Create a channel

Two basic types of channels you can create with Sendbird Chat SDK are open channels and group channels.

An open channel is ideal for use cases such as short-lived live events and news-feed style messaging to a massive audience that doesn't require a permanent membership in the channel. A group channel is suitable for closer interactions among a limited number of users. To learn more about the different use cases and characteristics of open and group channels, see the page on channel types.

When creating a channel, you can append additional information like cover image, description, and URL by passing several arguments to the corresponding parameters. The channel URL can only contain numbers, letters, underscores, or hyphens, and the URL's length must be between 4 and 100 characters. If you don't specify the channelUrl property, a URL is automatically generated.

If you want to create a group channel for a 1-to-1 chat, you should make sure that you set the isDistinct property of the channel to true. Otherwise, if the isDistinct property is set to false, multiple 1-to-1 channels, each with their own chat history and data, may be created for the same two users even if a channel already exists between them.

You can create an open channel by passing a configured OpenChannelCreateParams object as an argument to the parameter in the createChannel() method like the following.

const params = {
        name: NAME,
        channelUrl: UNIQUE_CHANNEL_URL,
        coverUrlOrImage: FILE | COVER_URL,
        operatorUserIds: ['Hoon', 'Doo'],
        data: DATA,
        customType: CUSTOM_TYPE,
        // ...
};
const channel = await sb.openChannel.createChannel(params);

You can create a group channel by passing a configured GroupChannelCreateParams object as an argument to the parameter in the createChannel() method like the following.

const params = {
        invitedUserIds: ['John', 'Harry'],
        name: NAME,
        channelUrl: UNIQUE_CHANNEL_URL,
        coverUrl: COVER_URL, // Or .coverImage to upload a cover image file
        operatorUserIds: ['Hoon', 'Doo'],
        data: DATA,
        customType: CUSTOM_TYPE,
        isDistinct: IS_DISTINCT,
        // ...
};
const channel = await sb.groupChannel.createChannel(params);

Using the getCoverUrl() and updateChannel() methods, you can get and update the cover image URL of a channel.

Note: You can also use the Chat API to create open channels and group channels. For group channels, using the Chat API helps you control channel member invitations on your server side.

Creating a Supergroup channel follows the same process as creating a group channel with one exception of the isSuper property. The GroupChannelCreateParams object includes the isSuper property, which determines whether a newly created channel is a Supergroup channel or a regular group channel. Setting isSuper to true creates a new Supergroup channel.

Because the distinct option isn't available for Supergroup channels, the isDistinct property is set to false by default when creating a Supergroup channel.

const params = {
        isSuper: true,
};
const channel = await sb.groupChannel.createChannel(params);