Channels

Our channels enable developers to implement different types of chat messaging capabilities into their applications easily

In this section, we will cover the concept of channels in Social Plus Chat SDK and how to use them to enable different types of chat messaging capabilities in your application.

Please be aware that there is some incompatibility between SDK version 5 and version 6 regarding the Subchannel feature.

• Applications using SDK version 5 cannot view messages sent to subchannels by SDK version 6.

• Channels can be sorted by 'Last Activity', which means that if messages are sent to SDK version 5 in subchannels, it moves the channel to the top of the collection. However, while the order will be updated to the top, SDK version 5 will not display the message.

Channel and Subchannel Structure

The concept of "channel and subchannel" is central to understanding how communication is structured in a chat SDK. Channels are the primary containers that hold subchannels, while subchannels are subdivisions within a channel that represent individual topics or chat threads.

The relationship between a channel and its subchannels is hierarchical. A channel serves as a parent container for multiple subchannels, each of which represents a separate conversation or topic. Messages and interactions occur within subchannels, not the main channel itself. This organization allows for easier navigation and management of different conversations within a single channel.

The differences between channels and subchannels are as follows:

1. Function: Channels act as containers for subchannels, while subchannels are where actual conversations and interactions take place.

2. Hierarchy: Channels serve as parent containers, whereas subchannels are subdivisions within a channel.

3. Messages: Channels do not contain any messages directly; instead, all messages are stored within subchannels.

4. Management: Users can create, update, delete, and query subchannels within a channel, managing each subchannel individually.

5. Moderation: Moderation actions, such as banning, unbanning, muting, and unmuting users, can be performed at the channel level rather than the subchannel level. This approach ensures that moderation decisions apply to all subchannels within the main channel, providing consistent management across different conversations or topics.

By default, when a channel is created, a corresponding default subchannel is also automatically generated.

Channel Types

Social Plus's Chat SDK has several channel types with different use cases. Each type is designed to match a particular use case for chat channels.

Channel Type	Discoverable by	Message sending privileges	Moderation access	Channel Creation	Realtime Events Retrieval
Community	All users and admins	Joined members and admins	All Moderation tools	SDK, Console	Automatic
Private Community	Joined members and admins	Joined members and admins	All Moderation tools	SDK, Console	Automatic
Live	Joined members and admins	Joined members and admins	All Moderation tools	SDK, Console	Subscription needed
Broadcast	All users and admins	Admins, and designated moderators	Admin Moderation tools	SDK, Console	Subscription needed
Conversation	Joined members	Joined members	No Moderation tools	SDK	Automatic

For further information about channel's realtime events process, please visit Chat Realtime Events.

Community and Private Community Channel

The community channel is the default channel type and can be discovered by all users and admins. It acts as a public chat channel that showcases all of the features that our SDKs have to offer.

Channel characteristics:

• All users in the network can search for a community channel

• All users in the network can join the community without an invitation

• Support @mention user

• Support @mention all users in the channel

• Appear on SP Console for an administrator to monitor

Typical use cases:

• Team collaboration

• Online gaming

• Celebrity fan club

• Live streaming

• Any type of public chat

Live Channel

Live channels offer the ability for users and admins to create channels with exclusive membership. The live channel is identical to our Community channel in features with the caveat that users will not be able to discover the channel when querying for all channels unless they are already a member of it. However, users and admins can still invite other users to join the channel.

Channel characteristics

• Can only be searched by member

• Users can join if they know the channel ID

• Support @mention user

• Support @mention channel users (mention all users)

• Appear on the ASC console for the administrator to monitor

Typical use cases:

• Chat channel for a one-time Live event

Conversation

Conversation channels are designed for 1-on-1 messaging and private small group chat. Unlike the other channel types, a Conversation channel can be created simply by knowing the userId of the user we want to converse with. Users can start conversations with any other user and only they will be able to see their conversation.

Each channel has its own list of members, and no two channels can have the same member list. If someone tries to create a new channel with the same set of members as an existing channel, the system will return the existing channel. For example, creating a new channel with User A and User B will always result in the same channel no matter how many times the create command is called. This is useful when trying to establish a private chat channel between 2 or more users as we want to make sure the user can continue using the existing channel that contains previous messages history.

Channel characteristics

• Channel is always unique with the same set of memberships.

• Support up to 10 members per conversation channel

• Users can not join, leave, be added, or removed from the channel once it's created

• Users can not ban/unban other users in the channel

• Does not appear on the SP console for the administrator to monitor

• Does not support @mention user & @mention all

Typical use cases:

• 1:1 Chat Channel

• Private Group Chat

• Customer Support Chat

Channel types can be created through SDK i.e Community, Live and Conversation. Creation of Private and Standard type has been removed.

Broadcast

The Broadcast channel is heavily adopted by corporate users who constantly promote or advertise their products, or make the announcement to drive awareness. Unlike other channel types, broadcast channels only allow admin users to send messages from Console, API, and SDK, and everyone else in the channel will be under read-only mode.

Broadcast channel characteristics

• Broadcast messages can be sent out via SP console, API, and SDK with admin or moderator permissions.
• The administrator can choose to send to any community OR live channel (but not to the conversation channel).

• Support @mention user

• Support @mention channel users (mention all users)

Typical use cases:

• Marketing & Advertising

• Organizational Announcements

Channel Properties

Name	Data Type	Description
channelId	String	ID of the channel
defaultSubchannelId	String	ID of the default subchannel that's generated upon channel creation
isDistinct	Bool	Is channel distinct?
metadata	JsonObject	Additional properties to support custom fields
type	AmityChannelType	Type of channel
tags	Array<String>	Tags used for searching
isMuted	Bool	Is this channel muted?
isRateLimited	Bool	This channel has limited sending rate?
rateLimit	Int	Number of messages within rate limit
displayName	String	Channel name for displaying
memberCount	Integer	Number of members in channel
messageCount	Integer	Number of messages in channel
unreadCount	Integer	Number of unread messages in channel
lastActivity	DateTime	Date/time of user's last activity related to the channel (e.g. add/remove member)
createdAt	DateTime	Date/time the channel was created
updatedAt	DateTime	Date/time the channel was last updated
avatarFileId	String	Avatar file ID
isPublic	Bool	Public / Private community channel

Channel Object is a Live Object and you can observe real-time changes in Channel Properties. Please see to Live Object on how to listen to real-time changes.