Messaging & Presence
Updated
Build chat, room state, presence, and collaborative coordination on top of Agora's real-time messaging layer.
Messaging & Presence is the capability layer for products that need more than media. This category covers human messaging, participant presence, room state, and shared collaboration surfaces that keep live systems coordinated.
Agora's product map for this layer includes:
- IM / Chat
- RTM / Signaling
- Interactive Whiteboard
What this category is good for
This category is the right entry point when you need:
- in-room chat and social messaging
- user presence and online state
- metadata synchronization and coordination signals
- collaborative session control and shared state
- whiteboard-backed visual collaboration inside a live product
The shared requirement is that participants must stay aligned with each other and with the state of the session in real time.
Capability map
Chat
IM-oriented communication for user conversation, room interaction, and product workflows that depend on message exchange.
Signaling
RTM-oriented channels, topics, presence, metadata, and coordination events that support real-time systems.
Whiteboard
Shared visual state for drawing, annotation, presentation, and collaborative interaction around content.
Start here
RTM / Signaling
IM / Chat
Whiteboard
Key characteristics
Human messaging and system state
Support both user-facing communication and the metadata flows that keep live products synchronized.
Presence-aware coordination
Track who is online, what state they are in, and how session behavior should react as users and devices change status.
Supports collaboration workflows
Extend from text and events into shared whiteboard or content collaboration when the product needs a richer interaction layer.
Adjacent to media and AI
Combine easily with RTC sessions and AI agents when messages and events need to travel alongside audio and video.
Flexible protocol surface
Choose between IM-style user communication and RTM-style signaling depending on whether the main problem is conversation, coordination, or both.
Shared live context
Keep users, agents, and session tools operating against the same live room state instead of fragmenting the product experience.