Manage server-side messages

The Chat SDK stores historical messages on the chat server. When a chat user logs in from a different device, you can retrieve the historical messages from the server, so that the user can also browse these messages on the new device. Additionally, the Chat SDK supports adding tags to conversation, with a maximum of 20 tags allowed per conversation.

This page introduces how to use the Chat SDK to retrieve, delete, and tag messages and conversations.

Understand the tech

The Chat SDK uses ChatManager to retrieve historical messages from the server. The following are the core methods:

asyncFetchConversationsFromServer: Retrieves a list of conversations stored on the server.
asyncFetchHistoryMessages: Retrieves historical messages of a conversation from the server according to FetchMessageOption, the parameter configuration class for retrieving historical messages.
asyncPinConversation: Pins conversations.
asyncFetchPinnedConversationsFromServer: Retrieves pinned conversations.
asyncPinMessage: Pins a message in a conversation.
asyncUnPinMessage: Unpin a message in a conversation.
asyncGetPinnedMessagesFromServer: Get a list of pinned messages in a conversation.
removeMessagesFromServer: One-way deletion of historical messages on the server based on message time or message ID.
deleteConversationFromServer: Deletes conversations and their historical messages from the server.
asyncAddConversationMark: Tags a conversation.
asyncRemoveConversationMark: Removes a conversation tag.
asyncGetConversationsFromServerWithCursor: Queries conversations from the server by a conversation tag.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure that you meet the following requirements:

You have integrated the Chat SDK, initialized the SDK and implemented the functionality of registering accounts and login. For details, see Chat SDK quickstart.
You understand the API call frequency limits as described in Limitations.

Implementation

This section shows how to implement retrieving conversations and messages.

Retrieve a list of conversations from the server

Call asyncFetchConversationsFromServer to retrieve conversations from the server with pagination. The SDK returns the conversation list in the reverse chronological order of when conversations are active (the timestamp of the last message in the conversation). In the conversation list, each conversation object contains the conversation ID, conversation type, whether the conversation is pinned, the pinned time (the value is 0 for an unpinned conversation), and the last message in the conversation. After the conversation list is retrieved from the server, the local conversation list will be updated accordingly. We recommend calling this method when the app is first installed, or when there is no conversation on the local device. Otherwise, you can call getAllConversations to retrieve conversations on the local device.

For each end user, the server stores 100 conversations by default. When this limit is exceeded, new conversations will start overwriting the old ones. If the entire message history in a conversation expires, the conversation becomes empty. When pulling the conversation list from the server, these empty conversations are not included by default. To include them, set ChatOptions#isLoadEmptyConversations to true when initializing the SDK. In this case, empty conversations will occupy the conversations pull quota, regardless of whether they are needed when pulling. To change this, contact support@agora.io.

String cursor = "";
limit: The number of conversations that you expect to get on each page. The value range is [1,50].
int limit = 40;
List conversations = new ArrayList<>();
doAsyncFetchConversationsFromServer(limit,cursor,conversations);

private void doAsyncFetchConversationsFromServer(final int limit, final String cursor,List conversations){
    ChatClient.getInstance().chatManager().asyncFetchConversationsFromServer(limit, cursor, new ValueCallBack>() {
        @Override
        public void onSuccess(CursorResult value) {
            if (value != null ) {
                List list = value.getData();
                if (list != null && list.size() > 0) {
                    conversations.addAll(list);
                }
                String newCursor = value.getCursor();
                if( !TextUtils.isEmpty(newCursor)) {
                    doAsyncFetchConversationsFromServer(limit, newCursor, conversations);
                }
            }

        }

        @Override
        public void onError(int error, String errorMsg) {

        }
    });
}

Retrieve message history of the specified conversation

After retrieving conversations, you can retrieve historical messages from the server.

You can set the search direction to retrieve messages in the chronological or reverse chronological order of when the server receives them, the message type, the time period, the message sender, as well as whether to save the retrieved message to the local database.

If you have integrated Chat SDK after June 8, 2023, you can retrieve historical messages even before joining the Chat Group. For earlier implementations, contact support@agora.io to enable this.

The Agora Chat server stores the full message history for a certain period of time depending on your subscribed Chat plan. After an end user logs back into Agora Chat, the servers automatically send offline messages to them, that is, messages transmitted when that end user was offline. Offline messages are a subset of the full message history stored on Agora Chat server. Sending only a subset of messages prevents distributing too many messages to a single device, which can overwhelm it and slow down the end user login. Agora Chat server stores and manages these offline messages for every end user in the following way:

1
private chat: Store 500 offline messages by default;
Chat Group: Store 200 offline messages by default;
Chatroom: Doesn't store offline messages. However, by default, whenever an end user joins a chatroom, Agora Chat servers push the 10 latest messages/chatroom to them, and this number can be adjusted to 200 messages/chatroom without additional charges.

After the GA release of Agora Chat 1.3, you can log in to Agora Console and enable the chatroom message history retrieval feature. After that, Agora Chat servers will stop automatically pushing chatroom messages to new members and you can follow the guidance below to retrieve chatroom message history.

For users to receive more offline messages, use the client API or a webhook to sync with Agora Chat's server. End users can also store additional messages on their local database.

To ensure data reliability, we recommend retrieving less than 50 historical messages for each method call. To retrieve more than 50 historical messages, call this method multiple times. Once the messages are retrieved, the SDK automatically updates these messages in the local database.

We recommend that you retrieve 20 messages each time, with a maximum of 50. During paginated query, if the total number of messages that meet the query conditions is greater than the number of pageSize, the number of messages of pageSize will be returned. If it is less than the number of pageSize, the actual number will be returned. When the message query is completed, the number of returned messages is less than the number of pageSize.

Since SDK v1.4.0, for a single group conversation you can retrieve messages sent by specific members (rather than all members) by setting the sender list with FetchMessageOption#setFromIds.

Refer to the following code sample:

String conversationId=" ";
Conversation.ConversationType type=Conversation.ConversationType.Chat;
FetchMessageOption option=new FetchMessageOption();
//For example, save the retrieved messages to the local database.
//option.setIsSave(true);
//Since v1.4.0, for a group conversation you can retrieve messages sent by specific members.
//For example, retrieve messages sent by two specific user IDs in the group.
//List<String> fromIds = new ArrayList<String>();
//fromIds.add("user1");
//fromIds.add("user2");
//option.setFromIds(fromIds);
int pageSize = 40;
String cursor = "";
List messages = new ArrayList<>();
doAsyncFetchHistoryMessages(conversationId,type,pageSize,cursor,option,messages);

private void doAsyncFetchHistoryMessages(String conversationId,
                                         Conversation.ConversationType type,
                                         int pageSize,String cursor,
                                         FetchMessageOption option,
                                         List messages){
    ChatClient.getInstance().chatManager().asyncFetchHistoryMessages(conversationId, type, pageSize, cursor, option, new ValueCallBack>() {
        @Override
        public void onSuccess(CursorResult value) {
            if (value != null ) {
                List list = value.getData();
                if (list != null && list.size() > 0) {
                    messages.addAll(list);
                }
                String newCursor = value.getCursor();
                if( !TextUtils.isEmpty(newCursor)) {
                    doAsyncFetchHistoryMessages(conversationId, type, pageSize, newCursor, option, messages);
                }
            }
        }

        @Override
        public void onError(int error, String errorMsg) {

        }
    });
}

Search local messages sent by specific members

Since SDK v1.4.0, for a single conversation you can search the local database for messages that contain a keyword and are sent by specific members. You can specify up to 10 senders; to search messages from all senders, pass null or an empty list.

String conversationId = "user_or_group_id";
Conversation conversation = ChatClient.getInstance()
        .chatManager()
        .getConversation(conversationId);
if (conversation != null) {
    String keywords = "hello";
    long timeStamp = -1; // A value less than 0 means the search starts from the current time.
    int maxCount = 20;
    // Limit the senders to a maximum of 10. To not limit the senders, pass null or an empty list.
    List<String> senders = Arrays.asList("user1", "user2");
    conversation.asyncSearchMsgFromDB(
            keywords,
            timeStamp,
            maxCount,
            senders,
            Conversation.SearchDirection.UP,
            Conversation.ChatMessageSearchScope.CONTENT,
            new ValueCallBack<List<ChatMessage>>() {
                @Override
                public void onSuccess(List<ChatMessage> messages) {
                    for (ChatMessage message : messages) {
                        String msgId = message.getMsgId();
                        String from = message.getFrom();
                        long msgTime = message.getMsgTime();
                        // TODO: handle the search results
                    }
                }

                @Override
                public void onError(int code, String error) {
                    // TODO: handle the error
                }
            }
    );
}

Search local conversations by keyword

Since SDK v1.4.0, you can search across all local conversations for messages that contain a keyword. The SDK returns a map of conversation IDs to the lists of matching message IDs. Each message ID list is ordered by message timestamp, in ascending or descending order according to the direction parameter.

String keyword = "Time";
ChatClient.getInstance().chatManager().asyncLoadConversationMessagesWithKeyword(keyword, -1, null, Conversation.SearchDirection.UP, Conversation.ChatMessageSearchScope.CONTENT, new ValueCallBack<Map<String, List<String>>>() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(Map<String, List<String>> value) {
        EMLog.e(TAG, "asyncLoadConversationMessagesWithKeyword onSuccess value:" + value);
    }

    @Override
    public void onError(int error, String errorMsg) {
        EMLog.e(TAG, "asyncLoadConversationMessagesWithKeyword onError error:" + error + " errorMsg:" + errorMsg);
    }
});

Retrieve local messages by message ID

Since SDK v1.4.0, you can pass one or more message IDs to retrieve messages from a single local conversation. You can pass a maximum of 20 message IDs at a time.

// messageIds: the list of message IDs. You can pass a maximum of 20 message IDs at a time.
ChatClient.getInstance().chatManager().asyncLoadMessages(messageIds, conversationId, new ValueCallBack<List<ChatMessage>>() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(List<ChatMessage> value) {
        EMLog.e(TAG, "asyncLoadMessages onSuccess value:" + value);
    }

    @Override
    public void onError(int error, String errorMsg) {
        EMLog.e(TAG, "asyncLoadMessages onError error:" + error + " errorMsg:" + errorMsg);
    }
});

Pin a conversation

To keep track of an important conversation, you can pin it to the top of your conversation list. You can pin up to 50 conversations. The pinned state is stored on the server. In a multi-device login use-case, if you pin or unpin a conversation, other login devices will receive the CONVERSATION_PINNED or CONVERSATION_UNPINNED events.

Refer to the following code example to pin a conversation:

ChatClient.getInstance().chatManager().asyncPinConversation(conversationId, true, new CallBack() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess() {
    }

    @Override
    public void onError(int code, String error) {
    }
});

Pin a message

You can call ChatManager#asyncPinMessage to pin a message to the top of a one-to-one chat, chat group, or chat room. When the pinned status of a message changes, other members in the group or chat room conversation will receive the MessageListener#onMessagePinChanged event. In the case of multi-device login, the updated top status will be synchronized to other logged-in devices, and other devices will receive the MessageListener#onMessagePinChanged event, respectively.

In group and chat room conversations, multiple users can pin the same message to the top. The latest pinned message will overwrite the earlier information. That is, the MessagePinInfo user ID and pin time will correspond to the latest pinned message.

If the message is stored locally but deleted on the server due to expiration, the message will fail to be pinned to the top.

For a single conversation, 20 messages can be pinned to the top by default.

ChatClient.getInstance().chatManager().asyncPinMessage(message.getMsgId(), new CallBack() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess() {

    }

    @Override
    public void onError(int code, String error) {

    }

    @Override
    public void onProgress(int progress, String status) {

    }
});

Unpin a message

You can call ChatManager#asyncUnPinMessage to unpin a message in a one-to-one chat, chat group, or chat room. As with pinned messages, other members of the group or chat room will receive the MessageListener#onMessagePinChanged event when the pinned message is unpinned. In the case of multi-device login, the updated pin status will be synchronized to other logged-in devices, and other devices will receive the MessageListener#onMessagePinChanged event, respectively.

Any user in a group or room can unpin a message, regardless of who pinned it. After unpinning a message, Message#pinnedInfo is returned empty and the message is no longer included in the pinned message list.

ChatClient.getInstance().chatManager().asyncUnPinMessage(message.getMsgId(), new CallBack() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess() {

    }

    @Override
    public void onError(int code, String error) {

    }

    @Override
    public void onProgress(int progress, String status) {

    }
});

Get pinned messages in a single conversation

You can call ChatManager#asyncGetPinnedMessagesFromServer to get the pinned messages from a single conversation from the server. The SDK returns messages in the reverse order of pinning.

If a message expires on the server or the user deletes it unilaterally from the server after pinning, such user will not be able to pull it when pulling roaming messages. However, this user and other users will be able to pull this message from the pinned message list.If the user withdraws a message after pinning, the message will be removed from the server; other users will not be able to pull it when they pull the pinned message list from the server.

ChatClient.getInstance().chatManager().asyncGetPinnedMessagesFromServer(conversationId, new ValueCallBack>() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(List pinedMessages) {

    }

    @Override
    public void onError(int error, String errorMsg) {

    }
});

Get pinned details of a single message

You can call MessagePinInfo to get the pinned details of a single message.

If the message is pinned, this class returns the time of pinning and the user ID of the user who has pinned it.
If the message is not pinned, this class is returned empty.

MessagePinInfo emPinnedInfo = message.pinnedInfo();
if(emPinnedInfo!=null) {
    long pinTime = emPinnedInfo.pinTime();
    String operatorId = emPinnedInfo.operatorId();
}else{
    //If the value is empty, the message is in the unpinned state.
}

Delete historical messages from the server unidirectionally

Call removeMessagesFromServer to delete historical messages one way from the server. You can remove a maximum of 50 messages from the server each time. Once the messages are deleted, you can no longer retrieve them from the server. The deleted messages are automatically removed from your local device. Other chat users can still get the messages from the server.

// Delete messages by time stamp
Conversation conversation = ChatClient.getInstance().chatManager().getConversation(username);
conversation.removeMessagesFromServer(time, new CallBack() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess() {}

    @Override
    public void onError(int code, String desc) {}
});

// Delete messages by message ID
conversation.removeMessagesFromServer(msgIdList, new CallBack() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess() { }

    @Override
    public void onError(int code, String desc) { }
});

Call deleteConversationFromServer to delete conversations and their historical messages unidirectionally from the server. After the conversations and messages are deleted from the server, you can no longer get them from the server. The deleted conversations still exist on your local device, but the messages are automatically removed from the device. Other chat users can still get the conversations and their historical messages from the server.

ChatClient.getInstance().chatManager().deleteConversationFromServer(conversationId, conversationType, isDeleteServerMessage, new CallBack() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess() {

    }

    @Override
    public void onError(int code, String error) {
    }
});

Tag a conversation

To tag a conversation, use the asyncAddConversationMark method. This method allows you to add tags to both local and server-side conversations. Each conversation can have up to 20 tags. This feature applies only to private chats and chat groups.

After adding a tag, you can retrieve the tagged conversations from the server by calling the getConversationsFromServerWithCursor:pageSize:completion method. The returned conversation objects will include the conversation tag, which you can obtain using the marks property.

If the server conversation list reaches its limit (default 100 conversations per user), inactive conversations will be deleted based on conversation activity (timestamp of the latest message). Consequently, the conversation tags of these deleted conversations will also be removed.

Adding tags to a conversation, such as stars, does not affect other logic of the conversation, such as the number of unread messages in it.

String conversationId = "Derry";
List ids=new ArrayList<>();
ids.add(conversationId);
ChatClient.getInstance().chatManager().asyncAddConversationMark(ids, Conversation.EMMarkType.MARK_0, new CallBack() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess() {

    }

    @Override
    public void onError(int code, String error) {

    }
});

To use customized tags, use the following code:

Map mapping=new HashMap<>();
mapping.put(Conversation.EMMarkType.MARK_0,"important");
mapping.put(Conversation.EMMarkType.MARK_1,"normal");
mapping.put(Conversation.EMMarkType.MARK_2,"unimportant");
mapping.put(Conversation.EMMarkType.MARK_3,"boys");
mapping.put(Conversation.EMMarkType.MARK_4,"girls");
……

Remove conversation tag

You can call asyncRemoveConversationMark to remove tag of a conversation. Tags can be removed for up to 20 conversations at a time. Calling this method removes both the local and server-side tags.

String conversationId = "Derry";
List ids=new ArrayList<>();
ids.add(conversationId);
ChatClient.getInstance().chatManager().asyncRemoveConversationMark(ids, Conversation.EMMarkType.MARK_0,new CallBack() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess() {

    }

    @Override
    public void onError(int code, String error) {

    }
});

Query conversations from the server by the conversation tag

You can use the asyncGetConversationsFromServerWithCursor method to retrieve a list of conversations from the server based on the tag. The SDK returns the conversation list in reverse order of the conversation tag's timestamp. Each conversation object includes the following information:

Conversation ID
Conversation type
Pinned status (whether it is pinned or not)
Pin time (For an unpinned conversation, the value is 0)
Conversation tag
Latest message

After fetching the conversation list from the server, the local conversation list is updated accordingly:

//All the query results are put into `result`.
List result = new ArrayList<>();
//cursor: The starting position of the query. Pass in an empty string for the first call of the method and the SDK starts to get from the conversation with the latest marked operation.
String cursor = "";
// filter: Conversation query options, including conversation marks and the number of conversations obtained per page (up to 10).
// For example, query all conversations marked with Conversation.EMMarkType.MARK_0 on the server.
ConversationFilter filter = new ConversationFilter(Conversation.EMMarkType.MARK_0, 10);
doAsyncGetConversationsFromServerWithCursor(result, cursor, filter);

private void doAsyncGetConversationsFromServerWithCursor(List result, @NonNull String cursor, @NonNull ConversationFilter filter) {
    ChatClient.getInstance().chatManager().asyncGetConversationsFromServerWithCursor(cursor, filter, new ValueCallBack>() {
        @Override
        public void onSuccess(CursorResult value) {
            List datas=value.getData();
            if(!CollectionUtils.isEmpty(datas)){
                result.addAll(datas);
            }
            String cursor_ = value.getCursor();
            if(!TextUtils.isEmpty(cursor_)){
                doAsyncGetConversationsFromServerWithCursor(result,cursor_,filter);
            }
        }

        @Override
        public void onError(int error, String errorMsg) {

        }
    });
}

Query local conversations by the conversation tag

For local conversations, you can call the getAllConversations method to obtain all local conversations and then perform conversation filtering yourself. The following is an example of querying all local conversations marked with Conversation.EMMarkType.MARK_0:

//All the query results are put into result.
List result=new ArrayList<>();
Map localConversations = ChatClient.getInstance().chatManager().getAllConversations();
if(localConversations!=null&&!localConversations.isEmpty()){
    for(Conversation conversation:localConversations.values()){
        Set marks = conversation.marks();
        if(marks!=null&&!marks.isEmpty()){
            for(Conversation.EMMarkType mark:marks){
                if(mark==Conversation.EMMarkType.MARK_0){
                    result.add(conversation);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Get all tags of a local conversation

You can call Conversation#marks to get all the tags of a local conversation. The sample code is as follows:

Set conversationMarks = ChatClient.getInstance().chatManager().getConversation("conversationId").marks();

Next steps

After implementing retrieving messages, you can refer to the following documents to add more messaging functionalities to your app:

Message receipts

This page introduces how to use the Chat SDK to retrieve, delete, and tag messages and conversations.

Understand the tech

The Chat SDK uses ChatManager to retrieve historical messages from the server. The following are the core methods:

asyncFetchConversationsFromServer: Retrieves a list of conversations stored on the server.
asyncFetchHistoryMessages: Retrieves historical messages of a conversation from the server according to FetchMessageOption, the parameter configuration class for retrieving historical messages.
asyncPinConversation: Pins conversations.
asyncFetchPinnedConversationsFromServer: Retrieves pinned conversations.
asyncPinMessage: Pins a message in a conversation.
asyncUnPinMessage: Unpin a message in a conversation.
asyncGetPinnedMessagesFromServer: Get a list of pinned messages in a conversation.
removeMessagesFromServer: One-way deletion of historical messages on the server based on message time or message ID.
deleteConversationFromServer: Deletes conversations and their historical messages from the server.
asyncAddConversationMark: Tags a conversation.
asyncRemoveConversationMark: Removes a conversation tag.
asyncGetConversationsFromServerWithCursor: Queries conversations from the server by a conversation tag.

The Chat SDK uses IAgoraChatManager to retrieve historical messages from the server. The following are the core methods:

getConversationsFromServer: Retrieves a list of conversations stored on the server.
fetchMessagesFromServerBy: Retrieves historical messages of a conversation from the server according to AgoraChatFetchServerMessagesOption, the parameter configuration class for retrieving historical messages.
pinConversation: Pins a conversation.
getPinnedConversationsFromServerWithCursor: Retrieves a list of pinned conversations.
pinMessage: Pins a message in a conversation.
unpinMessage: Unpin a message in a conversation.
getPinnedMessagesFromServer: Get a list of pinned messages in a conversation.
removeMessagesFromServerWithTimeStamp/removeMessagesFromServerMessageIds: Deletes historical messages from the server unidirectionally.
deleteServerConversation: Deletes conversations and their historical messages from the server.
addConversationMark: Tags a conversation.
removeConversationMark: Removes a conversation tag.
getConversationsFromServer: Queries conversations from the server by a conversation tag.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure that you meet the following requirements:

You have integrated the Chat SDK, initialized the SDK and implemented the functionality of registering accounts and login. For details, see Chat SDK quickstart.
You understand the API call frequency limits as described in Limitations.

Implementation

This section shows how to implement retrieving conversations and messages.

Retrieve a list of conversations from the server

Call getConversationsFromServerWithCursor:pageSize:completion to retrieve conversations from the server with pagination. The SDK returns the conversation list in the reverse chronological order of when conversations are active (the timestamp of the last message in the conversation). In the conversation list, each conversation object contains the conversation ID, conversation type, whether the conversation is pinned, the pinned time (the value is 0 for an unpinned conversation), and the last message in the conversation. After the conversation list is retrieved from the server, the local conversation list will be updated accordingly. We recommend calling this method when the app is first installed, or when there is no conversation on the local device. Otherwise, you can call getAllConversations to retrieve conversations on the local device.

For each end user, the server stores 100 conversations by default. When this limit is exceeded, new conversations will start overwriting the old ones. If the entire message history in a conversation expires, the conversation becomes empty. When pulling the conversation list from the server, these empty conversations are not included by default. To include them, set EMOptions#loadEmptyConversations to YES when initializing the SDK. In this case, empty conversations will occupy the conversations pull quota, regardless of whether they are needed when pulling. To change this, contact support@agora.io.

//pageSize: The number of conversations that you expect to get on each page. The value range is [1,50].
[AgoraChatClient.sharedClient.chatManager getConversationsFromServerWithCursor:@"" pageSize:20 completion:^(AgoraChatCursorResult * _Nullable result, AgoraChatError * _Nullable error) {

}];

Retrieve historical messages of the specified conversation

After retrieving conversations, you can retrieve historical messages from the server.

If you have integrated Chat SDK after June 8, 2023, you can retrieve historical messages even before joining the Chat Group. For earlier implementations, contact support@agora.io to enable this.

1
private chat: Store 500 offline messages by default;
Chat Group: Store 200 offline messages by default;
Chatroom: Doesn't store offline messages. However, whenever an end user joins a chatroom, Agora Chat servers push the 10 latest messages/chatroom to them, by default. This number can be adjusted to 200 messages/chatroom without additional charges.

For users to receive more offline messages, use the client API or a webhook to sync with Agora Chat's server. End users can also store additional messages on their local database.

Since SDK v1.4.0, for a single group conversation you can retrieve messages sent by specific members (rather than all members) by setting the fromIds list in AgoraChatFetchServerMessagesOption.

Refer to the following code sample:

AgoraChatFetchServerMessagesOption* option = [[AgoraChatFetchServerMessagesOption alloc] init];
    // Since SDK v1.4.0, for a group conversation you can retrieve messages sent by specific members.
    option.fromIds = @[@"user1", @"user2"];
    [AgoraChatClient.sharedClient.chatManager fetchMessagesFromServerBy:@"conversationId" conversationType:AgoraChatConversationTypeGroupChat cursor:@"" pageSize:20 option:option completion:^(AgoraChatCursorResult * _Nullable result, AgoraChatError * _Nullable aError) {

    }];

Search local messages sent by specific members

Since SDK v1.4.0, for a single conversation you can search the local database for messages that contain a keyword and are sent by specific members.

AgoraChatConversation *conversation = [AgoraChatClient.sharedClient.chatManager getConversationWithConvId:@"conversationId"];
if (conversation) {
    [conversation loadMessagesWithKeyword:nil timestamp:-1 count:20 fromUsers:@[@"user1", @"user2"] searchDirection:AgoraChatMessageSearchDirectionUp scope:AgoraChatMessageSearchScopeAll completion:^(NSArray<AgoraChatMessage *> * _Nullable aMessages, AgoraChatError * _Nullable aError) {
        if (aError == nil) {
            // Loaded successfully.
        }
    }];
}

Search local conversations by keyword

Since SDK v1.4.0, you can search across all local conversations for messages that contain a keyword. The SDK returns a dictionary of conversation IDs to the lists of matching message IDs. Each message ID list is ordered by message timestamp, in ascending or descending order according to the aDirection parameter.

[AgoraChatClient.sharedClient.chatManager loadConversationMessagesWithKeyword:@"keyword" timestamp:-1 fromUser:@"" searchDirection:AgoraChatMessageSearchDirectionUp scope:AgoraChatMessageSearchScopeAll completion:^(NSDictionary<NSString *,NSArray<NSString *> *> * _Nullable aConversationMessages, AgoraChatError * _Nullable aError) {
    if (aError == nil) {
        // aConversationMessages contains the matching conversation IDs and message IDs.
    }
}];

Retrieve local messages by message ID

Since SDK v1.4.0, you can pass one or more message IDs to retrieve messages from a single local conversation. You can pass a maximum of 20 message IDs at a time.

// You can pass a maximum of 20 message IDs at a time.
[AgoraChatClient.sharedClient.chatManager getMessages:@[@"messageId1", @"messageId2"] withConversationId:@"conversationId" completion:^(NSArray<AgoraChatMessage *> * _Nullable aMessages, AgoraChatError * _Nullable aError) {
    if (aError == nil) {
        // aMessages contains the retrieved messages.
    }
}];

Pin a conversation

Refer to the following code example to pin a conversation:

[AgoraChatClient.sharedClient.chatManager pinConversation:@"conversationId" isPinned:YES completionBlock:^(AgoraChatError * _Nullable error) {

}];

Retrieve the pinned conversations from the server with pagination

End users can pin up to 50 conversations. After you call this API, the SDK returns the pinned conversations in the reverse chronological order of when they are pinned.

Agora Chat servers store a list of conversations that remain active in the past 7 days, regardless of Agora Chat package subscription. A conversation is considered active if it is pinned or there are new messages in a conversation.

Refer to the following code example to get a list of pinned conversations from the server with pagination:

// pageSize: Number of sessions returned per page. The value range is [1,50].
// cursor: The starting position of the query. If `nil` or `@""` is passed in, the SDK will start querying from the latest pinned session.
[AgoraChatClient.sharedClient.chatManager getPinnedConversationsFromServerWithCursor:@"" pageSize:20 completion:^(AgoraChatCursorResult * _Nullable result, AgoraChatError * _Nullable error) {

}];

Pin a message

You can call ChatManager#pinMessage to pin a message to the top of a one-to-one chat, chat group, or chat room. When the pinned status of a message changes, other members in the group or chat room conversation will receive the ChatManagerDelegate#onMessagePinChanged event. In the case of multi-device login, the updated top status will be synchronized to other logged-in devices, and other devices will receive the ChatManagerDelegate#onMessagePinChanged event, respectively.

If the message is stored locally but deleted on the server due to expiration, the message will fail to be pinned to the top.

For a single conversation, 20 messages can be pinned to the top by default.

ChatClient.shared().chatManager?.pinMessage("messageId", completion: { message, err in
    if err == nil {
        // Pinned successfully
    }
})

Delete historical messages from the server unidirectionally

Call removeMessagesFromServerWithTimeStamp or removeMessagesFromServerMessageIds to delete historical messages one way from the server. You can remove a maximum of 50 messages from the server each time. Once the messages are deleted, you can no longer retrieve them from the server. The deleted messages are automatically removed from your local device. Other chat users can still get the messages from the server.

Other devices logged in to the account will receive the MultiDevicesDelegate callback multiDevicesMessageBeRemoved, and the deleted messages will be automatically removed from the device locally.

// Delete messages by timestamp
AgoraChatConversation* conversation = [AgoraChatClient.sharedClient.chatManager getConversationWithConvId:@"conversationId"];
    [conversation removeMessagesFromServerWithTimeStamp:timeToRemove completion:^(AgoraChatError * _Nullable aError) {

    }];
// Delete messages by message ID
 [conversation removeMessagesFromServerMessageIds:@[@"msgId1",@"msgId2"] completion:^(AgoraChatError * _Nullable aError) {

    }];

Call deleteServerConversation to delete conversations and their historical messages unidirectionally from the server. After the conversations and messages are deleted from the server, you can no longer get them from the server. The deleted conversations still exist on the local device, but the messages are automatically removed from the device. Other chat users can still get the conversations and their historical messages from the server.

[AgoraChatClient.sharedClient.chatManager deleteServerConversation:@"conversationId1" conversationType:AgoraChatConversationTypeChat isDeleteServerMessages:YES completion:^(NSString *aConversationId, AgoraChatError *aError) {

    }];

Next steps

After implementing retrieving messages, you can refer to the following documents to add more messaging functionalities to your app:

Message receipts

This page introduces how to use the Chat SDK to retrieve, delete, and tag messages and conversations.

Understand the tech

The Chat SDK uses ChatManager to retrieve historical messages from the server. The following are the core methods:

asyncFetchConversationsFromServer: Retrieves a list of conversations stored on the server.
asyncFetchHistoryMessages: Retrieves historical messages of a conversation from the server according to FetchMessageOption, the parameter configuration class for retrieving historical messages.
asyncPinConversation: Pins conversations.
asyncFetchPinnedConversationsFromServer: Retrieves pinned conversations.
asyncPinMessage: Pins a message in a conversation.
asyncUnPinMessage: Unpin a message in a conversation.
asyncGetPinnedMessagesFromServer: Get a list of pinned messages in a conversation.
removeMessagesFromServer: One-way deletion of historical messages on the server based on message time or message ID.
deleteConversationFromServer: Deletes conversations and their historical messages from the server.
asyncAddConversationMark: Tags a conversation.
asyncRemoveConversationMark: Removes a conversation tag.
asyncGetConversationsFromServerWithCursor: Queries conversations from the server by a conversation tag.

The Chat SDK uses ChatManager to retrieve historical messages from the server. The following are the core methods:

getServerConversations: Retrieves a list of conversations stored on the server with pagination.
getHistoryMessages: Retrieves the historical messages in the specified conversation from the server.
pinConversation: Pin a conversation.
getServerPinnedConversations: Retrieves a list of pinned conversations.
pinMessage: Pins a message in a conversation.
unpinMessage: Unpin a message in a conversation.
getServerPinnedMessages: Get a list of pinned messages in a conversation.
removeHistoryMessages: Deletes historical messages from the server unidirectionally.
deleteConversation: Deletes conversations and their historical messages from the server.
addConversationMark: Tags a conversation.
removeConversationMark: Removes a conversation tag.
getServerConversationsByFilter: Queries conversations from the server by a conversation tag.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure that you meet the following requirements:

You have integrated the Chat SDK, initialized the SDK and implemented the functionality of registering accounts and login. For details, see Chat SDK quickstart.
You understand the API call frequency limits as described in Limitations.

Implementation

This section shows how to implement retrieving conversations and messages.

Retrieve a list of conversations from the server

Call getServerConversations to retrieve conversations from the server with pagination. The SDK returns the conversation list in the reverse chronological order of when conversations are active (the timestamp of the last message in the conversation). In the conversation list, each conversation object contains the conversation ID, conversation type, whether the conversation is pinned, the pinned time (the value is 0 for an unpinned conversation), and the last message in the conversation. After the conversation list is retrieved from the server, the local conversation list will be updated accordingly. We recommend calling this method when the app is first installed, or when there is no conversation on the local device.

For each end user, the server stores 100 conversations by default. When this limit is exceeded, new conversations will start overwriting the old ones. If the entire message history in a conversation expires, the conversation becomes empty. When pulling the conversation list from the server, these empty conversations are not included. However, if there are empty conversations on the server, they will occupy the conversation list quota. To change this, contact support@agora.io.

Do not use mixed upper-case.

// pageSize: The number of conversations that you expect to get on each page. The value range is [1,50] and the default value is `20`.
// cursor: The cursor position for starting to get data. If you pass in an empty string (''), the SDK retrieves conversations from the latest active one.
chatClient.getServerConversations({ pageSize: 50, cursor: "" }).then((res) => {
  console.log(res);
});

Retrieve message history of the specified conversation

After retrieving conversations, you can retrieve historical messages from the server.

If you have integrated Chat SDK after June 8, 2023, you can retrieve historical messages even before joining the Chat Group. For earlier implementations, contact support@agora.io to enable this.

1
private chat: Store 500 offline messages by default;
Chat Group: Store 200 offline messages by default;
Chatroom: Doesn't store offline messages. However, by default, whenever an end user joins a chatroom, Agora Chat servers push the 10 latest messages/chatroom to them, and this number can be adjusted to 200 messages/chatroom without additional charges.

For users to receive more offline messages, use the client API or a webhook to sync with Agora Chat's server. End users can also store additional messages on their local database.

Since SDK v1.4.0, for a single group conversation you can retrieve messages sent by a specific member by setting from in searchOptions.

Refer to the following code sample:

chatClient.getHistoryMessages({
  targetId: "targetId", // The user ID of the peer user for one-to-one chat or group ID for group chat.
  chatType: "groupChat", // The chat type: `singleChat` for one-to-one chat or `groupChat` for group chat.
  pageSize: 20, // The number of messages to retrieve per page. The value range is [1,50] and the default value is 20.
  searchDirection: "down", // The message search direction: `up` means to retrieve messages in the descending order of the message timestamp and `down` means to retrieve messages in the ascending order of the message timestamp.
  searchOptions: {
    from: "message sender userID", // The user ID of the message sender. This parameter is used only for group chat.
    msgTypes: ["txt"], // An array of message types for query. If no value is passed in, all types of message will be queried.
    startTime: new Date("2023,11,9").getTime(), // The start timestamp for query. The unit is millisecond.
    endTime: new Date("2023,11,10").getTime(), // The end timestamp for query. The unit is millisecond.
  },
});

Pin a conversation

Refer to the following code example to pin a conversation:

chatClient.pinConversation({
  conversationId: "conversationId",
  conversationType: "singleChat",
  isPinned: true,
});

Retrieve the pinned conversations from the server with pagination

End users can pin up to 50 conversations. After you call this API, the SDK returns the pinned conversations in the reverse chronological order of when they are pinned.

Refer to the following code example to get a list of pinned conversations from the server with pagination:

// pageSize: The number of sessions returned per page. The value range is [1,50]。
// cursor：The cursor position to start getting data. If an empty string ('') is passed, the SDK will start querying from the latest pinned session.
chatClient.getServerPinnedConversations({ pageSize: 50, cursor: "" });

Pin a message

You can call pinMessage to pin a message to the top of a one-to-one chat, chat group, or chat room. When the pinned status of a message changes, other members in the group or chat room conversation will receive the onMessagePinEvent event. In the case of multi-device login, the updated top status will be synchronized to other logged-in devices, and other devices will receive the onMessagePinEvent event, respectively.

In group and chat room conversations, multiple users can pin the same message to the top. The latest pinned message will overwrite the earlier information. That is, the PinnedMessageInfo user ID and pin time will correspond to the latest pinned message.

For a single conversation, 20 messages can be pinned to the top by default.

const options = {
  // Conversation type which is `groupChat` for group chat and `chatRoom` for chat room chat.
  conversationType: "groupChat",
  // Conversation ID.
  conversationId: "conversationId",
  // Message ID.
  messageId: "messageId",
};

chatClient.pinMessage(options).then(() => {
  // Succeeded in pinning the message.
  console.log("Succeeded in pinning the message");
});

Unpin a message

You can call unpinMessage to unpin a message in a one-to-one chat, chat group, or chat room. As with pinned messages, other members of the group or chat room will receive the onMessagePinEvent event when the pinned message is unpinned. In the case of multi-device login, the updated pin status will be synchronized to other logged-in devices, and other devices will receive the onMessagePinEvent event, respectively.

Any user in a group or room can unpin a message, regardless of who pinned it. After unpinning a message, the message is no longer included in the pinned message list.

const options = {
  // Conversation type which is `groupChat` for group chat and `chatRoom` for chat room chat.
  conversationType: "groupChat",
  // Conversation ID.
  conversationId: "conversationId",
  // Message ID.
  messageId: "messageId",
};

chatClient.unpinMessage(options).then(() => {
  // Succeeded in unpinning the message.
  console.log("Succeeded in unpinning the message.");
});

Get pinned messages in a single conversation

You can call getServerPinnedMessages to get the pinned messages from a single conversation from the server. The SDK returns messages in the reverse order of pinning.

If the user withdraws a message after pinning, the message will be removed from the server; other users will not be able to pull it when they pull the pinned message list from the server.

const options = {
  // Conversation ID.
  conversationId: "conversationId",
  // Conversation type which is `groupChat` for group chat and `chatRoom` for chat room chat.
  conversationType: "groupChat",
  // The number of pinned messages to retrieve per page. The value range is [1,50] and the default value is `10`
  pageSize: 20,
  // The cursor position that indicates where to start getting data.
  // Pass in an empty string ('') for the first call of the API and the SDK returns the pinned messages in the descending order of the pinning time.
  cursor: "",
};

chatClient.getServerPinnedMessages(options).then((res) => {
  // Succeeded in retrieving the list of pinned messages in a conversation.
  console.log(res);
});

Delete historical messages from the server unidirectionally

Call removeHistoryMessages to delete historical messages one way from the server. You can remove a maximum of 20 messages from the server each time. Once the messages are deleted, you can no longer retrieve them from the server. Other chat users can still get the messages from the server.

// Delete messages by timestamp
chatClient.removeHistoryMessages({
  targetId: "userId",
  chatType: "singleChat",
  beforeTimeStamp: Date.now(),
});
// Delete messages by message ID
chatClient.removeHistoryMessages({
  targetId: "userId",
  chatType: "singleChat",
  messageIds: ["messageId"],
});

You can use the removeHistoryMessages method to unidirectionally delete historical messages on the server based on time or message ID. Up to 20 messages can be deleted at once. After deletion, the account cannot retrieve the message from the server. Other users are not affected by this operation.

Upon successful deletion, the deleteRoaming callback will be triggered when logging in from multiple terminals and devices.

// Delete messages by time stamp
chatClient.removeHistoryMessages({
  targetId: "userId",
  chatType: "singleChat",
  beforeTimeStamp: Date.now(),
});

// Delete messages by message ID
chatClient.removeHistoryMessages({
  targetId: "userId",
  chatType: "singleChat",
  messageIds: ["messageId"],
});

Tag a conversation

To tag a conversation, use the addConversationMark method. This method allows you to add tags to both local and server-side conversations. Each conversation can have up to 20 tags. This feature applies only to private chats and chat groups.

After adding a tag, you can retrieve the tagged conversations from the server by calling the getServerConversations method. The returned conversation objects will include the conversation tag, which you can obtain using the ConversationItem#marks method.

Adding tags to a conversation, such as stars, does not affect other logic of the conversation, such as the number of unread messages in it.

const options = {
  conversations: [
    { conversationId: "test", conversationType: "singleChat" },
    { conversationId: "groupId", conversationType: "groupChat" },
  ],
  mark: 0,
};

chatClient.addConversationMark(options).then(() => {
  console.log("addConversationMark success");
});

To create customized tags, you need to do the following:

const MarkMap = new Map();
MarkMap.set(0, "IMPORTANT");
MarkMap.set(1, "NORMAL");
MarkMap.set(2, "STAR");

Remove conversation tag

To remove a conversation tag, call removeConversationMark. Calling this method removes both the local and server-side conversation tags.

const options = {
  conversations: [
    { conversationId: "test", conversationType: "singleChat" },
    { conversationId: "groupId", conversationType: "groupChat" },
  ],
  mark: 0,
};

chatClient.removeConversationMark(options).then(() => {
  console.log("removeConversationMark success");
});

Query conversations from the server by the conversation tag

You can use the getServerConversationsByFilter method to retrieve a list of conversations from the server based on the tag. The SDK returns the conversation list in the reverse order of the conversation tag's timestamp. Each conversation object includes the following information:

Conversation ID
Conversation type
Pinned status (whether it is pinned or not)
Pin time (For an unpinned conversation, the value is 0)
Conversation tag
Latest message

After fetching the conversation list from the server, the local conversation list is updated accordingly:

const options = {
  pageSize: 10,
  cursor: "",
  filter: {
    mark: 0,
  },
};
chatClient.getServerConversationsByFilter().then((res) => {
  console.log("getServerConversationsByFilter success", res);
});

Next steps

After implementing retrieving messages, you can refer to the following documents to add more messaging functionalities to your app:

Message receipts

This page introduces how to use the Chat SDK to retrieve, delete, and tag messages and conversations.

Understand the tech

The Chat SDK uses ChatManager to retrieve historical messages from the server. The following are the core methods:

asyncFetchConversationsFromServer: Retrieves a list of conversations stored on the server.
asyncFetchHistoryMessages: Retrieves historical messages of a conversation from the server according to FetchMessageOption, the parameter configuration class for retrieving historical messages.
asyncPinConversation: Pins conversations.
asyncFetchPinnedConversationsFromServer: Retrieves pinned conversations.
asyncPinMessage: Pins a message in a conversation.
asyncUnPinMessage: Unpin a message in a conversation.
asyncGetPinnedMessagesFromServer: Get a list of pinned messages in a conversation.
removeMessagesFromServer: One-way deletion of historical messages on the server based on message time or message ID.
deleteConversationFromServer: Deletes conversations and their historical messages from the server.
asyncAddConversationMark: Tags a conversation.
asyncRemoveConversationMark: Removes a conversation tag.
asyncGetConversationsFromServerWithCursor: Queries conversations from the server by a conversation tag.

The Chat SDK uses ChatManager to retrieve historical messages from the server. The following are the core methods:

fetchHistoryMessagesByOption: Retrieves historical messages of a conversation from the server according to FetchMessageOptions, the parameter configuration class for retrieving historical messages.
pinConversation: Pins a conversation.
deleteRemoteMessagesBefore/deleteRemoteMessagesWithIds: Deletes historical messages from the server unidirectionally.
deleteRemoteConversation: Deletes conversations and their historical messages from the server.
addRemoteAndLocalConversationsMark: Tags a conversation.
deleteRemoteAndLocalConversationsMark: Removes a conversation tag.
fetchConversationsByOptions: Queries conversations from the server by parameters.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure that you meet the following requirements:

You have integrated the Chat SDK, initialized the SDK and implemented the functionality of registering accounts and login. For details, see Chat SDK quickstart.
You understand the API call frequency limits as described in Limitations.

Implementation

This section shows how to implement retrieving conversations and messages.

Retrieve a list of conversations from the server

Call fetchConversationsByOptions to retrieve conversations from the server with pagination. The SDK returns the conversation list in the reverse chronological order of when conversations are active (the timestamp of the last message in the conversation). In the conversation list, each conversation object contains the conversation ID, conversation type, whether the conversation is pinned, the pinned time (the value is 0 for an unpinned conversation), and the last message in the conversation. After the conversation list is retrieved from the server, the local conversation list will be updated accordingly. We recommend calling this method when the app is first installed, or when there is no conversation on the local device. Otherwise, you can call loadAllConversations to retrieve conversations on the local device.

For each end user, the server stores 100 conversations by default. When this limit is exceeded, new conversations will start overwriting the old ones. If the entire message history in a conversation expires, the conversation becomes empty. When pulling the conversation list from the server, these empty conversations are not included by default. To include them, set EMOptions#enableEmptyConversation to true when initializing the SDK. In this case, empty conversations will occupy the conversations pull quota, regardless of whether they are needed when pulling. To change this, contact support@agora.io.

ChatClient.getInstance.chatManager.fetchConversationsByOptions(
      options: ConversationFetchOptions(),
    );

Retrieve message history of the specified conversation

After retrieving conversations, you can retrieve historical messages from the server.

If you have integrated Chat SDK after June 8, 2023, you can retrieve historical messages even before joining the Chat Group. For earlier implementations, contact support@agora.io to enable this.

1
private chat: Store 500 offline messages by default;
Chat Group: Store 200 offline messages by default;
Chatroom: Doesn't store offline messages. However, by default, whenever an end user joins a chatroom, Agora Chat servers push the 10 latest messages/chatroom to them, and this number can be adjusted to 200 messages/chatroom without additional charges.

For users to receive more offline messages, use the client API or a webhook to sync with Agora Chat's server. End users can also store additional messages on their local database.

Refer to the following code sample:

ChatConversationType conversationType = ChatConversationType.Chat;
FetchMessageOptions options = FetchMessageOptions(
  from: senderId,
  // Since SDK v1.4.0, for a group conversation you can retrieve messages sent by specific members.
  senders: ['senderA', 'senderB'],
  direction: ChatSearchDirection.Up,
  startTs: 1695720454000,
  endTs: 1695720554000,
  needSave: false,
);

ChatCursorResult result =
    await ChatClient.getInstance.chatManager.fetchHistoryMessagesByOption(
  conversationId,
  conversationType,
  options: options,
  cursor: cursor,
  pageSize: pageSize,
);

Search local messages sent by specific members

Since SDK v1.4.0, for a single conversation you can search the local database for messages that contain a keyword and are sent by specific members.

List<ChatMessage> list = await conversation.loadMessagesWithKeyword(
  keywords,
  senders: ['senderA', 'senderB'],
);

Search local conversations by keyword

Map<String, List<String>> result =
    await ChatClient.getInstance.chatManager.loadConversationMessagesWithKeyword(
  keyword: 'hello',
  timestamp: -1,
  sender: null,
  direction: ChatSearchDirection.Up,
  scope: MessageSearchScope.All,
);

Retrieve local messages by message ID

Since SDK v1.4.0, you can pass one or more message IDs to retrieve messages from a single local conversation. You can pass a maximum of 20 message IDs at a time.

// messageIdList: the list of message IDs. You can pass a maximum of 20 message IDs at a time.
List<ChatMessage> messages =
    await ChatClient.getInstance.chatManager.loadMessagesWithIds(
  messageIdList,
  conversationId,
);

Pin a conversation

Refer to the following code example to pin a conversation:

ChatClient.getInstance.chatManager.pinConversation(
  conversationId: conversationId,
  isPinned: isPinned,
);

Retrieve the pinned conversations from the server with pagination

End users can pin up to 50 conversations. After you call this API, the SDK returns the pinned conversations in the reverse chronological order of when they are pinned.

Refer to the following code example to get a list of pinned conversations from the server with pagination:

ChatClient.getInstance.chatManager.fetchConversationsByOptions(
      options: ConversationFetchOptions.pinned(),
    );

Pin a message

You can call ChatManager#pinMessage to pin a message to the top of a one-to-one chat, chat group, or chat room. When the pinned status of a message changes, other members in the group or chat room conversation will receive the ChatEventHandler#onMessagePinChanged event. In the case of multi-device login, the updated top status will be synchronized to other logged-in devices, and other devices will receive the ChatEventHandler#onMessagePinChanged event, respectively.

If the message is stored locally but deleted on the server due to expiration, the message will fail to be pinned to the top.

For a single conversation, 20 messages can be pinned to the top by default.

try {
  await ChatClient.getInstance.chatManager.pinMessage(messageId: msgId);
} on ChatError catch (e) {
  debugPrint('pinMessage error: ${e.code} ${e.description}');
}

Unpin a message

You can call ChatManager#unpinMessage to unpin a message in a one-to-one chat, chat group, or chat room. As with pinned messages, other members of the group or chat room will receive the ChatEventHandler#onMessagePinChanged event when the pinned message is unpinned. In the case of multi-device login, the updated pin status will be synchronized to other logged-in devices, and other devices will receive the ChatEventHandler#onMessagePinChanged event, respectively.

  try {
  await ChatClient.getInstance.chatManager.unpinMessage(messageId: msgId);
} on ChatError catch (e) {
  debugPrint('unpinMessage error: ${e.code} ${e.description}');
}

Get pinned messages in a single conversation

You can call ChatManager#fetchPinnedMessages to get the pinned messages from a single conversation from the server. The SDK returns messages in the reverse order of pinning.

try {
  List pinnedMessages = await ChatClient.getInstance.chatManager.fetchPinnedMessages(
    conversationId: conversationId,
  );
} on ChatError catch (e) {
  debugPrint('fetchPinnedMessages error: ${e.code} ${e.description}');
}

Get pinned details of a single message

You can call MessagePinInfo to get the pinned details of a single message.

If the message is pinned, this class returns the time of pinning and the user ID of the user who has pinned it.
If the message is not pinned, this class is returned empty.

try {
  MessagePinInfo? pinInfo = await message.pinInfo();
} on ChatError catch (e) {
  debugPrint('pinInfo error: ${e.code} ${e.description}');
}

Delete historical messages from the server unidirectionally

Call deleteRemoteMessagesBefore or deleteRemoteMessagesWithIds to delete historical messages one way from the server. You can remove a maximum of 50 messages from the server each time. Once the messages are deleted, you can no longer retrieve them from the server. The deleted messages are automatically removed from your local device. Other chat users can still get the messages from the server.

try {
  // Delete messages by timestamp
  await ChatClient.getInstance.chatManager.deleteRemoteMessagesBefore(
    conversationId: conversationId,
    type: convType,
    timestamp: timestamp,
  );
} on ChatError catch (e) {}
try {
  // Delete messages by message ID
  await ChatClient.getInstance.chatManager.deleteRemoteMessagesWithIds(
    conversationId: conversationId,
    type: convType,
    msgIds: msgIds,
  );
} on ChatError catch (e) {}

Call deleteRemoteConversation to delete conversations and their historical messages unidirectionally from the server. After the conversations and messages are deleted from the server, you can no longer get them from the server. The deleted conversations still exist on the local device, but the messages are automatically removed from your local device. Other chat users can still get the conversations and their historical messages from the server.

try {
  await ChatClient.getInstance.chatManager.deleteRemoteConversation(
    conversationId,
  );
} on ChatError catch (e) {}

Tag a conversation

To tag a conversation, use the addRemoteAndLocalConversationsMark method. This method allows you to add tags to both local and server-side conversations. Each conversation can have up to 20 tags. This feature applies only to private chats and chat groups.

After adding a tag, you can retrieve the tagged conversations from the server by calling the fetchConversationsByOptions method. The returned conversation objects will include the conversation tag, which you can obtain using the marks property.

Adding tags to a conversation, such as stars, does not affect other logic of the conversation, such as the number of unread messages in it.

try {
  await EMClient.getInstance.chatManager.addRemoteAndLocalConversationsMark(
    conversationIds: conversationsIds,
    mark: ConversationMarkType.Type0,
  );
} on EMError catch (e) {
  debugPrint("addRemoteAndLocalConversationsMark error: ${e.code}, ${e.description}");
}

Remove conversation tag

You can call deleteRemoteAndLocalConversationsMark to remove tag of a conversation. Tags can be removed for up to 20 conversations at a time. Calling this method removes both the local and server-side tags.

try {
  await ChatClient.getInstance.chatManager.deleteRemoteAndLocalConversationsMark(
    conversationIds: conversationIds,
    mark: ConversationMarkType.Type0,
  );
} on ChatError catch (e) {
  debugPrint('deleteRemoteAndLocalConversationsMark error: ${e.code} ${e.description}');
}

Query conversations from the server by the conversation tag

You can use the fetchConversationsByOptions method to retrieve a list of conversations from the server based on the tag. The SDK returns the conversation list in reverse order of the conversation tag's timestamp. Each conversation object includes the following information:

Conversation ID
Conversation type
Pinned status (whether it is pinned or not)
Pin time (For an unpinned conversation, the value is 0)
Conversation tag
Latest message

After fetching the conversation list from the server, the local conversation list is updated accordingly:

try {
  ChatCursorResult result = await ChatClient.getInstance.chatManager.fetchConversationsByOptions(
    options: ConversationFetchOptions.mark(
      ConversationMarkType.Type0,
    ),
  );
} on ChatError catch (e) {
  debugPrint('fetchConversationsByOptions error: ${e.code} ${e.description}');
}

Query local conversations by the conversation tag

try {
  List markedConversations = [];
  List conversations = await ChatClient.getInstance.chatManager.loadAllConversations();
  for (var conversation in conversations) {
    if (conversation.marks?.contains(ConversationMarkType.Type0) == true) {
      markedConversations.add(conversation);
    }
  }
  debugPrint('marked conversations: $markedConversations');
} on ChatError catch (e) {
  debugPrint('get marks conversations error: ${e.code} ${e.description}');
}

Get all tags of a local conversation

You can call Conversation#marks to get all the tags of a local conversation. The sample code is as follows:

try {
  ChatConversation? conversation = await ChatClient.getInstance.chatManager.getConversation(targetId);
  List? markType = conversation?.marks;
} on ChatError catch (e) {
  debugPrint('get marks error: ${e.code} ${e.description}');
}

Next steps

After implementing retrieving messages, you can refer to the following documents to add more messaging functionalities to your app:

Message receipts

This page introduces how to use the Chat SDK to retrieve, delete, and tag messages and conversations.

Understand the tech

The Chat SDK uses ChatManager to retrieve historical messages from the server. The following are the core methods:

asyncFetchConversationsFromServer: Retrieves a list of conversations stored on the server.
asyncFetchHistoryMessages: Retrieves historical messages of a conversation from the server according to FetchMessageOption, the parameter configuration class for retrieving historical messages.
asyncPinConversation: Pins conversations.
asyncFetchPinnedConversationsFromServer: Retrieves pinned conversations.
asyncPinMessage: Pins a message in a conversation.
asyncUnPinMessage: Unpin a message in a conversation.
asyncGetPinnedMessagesFromServer: Get a list of pinned messages in a conversation.
removeMessagesFromServer: One-way deletion of historical messages on the server based on message time or message ID.
deleteConversationFromServer: Deletes conversations and their historical messages from the server.
asyncAddConversationMark: Tags a conversation.
asyncRemoveConversationMark: Removes a conversation tag.
asyncGetConversationsFromServerWithCursor: Queries conversations from the server by a conversation tag.

The Chat SDK uses ChatManager to retrieve historical messages from the server. The following are the core methods:

fetchAllConversations: Retrieves a list of conversations stored on the server.
fetchHistoryMessagesByOptions: Retrieves historical messages of a conversation from the server according to ChatFetchMessageOptions, the parameter configuration class for retrieving historical messages.
pinConversation: Pins a conversation.
fetchPinnedConversationsFromServerWithCursor: Retrieves a list of pinned conversations.
removeMessagesFromServerWithTimestamp/removeMessagesFromServerWithMsgIds: Deletes historical messages from the server unidirectionally.
removeConversationFromServer: Deletes conversations and related messages from the server.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure that you meet the following requirements:

You have integrated the Chat SDK, initialized the SDK and implemented the functionality of registering accounts and login. For details, see Chat SDK quickstart.
You understand the API call frequency limits as described in Limitations.

Implementation

This section shows how to implement retrieving conversations and messages.

Retrieve a list of conversations from the server

Call fetchConversationsFromServerWithCursor to retrieve conversations from the server with pagination. The SDK returns the conversation list in the reverse chronological order of when conversations are active (the timestamp of the last message in the conversation). In the conversation list, each conversation object contains the conversation ID, conversation type, whether the conversation is pinned, the pinned time (the value is 0 for an unpinned conversation), and the last message in the conversation. After the conversation list is retrieved from the server, the local conversation list will be updated accordingly. We recommend calling this method when the app is first installed, or when there is no conversation on the local device. Otherwise, you can call getAllConversations to retrieve conversations on the local device.

For each end user, the server stores 100 conversations by default. When this limit is exceeded, new conversations will start overwriting the old ones. If the entire message history in a conversation expires, the conversation becomes empty. When pulling the conversation list from the server, these empty conversations are not included by default. To include them, set ChatOptions#enableEmptyConversation to true when initializing the SDK. In this case, empty conversations will occupy the conversations pull quota, regardless of whether they are needed when pulling. To change this, contact support@agora.io.

// pageSize: The number of conversations that you expect to get on each page. The value range is [1,50].
// cursor: If `cursor` is an empty string, the SDK retrieves from the latest conversation.
ChatClient.getInstance()
  .chatManager.fetchConversationsFromServerWithCursor(cursor, pageSize)
  .then(() => {
    console.log("get conversions success");
  })
  .catch((reason) => {
    console.log("get conversions fail.", reason);
  });

If you do not support fetchConversationsFromServerWithCursor, call fetchConversationsFromServerWithPage to retrieve the conversations from the server. Altogether, the SDK can retrieve the last 100 conversations in the past seven days. To adjust the time limit or the number of conversations retrieved, contact support@agora.io.

Retrieve historical messages of the specified conversation

After retrieving conversations, you can retrieve historical messages from the server.

If you have integrated Chat SDK after June 8, 2023, you can retrieve historical messages even before joining the Chat Group. For earlier implementations, contact support@agora.io to enable this.

1
private chat: Store 500 offline messages by default;
Chat Group: Store 200 offline messages by default;
Chatroom: Doesn't store offline messages. However, whenever an end user joins a chatroom, Agora Chat servers push the 10 latest messages/chatroom to them, by default. This number can be adjusted to 200 messages/chatroom without additional charges.

For users to receive more offline messages, use the client API or a webhook to sync with Agora Chat's server. End users can also store additional messages on their local database.

Since SDK v1.4.0, for a single group conversation you can retrieve messages sent by specific members (rather than all members) by setting the senders array in ChatFetchMessageOptions.

Refer to the following code sample:

ChatClient.getInstance()
  .chatManager.fetchHistoryMessagesByOptions(convId, convType, {
    cursor: cursor,
    pageSize: pageSize,
    options: options as ChatFetchMessageOptions,
  })
  .then((result) => {
    console.log("get history message success", result);
  })
  .catch((reason) => {
    console.log("get history message fail.", reason);
  });

Search local messages sent by specific members

Since SDK v1.4.0, for a single conversation you can load messages from the local database that are sent by specific members, using getConvMsgsWithKeyword.

const conversationId = '<YOUR_CONVERSATION_ID>';
const conversationType = ChatConversationType.GroupChat;
const senders = ['user1', 'user2'];
ChatClient.getInstance()
  .chatManager.getConvMsgsWithKeyword({
    convId: conversationId,
    convType: conversationType,
    senders: senders,
    keywords: '',
  })
  .then((messages) => console.log('Messages:', messages))
  .catch((error) => console.error('Error:', error));

Search local conversations by keyword

Since SDK v1.4.0, you can call getConvsMsgsWithKeyword to search across all local conversations for messages that contain a keyword. The SDK returns the matching conversation IDs and message IDs, ordered by message timestamp in ascending or descending order according to the direction parameter.

ChatClient.getInstance()
  .chatManager.getConvsMsgsWithKeyword({
    keywords: 'hello',
    timestamp: -1,
    from: '<MESSAGE_SENDER_ID>',
    direction: ChatSearchDirection.UP,
    searchScope: ChatMessageSearchScope.All,
  })
  .then((result) => console.log('Result:', result))
  .catch((error) => console.error('Error:', error));

Retrieve local messages by message ID

Since SDK v1.4.0, you can call getMessagesWithIds to retrieve one or more messages from a single local conversation by message ID.

ChatClient.getInstance()
  .chatManager.getMessagesWithIds({
    convId: '<YOUR_CONVERSATION_ID>',
    convType: ChatConversationType.GroupChat,
    msgIds: ['<MSG_ID_1>', '<MSG_ID_2>'],
  })
  .then((messages) => console.log('Messages:', messages))
  .catch((error) => console.error('Error:', error));

Pin a conversation

Refer to the following code example to pin a conversation:

// isPinned: Sets whether to pin a conversation.
ChatClient.getInstance()
  .chatManager.pinConversation(convId, isPinned)
  .then(() => {
    console.log("pin conversions success");
  })
  .catch((reason) => {
    console.log("pin conversions fail.", reason);
  });

Retrieve the pinned conversations from the server with pagination

End users can pin up to 50 conversations. After you call this API, the SDK returns the pinned conversations in the reverse chronological order of when they are pinned.

Refer to the following code example to get a list of pinned conversations from the server with pagination:

// pageSize: The number of sessions returned per page. The value range is [1,50]。
// cursor：The cursor position to start getting data.
ChatClient.getInstance()
  .chatManager.fetchPinnedConversationsFromServerWithCursor(cursor, pageSize)
  .then(() => {
    console.log("get conversions success");
  })
  .catch((reason) => {
    console.log("get conversions fail.", reason);
  });

Pin a message

You can call ChatManager#pinMessage to pin a message to the top of a one-to-one chat, chat group, or chat room. When the pinned status of a message changes, other members in the group or chat room conversation will receive the MessageListener#onMessagePinChanged event. In the case of multi-device login, the updated top status will be synchronized to other logged-in devices, and other devices will receive the MessageListener#onMessagePinChanged event, respectively.

In group and chat room conversations, multiple users can pin the same message to the top. The latest pinned message will overwrite the earlier information. That is, the ChatMessagePinInfo user ID and pin time will correspond to the latest pinned message.

For a single conversation, 20 messages can be pinned to the top by default.

ChatClient.getInstance()
  .chatManager.pinMessage(
    messageId // message ID
  )
  .then(() => {
    // todo: operation completed
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    // todo: operation failed
  });

Delete historical messages from the server unidirectionally

Call removeMessagesFromServerWithTimestamp or removeMessagesFromServerWithMsgIds to delete historical messages one way from the server. You can remove a maximum of 50 messages from the server each time. Once the messages are deleted, you can no longer retrieve them from the server. The deleted messages are automatically removed from your local device. Other chat users can still get the messages from the server.

To use this function, you need to contact support@agora.io to enable it.

// Delete messages by message ID
ChatClient.getInstance()
  .chatManager.removeMessagesFromServerWithMsgIds(convId, convType, msgIds)
  .then((result) => {
    console.log("test:success:", result);
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.warn("test:error:", error);
  });
// Delete messages by timestamp
ChatClient.getInstance()
  .chatManager.removeMessagesFromServerWithTimestamp(
    convId,
    convType,
    timestamp
  )
  .then((result) => {
    console.log("test:success:", result);
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.warn("test:error:", error);
  });

Call removeConversationFromServer to delete conversations and their historical messages unidirectionally from the server. After the conversations and messages are deleted from the server, you can no longer get them from the server. The deleted conversations still exist on the local device, but the messages are automatically removed from the device. Other chat users can still get the conversations and their historical messages from the server.

// convId: conversation ID
// convType: conversation type.
// isDeleteMessage: Whether to delete historical messages from the server and local storage with the conversation.
ChatClient.getInstance()
  .chatManager.removeConversationFromServer(convId, convType, isDeleteMessage)
  .then(() => {
    console.log("remove conversions success");
  })
  .catch((reason) => {
    console.log("remove conversions fail.", reason);
  });

Next steps

After implementing retrieving messages, you can refer to the following documents to add more messaging functionalities to your app:

Message receipts

This page introduces how to use the Chat SDK to retrieve, delete, and tag messages and conversations.

Understand the tech

The Chat SDK uses ChatManager to retrieve historical messages from the server. The following are the core methods:

asyncFetchConversationsFromServer: Retrieves a list of conversations stored on the server.
asyncFetchHistoryMessages: Retrieves historical messages of a conversation from the server according to FetchMessageOption, the parameter configuration class for retrieving historical messages.
asyncPinConversation: Pins conversations.
asyncFetchPinnedConversationsFromServer: Retrieves pinned conversations.
asyncPinMessage: Pins a message in a conversation.
asyncUnPinMessage: Unpin a message in a conversation.
asyncGetPinnedMessagesFromServer: Get a list of pinned messages in a conversation.
removeMessagesFromServer: One-way deletion of historical messages on the server based on message time or message ID.
deleteConversationFromServer: Deletes conversations and their historical messages from the server.
asyncAddConversationMark: Tags a conversation.
asyncRemoveConversationMark: Removes a conversation tag.
asyncGetConversationsFromServerWithCursor: Queries conversations from the server by a conversation tag.

The Chat SDK uses IChatManager to retrieve historical messages from the server. The following are the core methods:

GetConversationsFromServerWithPage: Retrieve conversations stored on the server with pagination.
FetchHistoryMessagesFromServerBy: Retrieves historical messages of a conversation from the server according to FetchServerMessagesOption, the parameter configuration class for retrieving historical messages.
PinConversation: Pins a conversation.
GetConversationsFromServerWithCursor: Retrieves a list of pinned conversations.
RemoveMessagesFromServer: Deletes historical messages from the server unidirectionally.
DeleteConversationFromServer: Deletes conversations and their historical messages from the server.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure that you meet the following requirements:

You have integrated the Chat SDK, initialized the SDK and implemented the functionality of registering accounts and login. For details, see Chat SDK quickstart.
You understand the API call frequency limits as described in Limitations.

Implementation

This section shows how to implement retrieving conversations and messages.

Retrieve a list of conversations from the server

Call GetConversationsFromServerWithCursor to retrieve conversations from the server with pagination. You can set the pinOnly parameter in this method to determine whether to retrieve the list of pinned conversations:

If pinOnly is set to false, you can retrieve the list of pinned and unpinned conversations. The SDK returns the conversation list in the reverse chronological order of when conversations are active (the timestamp of the last message in the conversation).
If pinOnly is set to true, you can only retrieve the list of pinned conversations. The SDK returns the pinned conversations in the reverse chronological order of when they were pinned. Up to 50 pinned conversations can be retrieved.

In the conversation list, each conversation object contains the conversation ID, conversation type, whether the conversation is pinned, the pinned time (the value is 0 for an unpinned conversation), and the last message in the conversation. After the conversation list is retrieved from the server, the local conversation list will be updated accordingly. We recommend calling this method when the app is first installed, or when there is no conversation on the local device. Otherwise, you can call LoadAllConversations to retrieve conversations on the local device.

For each end user, the server stores 100 conversations by default. When this limit is exceeded, new conversations will start overwriting the old ones. If the entire message history in a conversation expires, the conversation becomes empty. When pulling the conversation list from the server, these empty conversations are not included by default. To include them, set Options#EnableEmptyConversation to true when initializing the SDK. In this case, empty conversations will occupy the conversations pull quota, regardless of whether they are needed when pulling. To change this, contact support@agora.io.

// limit: The number of conversations that you expect to get on each page. The value range is [1,50].
int limit = 10;
string cursor = "";
bool pinOnly = false; // `false`：Get all conversations; `true`: Get the list of pinned conversations.
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetConversationsFromServerWithCursor(pinOnly, cursor, limit, new ValueCallBack>(
   onSuccess: (result) =>
   {
       // Traverse the obtained conversation list
       foreach (var conv in result.Data)
       {

       }
       // The cursor for the next request
       string nextCursor = result.Cursor;
   },
   onError: (code, desc) =>
   {

   }
));

Retrieve historical messages of the specified conversation

After retrieving conversations, you can retrieve historical messages from the server.

If you have integrated Chat SDK after June 8, 2023, you can retrieve historical messages even before joining the Chat Group. For earlier implementations, contact support@agora.io to enable this.

1
private chat: Store 500 offline messages by default;
Chat Group: Store 200 offline messages by default;
Chatroom: Doesn't store offline messages. However, whenever an end user joins a chatroom, Agora Chat servers push the 10 latest messages/chatroom to them, by default. This number can be adjusted to 200 messages/chatroom without additional charges.

For users to receive more offline messages, use the client API or a webhook to sync with Agora Chat's server. End users can also store additional messages on their local database.

Since SDK v1.4.0, for a single group conversation you can retrieve messages sent by specific members (rather than all members) by setting the FromIds list in FetchServerMessagesOption. FromIds replaces the deprecated From attribute.

Refer to the following code sample:

FetchServerMessagesOption option = new FetchServerMessagesOption();
option.IsSave = false;
option.Direction = MessageSearchDirection.UP;
// Since SDK v1.4.0, for a group conversation, set FromIds to retrieve messages sent by specific members.
option.FromIds = new List<string> { "id1", "id2" };
option.MsgTypes = new List();
option.MsgTypes.Add(MessageBodyType.TXT);
option.MsgTypes.Add(MessageBodyType.VIDEO);
option.StartTime = 1695720454000;
option.EndTime = 1695720554000;

SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.FetchHistoryMessagesFromServerBy(conversationId, type, cursor, pageSize, option, new ValueCallBack>(
    onSuccess: (result) =>
    {

    },
    onError: (code, desc) =>
    {

    }
));

Search local messages sent by specific members

Since SDK v1.4.0, for a single conversation you can load messages from the local database that are sent by specific members.

Conversation conv = SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetConversation(conversationId, convType);
conv.LoadMessagesWithScopeAndFromIds(keyword, timestamp, maxCount, fromIds, direction, scope, new ValueCallBack<List<Message>>(
    onSuccess: (list) => { },
    onError: (code, desc) => { }
));

Search local conversations by keyword

Since SDK v1.4.0, you can call LoadConversationMessagesWithKeyword to search across all local conversations for messages that contain a keyword. The SDK returns the matching conversation IDs and message IDs, ordered by message timestamp in ascending or descending order according to the direction parameter.

SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.LoadConversationMessagesWithKeyword(keywords, timestamp, from, direction, scope, new ValueCallBack<Dictionary<string, List<string>>>(
    onSuccess: (result) => { },
    onError: (code, desc) => { }
));

Retrieve local messages by message ID

Since SDK v1.4.0, you can call LoadMessages to retrieve one or more messages from a single local conversation by message ID. To retrieve a single message, call LoadMessage.

List<string> messageIdList = new List<string> { "msgId1", "msgId2" };
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.LoadMessages(messageIdList, conversationId, new ValueCallBack<List<Message>>(
    onSuccess: (messages) => { },
    onError: (code, desc) => { }
));

Pin a conversation

Refer to the following code example to pin a conversation:

SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.PinConversation(convId, isPinned, new CallBack(
    onSuccess: () =>
    {

    },
    onError: (code, desc) =>
    {

    }
));

Retrieve the pinned conversations from the server

End users can pin up to 50 conversations. After you call this API, the SDK returns the pinned conversations in the reverse chronological order of when they are pinned.

The Limit parameter specifies the number of conversations each API call can return, from a range of 1-50. Refer to the following code example to get a list of pinned conversations from the server with pagination:

// limit: The number of sessions returned per page. The value range is [1,50].
// cursor: The cursor position to start getting data.
int limit = 10;
string cursor = "";
bool pinOnly = true; // `false`: Get the list of all conversations; `true`: Get the list of only pinned conversations.
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetConversationsFromServerWithCursor(pinOnly, cursor, limit, new ValueCallBack>(
   onSuccess: (result) =>
   {
       // Traverse the obtained conversation list
       foreach (var conv in result.Data)
       {

       }
       // The cursor for the next query
       string nextCursor = result.Cursor;
   },
   onError: (code, desc) =>
   {

   }
));

Pin a message

To pin a message to the top of a one-to-one chat, chat group, or chat room, call ChatManager#PinMessage and set the isPinned parameter to true. When the pinned status of a message changes, other members in the one-to-one chat, group or chat room conversation receive the IChatManagerDelegate#OnMessagePinChanged event. In the case of multi-device login, the updated top status is synchronized to other logged-in devices, and other devices receive the IChatManagerDelegate#OnMessagePinChanged event, respectively.

Multiple users can pin the same message to the top. The latest pinned message overwrites the earlier information. That is, the PinnedInfo user ID and pin time correspond to the last pinned message.

If the message is stored locally but deleted on the server due to expiration, the message fails to be pinned to the top.

For a single conversation, 20 messages can be pinned to the top by default.

bool isPinned = true;
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.PinMessage(msgId, isPinned, new CallBack(
    onSuccess: () =>
    {
    },
    onError: (code, desc) =>
    {
    }
));

Unpin a message

To unpin a message in a one-to-one chat, chat group, or chat room, call ChatManager#PinMessage and set the isPinned parameter to false. As with pinned messages, other members of the one-to-one chat, chat group or chat room receive the IChatManagerDelegate#OnMessagePinChanged event when the pinned message is unpinned. In the case of multi-device login, the updated pin status is synchronized to other logged-in devices, and other devices receive the IChatManagerDelegate#OnMessagePinChanged event, respectively.

Any user in a one-to-one chat, group or room can unpin a message, regardless of who pinned it. After unpinning a message, PinnedBy and PinnedAt in Message#PinnedInfo are returned empty and set to 0, respectively, and the message is no longer included in the pinned message list.

bool isPinned = false;
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.PinMessage(msgId, isPinned, new CallBack(
    onSuccess: () =>
    {
    },
    onError: (code, desc) =>
    {
    }
));

Get pinned messages in a single conversation

You can call ChatManager#GetPinnedMessagesFromServer to get the pinned messages from a single conversation from the server. The SDK returns messages in the reverse order of pinning.

SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetPinnedMessagesFromServer(convId, new ValueCallBack>(
    onSuccess: (list) => {
        foreach (var it in list)
        {
            // Traverse the message list
        }
    },
    onError: (code, desc) => {
    }
));

Get pinned details of a single message

You can call PinnedInfo to get the pinned details of a single message.

If the message is pinned, this class returns the time of pinning and the user ID of the user who has pinned it.
If the message is not pinned, then PinnedBy is returned empty and PinnedAt is set to 0.

// ...
const msg: ChatMessage;
const info = await msg.getPinInfo;
// todo: Get the pin information of the message

Delete historical messages from the server unidirectionally

Call RemoveMessagesFromServer to delete historical messages one way from the server. You can remove a maximum of 50 messages from the server each time. Once the messages are deleted, you can no longer retrieve them from the server. The deleted messages are automatically removed from your local device. Other chat users can still get the messages from the server.

SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.RemoveMessagesFromServer(convId, ctype, time, new CallBack(
    onSuccess: () =>
    {
    },
    onError: (code, desc) =>
    {
    }
));
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.RemoveMessagesFromServer(convId, ctype, msgList, new CallBack(
    onSuccess: () =>
    {
    },
    onError: (code, desc) =>
    {
    }
));

Call DeleteConversationFromServer to delete conversations and their historical messages unidirectionally from the server. After the conversations and messages are deleted from the server, you can no longer get them from the server. The deleted conversations still exist on your local device, but the messages are automatically removed from the device. Other chat users can still get the conversations and their historical messages from the server.

SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.DeleteConversationFromServer(conversationId, conversationType, isDeleteServerMessages, new CallBack(
    onSuccess: () =>
    {
    },
    onError: (code, desc) =>
    {
    }
));

Next steps

After implementing retrieving messages, you can refer to the following documents to add more messaging functionalities to your app:

Message receipts

This page introduces how to use the Chat SDK to retrieve, delete, and tag messages and conversations.

Understand the tech

The Chat SDK uses ChatManager to retrieve historical messages from the server. The following are the core methods:

asyncFetchConversationsFromServer: Retrieves a list of conversations stored on the server.
asyncFetchHistoryMessages: Retrieves historical messages of a conversation from the server according to FetchMessageOption, the parameter configuration class for retrieving historical messages.
asyncPinConversation: Pins conversations.
asyncFetchPinnedConversationsFromServer: Retrieves pinned conversations.
asyncPinMessage: Pins a message in a conversation.
asyncUnPinMessage: Unpin a message in a conversation.
asyncGetPinnedMessagesFromServer: Get a list of pinned messages in a conversation.
removeMessagesFromServer: One-way deletion of historical messages on the server based on message time or message ID.
deleteConversationFromServer: Deletes conversations and their historical messages from the server.
asyncAddConversationMark: Tags a conversation.
asyncRemoveConversationMark: Removes a conversation tag.
asyncGetConversationsFromServerWithCursor: Queries conversations from the server by a conversation tag.

The Chat SDK uses IChatManager to retrieve historical messages from the server. The following are the core methods:

GetConversationsFromServerWithPage: Retrieve conversations stored on the server with pagination.
FetchHistoryMessagesFromServerBy: Retrieves historical messages of a conversation from the server according to FetchServerMessagesOption, the parameter configuration class for retrieving historical messages.
PinConversation: Pins a conversation.
GetConversationsFromServerWithCursor: Retrieves a list of pinned conversations.
RemoveMessagesFromServer: Deletes historical messages from the server unidirectionally.
DeleteConversationFromServer: Deletes conversations and their historical messages from the server.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure that you meet the following requirements:

You have integrated the Chat SDK, initialized the SDK and implemented the functionality of registering accounts and login. For details, see Chat SDK quickstart.
You understand the API call frequency limits as described in Limitations.

Implementation

This section shows how to implement retrieving conversations and messages.

Retrieve a list of conversations from the server

If pinOnly is set to false, you can retrieve the list of pinned and unpinned conversations. The SDK returns the conversation list in the reverse chronological order of when conversations are active (the timestamp of the last message in the conversation).
If pinOnly is set to true, you can only retrieve the list of pinned conversations. The SDK returns the pinned conversations in the reverse chronological order of when they were pinned. Up to 50 pinned conversations can be retrieved.

For each end user, the server stores 100 conversations by default. When this limit is exceeded, new conversations will start overwriting the old ones. If the entire message history in a conversation expires, the conversation becomes empty. When pulling the conversation list from the server, these empty conversations are not included by default. To include them, set Options#EnableEmptyConversation to true when initializing the SDK. In this case, empty conversations will occupy the conversations pull quota, regardless of whether they are needed when pulling. To change this, contact support@agora.io.

// limit: The number of conversations that you expect to get on each page. The value range is [1,50].
int limit = 10;
string cursor = "";
bool pinOnly = false; // `false`：Get the list of all conversations; `true`: Get the list of only pinned conversations.
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetConversationsFromServerWithCursor(pinOnly, cursor, limit, new ValueCallBack>(
   onSuccess: (result) =>
   {
       // Traverse the obtained conversation list
       foreach (var conv in result.Data)
       {

       }
       // The cursor for the next request
       string nextCursor = result.Cursor;
   },
   onError: (code, desc) =>
   {

   }
));

Retrieve message history of the specified conversation

After retrieving conversations, you can retrieve historical messages from the server.

If you have integrated Chat SDK after June 8, 2023, you can retrieve historical messages even before joining the Chat Group. For earlier implementations, contact support@agora.io to enable this.

1
private chat: Store 500 offline messages by default;
Chat Group: Store 200 offline messages by default;
Chatroom: Doesn't store offline messages. However, by default, whenever an end user joins a chatroom, Agora Chat servers push the 10 latest messages/chatroom to them, and this number can be adjusted to 200 messages/chatroom without additional charges.

For users to receive more offline messages, use the client API or a webhook to sync with Agora Chat's server. End users can also store additional messages on their local database.

Refer to the following code sample:

FetchServerMessagesOption option = new FetchServerMessagesOption();
option.IsSave = false;
option.Direction = MessageSearchDirection.UP;
// Since SDK v1.4.0, for a group conversation, set FromIds to retrieve messages sent by specific members.
option.FromIds = new List<string> { "id1", "id2" };
option.MsgTypes = new List();
option.MsgTypes.Add(MessageBodyType.TXT);
option.MsgTypes.Add(MessageBodyType.VIDEO);
option.StartTime = 1695720454000;
option.EndTime = 1695720554000;

SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.FetchHistoryMessagesFromServerBy(conversationId, type, cursor, pageSize, option, new ValueCallBack>(

   onSuccess: (result) =>
   {
   },
   onError: (code, desc) =>

   {
   }
 )) ;

Search local messages sent by specific members

Since SDK v1.4.0, for a single conversation you can load messages from the local database that are sent by specific members.

Conversation conv = SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetConversation(conversationId, convType);
conv.LoadMessagesWithScopeAndFromIds(keyword, timestamp, maxCount, fromIds, direction, scope, new ValueCallBack<List<Message>>(
    onSuccess: (list) => { },
    onError: (code, desc) => { }
));

Search local conversations by keyword

SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.LoadConversationMessagesWithKeyword(keywords, timestamp, from, direction, scope, new ValueCallBack<Dictionary<string, List<string>>>(
    onSuccess: (result) => { },
    onError: (code, desc) => { }
));

Retrieve local messages by message ID

Since SDK v1.4.0, you can call LoadMessages to retrieve one or more messages from a single local conversation by message ID. To retrieve a single message, call LoadMessage.

List<string> messageIdList = new List<string> { "msgId1", "msgId2" };
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.LoadMessages(messageIdList, conversationId, new ValueCallBack<List<Message>>(
    onSuccess: (messages) => { },
    onError: (code, desc) => { }
));

Pin a conversation

Refer to the following code example to pin a conversation:

SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.PinConversation(convId, isPinned, new CallBack(
    onSuccess: () =>
    {

    },
    onError: (code, desc) =>
    {

    }
));

Retrieve the pinned conversations from the server with pagination

End users can pin up to 50 conversations. After you call this API, the SDK returns the pinned conversations in the reverse chronological order of when they are pinned.

Refer to the following code example to get a list of pinned conversations from the server with pagination:

// limit: The number of sessions returned per page. The value range is [1,50].
// cursor: The cursor position to start getting data.
int limit = 10;
string cursor = "";
bool pinOnly = true; // `false`: Get the list of all conversations; `true`: Get the list of only pinned conversations.
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetConversationsFromServerWithCursor(pinOnly, cursor, limit, new ValueCallBack>(
   onSuccess: (result) =>
   {
       // Traverse the obtained conversation list
       foreach (var conv in result.Data)
       {

       }
       // The cursor for the next query
       string nextCursor = result.Cursor;
   },
   onError: (code, desc) =>
   {

   }
));

Pin a message

Multiple users can pin the same message to the top. The latest pinned message overwrites the earlier information. That is, the PinnedInfo user ID and pin time correspond to the last pinned message.

If the message is stored locally but deleted on the server due to expiration, the message fails to be pinned to the top.

For a single conversation, 20 messages can be pinned to the top by default.

bool isPinned = true;
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.PinMessage(msgId, isPinned, new CallBack(
    onSuccess: () =>
    {
    },
    onError: (code, desc) =>
    {
    }
));

Unpin a message

bool isPinned = false;
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.PinMessage(msgId, isPinned, new CallBack(
    onSuccess: () =>
    {
    },
    onError: (code, desc) =>
    {
    }
));

Get pinned messages in a single conversation

You can call ChatManager#GetPinnedMessagesFromServer to get the pinned messages from a single conversation from the server. The SDK returns messages in the reverse order of pinning.

SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetPinnedMessagesFromServer(convId, new ValueCallBack>(
    onSuccess: (list) => {
        foreach (var it in list)
        {
            // Traverse the message list
        }
    },
    onError: (code, desc) => {
    }
));

Get pinned details of a single message

You can call PinnedInfo to get the pinned details of a single message.

If the message is pinned, this class returns the time of pinning and the user ID of the user who has pinned it.
If the message is not pinned, then PinnedBy is returned empty and PinnedAt is set to 0.

// ...
const msg: ChatMessage;
const info = await msg.getPinInfo;
// todo: Get the pin information of the message

Delete historical messages from the server unidirectionally

To use this function, you need to contact support@agora.io to enable it.

SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.RemoveMessagesFromServer(convId, ctype, time, new CallBack(
    onSuccess: () =>
    {
    },
    onError: (code, desc) =>
    {
    }
));
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.RemoveMessagesFromServer(convId, ctype, msgList, new CallBack(
    onSuccess: () =>
    {
    },
    onError: (code, desc) =>
    {
    }
));

SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.DeleteConversationFromServer(conversationId, conversationType, isDeleteServerMessages, new CallBack(
    onSuccess: () =>
    {
    },
    onError: (code, desc) =>
    {
    }
));

Tag a conversation

To tag a conversation, use the MarkConversations method. This method allows you to add tags to both local and server-side conversations, that is, set the isMark parameter to 'true'. Each conversation can have up to 20 tags. This feature applies only to private chats and chat groups.

After adding a tag, you can retrieve the tagged conversations from the server by calling the GetConversationsFromServerWithCursor method. The returned conversation objects will include the conversation tag, which you can obtain using the marks property.

Adding tags to a conversation, such as stars, does not affect other logic of the conversation, such as the number of unread messages in it.

List list = new List();
list.Add("huanhuan");
bool isMarked = true;
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.MarkConversations(list, isMarked, (MarkType)mark, new CallBack(
    onSuccess: () =>
    {
    },
    onError: (code, desc) =>
    {
    }
));

Remove conversation tag

You can call MarkConversations and set the isMark parameter to 'false' to untag a conversation. Tags can be removed for up to 20 conversations at a time. Calling this method removes both the local and server-side tags.

List list = new List();
list.Add("huanhuan");
bool isMarked = false;
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.MarkConversations(list, isMarked, (MarkType)mark, new CallBack(
    onSuccess: () =>
    {
    },
    onError: (code, desc) =>
    {
    }
));

Query conversations from the server by the conversation tag

You can use the GetConversationsFromServerWithCursor method to retrieve a list of conversations from the server based on the tag. The SDK returns the conversation list in reverse order of the conversation tag's timestamp. Each conversation object includes the following information:

Conversation ID
Conversation type
Pinned status (whether it is pinned or not)
Pin time (For an unpinned conversation, the value is 0)
Conversation tag
Latest message

After fetching the conversation list from the server, the local conversation list is updated accordingly:

SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetConversationsFromServerWithCursor((MarkType)mark, cursor, limit, new ValueCallBack>(
   onSuccess: (result) =>
   {
       foreach (var conv in result.Data)
       {
         //Iterate over the sessions in result.Data
       }
   },
   onError: (code, desc) =>
   {
   }
  ));

Query local conversations by the conversation tag

For local conversations, you can call the LoadAllConversations method to obtain all local conversations and then perform conversation filtering yourself. The following is an example of querying all local conversations marked with EMConversation.EMMarkType.MARK_0:

// All final query results are put into result.
List result = new List();
List localConversations = SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.LoadAllConversations();
foreach(var conv in localConversations)
{
    List Marks = conv.Marks();
    foreach(var mark in Marks)
    {
        if (MarkType.MarkType0 == mark)
        {
            result.Add(conv);
        }
    }
}

Get all tags of a local conversation

You can call Conversation#Marks to get all the tags of a local conversation. The sample code is as follows:

Conversation conv = SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetConversation("conversationId", conversationType);
List Marks = conv.Marks();

Next steps

After implementing retrieving messages, you can refer to the following documents to add more messaging functionalities to your app:

Message receipts

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