Support read receipts in your app built with XMTP

Use the read receipt content type to support read receipts in your app. A read receipt is a timestamp that indicates when a message was read. It is sent as a message and can be used to calculate the time since the last message was read.

info

This standards-track content type is in Alpha status as this implementation doesn't work efficiently with the current protocol architecture. This inefficiency will be addressed in a future protocol release.

Until then, if you must support read receipts, we recommend that you use this implementation and not build your own custom content type.

Open for feedback

You're welcome to provide feedback by commenting on the Proposal for read receipts content type XIP idea.

Provide an opt-out option

While this is a per-app decision, the best practice is to provide users with the option to opt out of sending read receipts. If a user opts out, when they read a message, a read receipt will not be sent to the sender of the message.

Configure the content type

JavaScript

npm i @xmtp/content-type-read-receipt

Import and register

import {
  ContentTypeReadReceipt,
  ReadReceiptCodec,
} from "@xmtp/content-type-read-receipt";
// Create the XMTP client
const xmtp = await Client.create(signer, { env: "dev" });
xmtp.registerCodec(new ReadReceiptCodec());

React

The React SDK supports all current standards-track content types, but only text messages are enabled out of the box. Adding support for other standards-track content types requires a bit of configuration.

import {
  XMTPProvider,
  readReceiptContentTypeConfig,
} from "@xmtp/react-sdk";

const contentTypeConfigs = [
  readReceiptContentTypeConfig,
  // other content type configs...
];

createRoot(document.getElementById("root") as HTMLElement).render(
  <StrictMode>
    <XMTPProvider contentTypeConfigs={contentTypeConfigs}>
      <App />
    </XMTPProvider>
  </StrictMode>,
);

Kotlin

import org.xmtp.android.library.Client
import org.xmtp.android.library.codecs.ReadReceiptCodec

Client.register(codec = ReadReceiptCodec())

Swift

 Client.register(codec: ReadReceiptCodec())

Dart

import 'package:xmtp/src/content/codec_registry.dart';
import 'package:xmtp/src/content/decoded.dart';
import 'package:xmtp/src/content/text_codec.dart';
import 'package:xmtp/src/content/ReadReceiptCodec.dart';

// Registering
var registry = CodecRegistry()..registerCodec(TextCodec());
var codec = ReadReceiptCodec();
codec.setRegistry(registry);

React Native

const client = await Client.create(signer, {
  env: "production",
  codecs: [new ReadReceiptCodec()],
});

Send a read receipt

JavaScript

The content of a read receipt message must be an empty object.

await conversation.messages.send({}, ContentTypeReadReceipt);

React

The content of a read receipt message must be an empty object.

import { useSendMessage } from "@xmtp/react-sdk";
import { ContentTypeReadReceipt } from "@xmtp/content-type-read-receipt";

const { sendMessage } = useSendMessage();

sendMessage(conversation, {}, ContentTypeReadReceipt);

Kotlin

import org.xmtp.android.library.Client
import org.xmtp.android.library.codecs.ReadReceipt
import org.xmtp.android.library.codecs.ContentTypeReadReceipt
import org.xmtp.android.library.messages.SendOptions

// Create a ReadReceipt instance
val readReceipt = ReadReceipt

// Send the read receipt
aliceConversation.send(
    content = readReceipt,
    options = SendOptions(contentType = ContentTypeReadReceipt),
)

Swift

let read = ReadReceipt(timestamp: "2019-09-26T07:58:30.996+0200")

try await conversation.send(
    content: read,
    options: .init(contentType: ContentTypeReadReceipt)
)

Dart

// Creating
var receipt = ReadReceipt();

conversation.send(
    content = receipt,
    options = SendOptions(contentType = ContentTypeReadReceipt),
)

React Native

await bobConversation.send({ readReceipt: {} });

Receive a read receipt

Here's how you can receive a read receipt:

JavaScript

if (message.contentType.sameAs(ContentTypeReadReceipt)) {
  // The message is a read receipt
  const timestamp = message.sent;
}

React

import { ContentTypeId } from "@xmtp/react-sdk";
import { ContentTypeReadReceipt } from "@xmtp/content-type-read-receipt";

const contentType = ContentTypeId.fromString(message.contentType);

if (ContentTypeReadReceipt.sameAs(contentType)) {
  // The message is a read receipt
  const timestamp = message.sentAt;
}

getReadReceipt

Use to retrieve the read receipt from a cached conversation. It takes a CachedConversation object as a parameter and returns the read receipt date, or undefined, if the conversation has no read receipt.

import { getReadReceipt } from "@xmtp/react-sdk";

const readReceiptDate = getReadReceipt(conversation);

hasReadReceipt

Use to check if a cached conversation has a read receipt. It takes a CachedConversation object as a parameter and returns true if the conversation has a read receipt and false if otherwise.

import { hasReadReceipt } from "@xmtp/react-sdk";

const hasReceipt = hasReadReceipt(conversation);

Kotlin

val message: DecodedMessage = conversation.messages().first()
if (message.encodedContent.type == ContentTypeReadReceipt) {
    // The message is a ReadReceipt
    val readReceipt: ReadReceipt? = message.content()
    if (readReceipt != null) {
      println("Message read at: ${readReceipt.timestamp}")
    }
}

Swift

let content: ReadReceipt = try message.content()
content.timestamp // "2019-09-26T07:58:30.996+0200"

Dart

var decodedContent = await registry.decode(encoded);
if (decodedContent.contentType == ContentTypeReadReceipt) {
  // The message is a readReceipt
}

React Native

if (message.contentTypeId === "xmtp.org/readReceipt:1.0") {
  return message.sent; //Date received
}

Display a read receipt

ReadReceipts have an undefined or nil fallback, indicating the message is not expected to be displayed. Refer to how handle unsupported content types section.

Notifications and read receipts

Read receipts have shouldPush set to false, which means that read receipts do not trigger push notifications as long as the notification server respects this flag.

Use a read receipt

Generally, a read receipt indicator should be displayed under the message it's associated with. The indicator can include a timestamp. Ultimately, how you choose to display a read receipt indicator is completely up to you.

The read receipt is provided as an empty message whose timestamp provides the data needed for the indicators. Be sure to filter out read receipt empty messages and not display them to users.

You can use a read receipt timestamp to calculate the time since the last message was read. While iterating through messages, you can be sure that the last message was read at the timestamp of the read receipt if the string of the timestamp is lower.