkInvisibleAsync();

// Mark visible
await localUser.MarkVisibleAsync();

You can also set your user to invisible when connecting by setting the invisible property to true. You can also set a custom status message at the same time:

val user = User(
  id = "user-id",
  invisible = true,
)
client.connectUser(user, "{{ chat_user_token }}").enqueue { result ->
  if (result.isSuccess) {
    val user: ConnectionData = result.data()
  } else {
    // Handle result.error()
  }
}

await client.connectUser(
  User(
   id: 'super-band-9',
   extraData: {
    'invisible': true,
   },
  ),
  'eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoic3VwZXItYmFuZC05In0.0L6lGoeLwkz0aZRUcpZKsvaXtNEDHBcezVTZ0oPq40A',
 );

FUser User{TEXT("user-id")};
User.bInvisible = true;
const FString Token{TEXT("{{ chat_user_token }}")};
Client->ConnectUser( User, Token);

User user = new User();
user.setId("user-id");
user.setInvisible(true);
client.connectUser(user, "{{ chat_user_token }}").enqueue(result -> {
  if (result.isSuccess()) {
    User userRes = result.data().getUser();
  } else {
    // Handle result.error()
  }
});

// Will be implemented soon, please send a support ticket if you need this feature

When invisible is set to true, the current user will appear as offline to other users.

Typing Indicators

Campaign API

On this page:

Listening to Presence Changes
Presence Data Format
Invisible