Group Business Overview
Group chat is a common multi-user communication method in instant messaging applications, typically involving two or more users. The group business supports a variety of features, including group member management, mute management, offline push notifications, and historical message roaming, making it suitable for interest groups, office groups, customer service communication, and more.
After creating an application in the Console, group business is supported by default and does not require additional activation. By default, RC does not maintain group member profiles (such as avatars, names, and member cards) but is responsible for delivering messages to all users in the group. For group management operations such as creating, disbanding, joining, and leaving groups, the App server must request RC's server API. The RC client SDK does not provide corresponding methods. If you wish to host group and group member profile information on RC, please activate user profile hosting.
There is no limit to the number of groups that can be created under each App Key. The maximum number of members in a single group is 3,000, and there is no limit to the number of groups a single user can join. To enable historical message roaming, you can activate the Cloud Storage for One-to-One and Group Messages service for the App Key on the Chat pricing plans page in the Console. This service is available for Chat Premium Plan or Chat Ultimate Plan. For specific features and pricing, please refer to the billing documentation.
Group Management Features
The table below lists the basic group management interfaces provided by the IM server for non-hosted groups.
When RC's user profile hosting service is not activated, group business logic, such as group owner, group administrator, group announcements, invitation to join, and group number search, must be implemented on the application side.
| Feature Category | Description | IM Server API |
|---|---|---|
| Create/Dismiss Group | Provide the creator's user ID, group ID, and group name to request group creation from the IM server. If the group is dismissed, the group member relationships will no longer exist. | Create Group, Dismiss Group |
| Join/Quit Group | After joining a group, users can view new messages generated after joining by default. After quitting the group, users will no longer receive new messages from the group. | Join Group, Quit Group |
| Update Group Information on IM Server | Update the group information used in the IM push service. | Refresh Group Information |
| Query Group Members | Query the user ID information of all members in a specified group. | Query Group Members |
| Query Groups Joined by User | Query all groups joined by a user based on the user ID, returning the group ID and group name. The IM service does not store group profile information. Group profiles and member information need to be maintained by the developer on the application server. If there are discrepancies in the user-group relationships maintained by the application server, this interface can be used to verify and correct them. | [Query Groups Joined by User] |
| Synchronize Groups Joined by User | Synchronize all groups currently joined by a specified user with the IM server to prevent inconsistencies between the user-group information in the application and the IM server. If there are existing group and member data on the App Server before integrating the IM service, this interface can be used to synchronize the existing user-group relationships with the IM server during the first connection. | [Synchronize Groups Joined by User] |
| Mute a User in Group | Mute one or more users in a specified group or all groups. Muted users can receive and view messages from other users in the group but cannot send messages through the client SDK. | [Mute a User] |
| Mute All in Group | Mute all members in a group. All members of the muted group cannot send messages. If certain users need to be allowed to speak, they can be added to the group mute allowlist. | [Mute All] |
| Group Mute Allowlist | After a group is globally muted, users in the mute allowlist can send group messages. | [Mute Exceptions] |
Group Chat Message Features
Group chat message features are similar to one-to-one chat, sharing some APIs and configurations.
Whether user hosting is activated does not affect group chat message features.
| Feature | Description | Client API | IM Server API |
|---|---|---|---|
| Send Message | Send regular messages and media messages, such as text, images, GIFs, etc. Supports adding @ information when sending messages. | Supported | Send Group Message |
| Send Group Targeted Message | Send regular messages and media messages to one or more specified members in the group. Other members will not receive the message. | Supported | Send Group Targeted Message |
| Receive Message | Listen and receive messages in real-time, or receive offline messages when the client is online. | Supported | Not provided |
| Group Message Read Receipt | After sending a group message, if you need to check the message's read status, you must first send a read receipt request and obtain the read data through the recipient's response. | Supported | Not provided |
| Offline Message | Supports offline message storage, with a configurable storage duration (1 to 7 days). By default, all group messages within the last 7 days are stored. The storage duration and the number of stored group messages can be adjusted. | Supported | Not provided |
| Offline Push Notification | When offline, if there are new messages in the group, push notifications are supported. | Supported | Not provided |
| Recall Message | After a message is successfully sent, it can be recalled. | Supported | Recall Message |
| Local Message Search | Messages are stored locally (on mobile devices). Supports searching local message content in specified conversations by keyword or user. | Supported | Not provided |
| Retrieve Historical Messages | Retrieve historical messages from the local database or remote server. Note that retrieving historical messages from the remote server requires activating the Cloud Storage for One-to-One and Group Messages service, with a default storage duration of 6 months. | Supported | Not provided |
| Retrieve Historical Message Logs | The IM server can save historical message records for all conversations within the APP. Historical message records are provided in log file format and are compressed. You can use the server API to retrieve or delete historical message logs for a specified App. | Not provided | Retrieve Historical Message Logs |
| Local Message Insertion | Insert messages into the local database. Locally inserted messages are not actually sent to the server or the other party. | Supported | Not provided |
| Delete Message | Supports deleting specified messages or all historical messages in a conversation from the local and server storage. | Supported | Message Deletion |
| One-to-One and Group Message Extension | Add status identifiers (extension data as key-value pairs) to original messages, providing interfaces for adding, deleting, and querying extension information. | Supported | One-to-One/Group Message Extension |
| Custom Message Type | If the built-in message types do not meet your needs, you can define custom message types. Supports custom regular message types and custom media message types. The server can directly send custom messages. Note that the message content structure must be consistent with the message type defined by the client. | Supported | Send Group Message |
By default, new members can only receive messages generated after joining the group. If you need to view historical messages before joining, please activate the following two services for the App Key (please distinguish between development and production environments):
Activate the Cloud Storage for One-to-One and Group Messages service on the Chat pricing plans page in the Console. After activating this service, you can use the message storage service provided by the IM service to achieve message history roaming. This service is available for Chat Premium Plan or Chat Ultimate Plan. For specific features and pricing, please refer to the billing documentation.
- Activate the New User Retrieves Historical Messages Before Joining Group service on the [Basic Features] page in the Console.
Group Chat Conversation Features
Group chat conversation features are similar to one-to-one chat, sharing some APIs and configurations.
Whether user hosting is activated does not affect group chat conversation features.
| Feature | Description | Client API | IM Server API |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retrieve Conversation | The SDK generates corresponding conversations in the local database based on sent and received messages. You can retrieve the conversation list generated by the SDK from the local database. | Supported | Not provided |
| Retrieve Unread Messages in Conversation | Retrieve unread messages from a specified conversation to meet the needs of jumping to the first unread message or displaying all unread @ messages in the App. | Supported | Not provided |
| Handle Unread Message Count in Conversation | Retrieve or clear the unread message count in a conversation, which can be used for UI display. | Supported | Not provided |
| Delete Conversation | Delete one or more conversations from the conversation list generated by the SDK. | Supported | Not provided |
| Conversation Draft | Save a draft to a specified conversation. | Supported | Not provided |
| Input Status | Set whether to receive reminders for new messages in a specified group chat conversation. By default, reminders are enabled for new messages. | Supported | Not provided |
| Manage Conversation Tags | Create and manage tag information data for marking and grouping conversations. Each user can create up to 20 tags. The tag information data created by App users will be synchronized with the IM server. | Supported | Not provided |
| Set and Use Conversation Tags | Use conversation tags to group conversations. | Supported | Not provided |
| Pin Conversation | Pin a specified conversation to the top of the conversation list. | Supported | Pin Conversation |
| Conversation Do Not Disturb | Control whether users can receive push notifications for offline messages when the client device is offline. Supports setting Do Not Disturb by conversation or by conversation type. | Supported | Do Not Disturb Feature Overview |
| Multi-End Synchronization of Conversation Do Not Disturb/Pin Status | The SDK provides a conversation status (pinned or Do Not Disturb) synchronization mechanism. By setting a conversation status synchronization listener, you can monitor changes in conversation status in real-time when they are modified on other ends. | Supported | Not provided |
| Multi-End Synchronization of Read Status | Actively synchronize the read status of conversations across multiple devices under the same user account. | Supported | Not provided |
Differences Between Groups and Chatrooms
The IM service provides both group and chatroom businesses. The main differences are as follows, allowing customers to choose based on their business scenarios:
| Feature | Group | Chatroom |
|---|---|---|
| Scenario | Similar to WeChat groups, messages are received whether online or offline | Only online users can receive messages, suitable for live streaming, communities, games, socializing, interest discussions, etc. |
| Offline Messages | Supports offline message storage, with a configurable storage duration (1 to 7 days), defaulting to 7 days. | No offline messages; only online users can receive chatroom messages |
| User Limit | Default maximum of 3,000 members per group | No limit on the number of chatroom members |
| Message Reminders | Offline status supports remote push (PUSH) notifications for new messages in the group | No messages are received after leaving the chatroom |
| Local Storage | Local database storage on mobile devices, providing local message search interfaces | Chatroom messages are deleted locally after exiting the chatroom; message search is not supported |
| Cloud Storage | Requires activation of Cloud Storage for One-to-One and Group Messages, providing 6 to 36 months of storage | Requires activation of Cloud Storage for Chatroom Messages, providing 2 to 36 months of storage |
| User Join Restrictions | A user can join multiple groups without restrictions | By default, a user can only join one chatroom. Joining multiple chatrooms can be activated in the Console |
| Message Retrieval Logic After Joining | By default, after joining a group, only messages generated after joining can be viewed. To view historical messages before joining, Cloud Storage for One-to-One and Group Messages must be activated, followed by the "View Historical Messages Before Joining" feature | After joining, the latest 50 messages in the chatroom can be retrieved. |
| Destruction/Disband Logic | Requires calling the disband group interface via AppServer. | Provides a destroy chatroom interface, which can be called via AppServer. Additionally, if no messages are generated in the chatroom for 1 hour, the chatroom will be automatically destroyed. |
| Message Reliability | 100% reliable, no message loss. | When message volume is high, messages exceeding the server-side consumption limit will be proactively discarded. You can modify the message discard policy through services like user whitelist, message whitelist, and custom message levels. Messages sent by users in the chatroom whitelist will not be discarded even during high traffic. For details about server-side consumption limits and modifying discard policies, refer to server documentation: Message Priority Service, Chatroom Whitelist Service. |
| API Interface Calls | SDK does not provide group management interfaces; group functionalities are provided via Server API. | Both SDK and Server API provide functional interfaces. Chatroom termination can only be performed through Server API. |
| Message Sending Frequency | Client-side: 5 messages/sec; Server API: 20 messages/sec | Client-side: 5 messages/sec; Server API: 100 messages/sec |