Channels

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

Users can create and join channels where they will be able to participate and chat with other users. A channel can support up to 300,000 members and can contain an unlimited number of messages. Any message exchanged in the channels will be pushed to all other members of the channel in real-time.

Channel Description

Name	Data Type	Description	Attributes
channelId	String	ID of the channel
isDistinct	Bool	Is channel distinct?
metadata	[String: Any]	Additional properties to support custom fields
type	AmityChannelType	Type of channel
tags	[String]	Tags used for searching
isMuted	Bool	Is this channel muted?	Computed by using muteTimeout
isRateLimited	Bool	This channel has limited sending rate?	Computed by using muteTimeout
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	Date	Date/time of user's last activity related to the channel (e.g. add/remove member)
createdAt	Date	Date/time the channel was created
updatedAt	Date	Date/time the channel was last updated
avatarFileId	String	Avatar file ID

Channel Types

Amity's Chat SDK has six channel types but not all of these channels are supported in channel creation. The query, getChannels method however supports all channel types.

Each type is designed to match a particular use-case for chat channels. Here's a table showing what features each channel offers:

Channel Type	Discoverable by	Message sending privileges	Moderation access	Channel Creation
Community	All members and admins	Members and admins	All Moderation tools	SDK, Console
Live	Only members and admins	Members and admins	All Moderation tools	SDK, Console
Broadcast	All members and admins	Admins	Admin Moderation tools	Console
Conversation	Only members	Members	No Moderation tools	SDK
Standard*	All members and admins	Members and admins	All moderation tools	N.A.
Private*	Only members and admins	Members and admins	All moderation tools	N.A.
ByTypes**	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.

*Standard and Private channels are already deprecated.

**ByTypes is not a channel type. It is used in querying multiple channel types.

For more information about Amity SDK's different roles (admin. moderator, etc) as well as the permissions, refer to Roles & Permissions.

Community

All community channels are visible on the Amity Social Cloud Console.

The community channel is our 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 SDK's have to offer.

Typical use cases:

• Team collaboration

• Online gaming

• Celebrity fan club

• Live streaming

• Any type of public chat

Live

All live channels are visible on the Amity Social Cloud Console.

Live channels offer the ability for users and admins to create channels with exclusive memberships. 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.

Typical use cases:

• Healthcare

• Project Discussion

• Any type of chat

Community and Live channel types can use our SDK moderation tools:

• Message and user flagging

• Muting/Unmuting users

• Banning/Unbanning users from channel

• Profanity filters

• Whitelisted URLs

• User rate-limiting

Broadcast

All broadcast channels are visible on the Amity Social Cloud Console.

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, and everyone else in the channel will be under read-only mode.

Since this is a one-way communication channel, tailored moderation tools are provided as well, for instance, users won't be able to flag message/user in the channel.

Typical use cases:

• Marketing & Advertising

• School / Government Announcements

Conversation

Conversation channels are NOT visible on the Amity Social Cloud Console.

The Conversation channel is our solution to 1-on-1 messaging. 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.

There are no moderation tools for Conversation channels, users will be able to converse freely with no oversight!

Typical use cases:

• Hospitality

• Financial Consultancy

• Customer Support

Since this is similar to 1-on-1 messaging, Conversation channels have some limitations. The following are not allowed:

• Join and leave channel

• Ban and unban channel members

• Add and remove channel members

Standard (Deprecated)

The Standard channel has all the base functionalities of the SDK and is visible to all users. It is replaced by Community channel and has the same behavior with the Community channel.

Private Channels (Deprecated)

The Private channel will only be visible to the users who are members of the channel. However the Admin panel will be able to see all Private channels. This is similar to a Live channel.

Channel types can be created through SDK i.e Community, Live and Conversation. Creation of Private and Standard type has been removed. Creation of Broadcast channel type is not supported through the SDK. But for query, getChannels: method supports all channel types including Broadcast, Private and Standard.