User Presence

User Presence helps us understand if a user is available to chat or not.

Real-time Presence

In other words, as a logged-in user, how do I know if a user is online or offline?

Based on the settings provided in the AppSettings class while initializing CometChat using the init() method, the logged-in user will receive the presence for the other users in the app.

In the AppSettings class, you can set the type of presence you wish to receive.

For presence subscription, the AppSettingsBuilder provides 3 methods :

• subscribePresenceForAllUsers() - This will inform the logged-in user when any user in the app comes online or goes offline.
• subscribePresenceForRoles(List<String> roles) - This will inform the logged-in user, only when the users with the specified roles come online or go offline.
• subscribePresenceForFriends() - This will inform the logged-in user when any of their friends come online or go offline.

If none of the above methods are set, no presence will be sent to the logged-in user.

For every activity or fragment you wish to receive user events in, you need to register the UserListener using the addUserListener() method.

We suggest adding the listener in the onResume() method of the activity or the fragment where you wish to receive these events in.

Java

private String listenerID = "UNIQUE_LISTENER_ID";

CometChat.addUserListener(listenerID, new CometChat.UserListener() {
  @Override public void onUserOnline(User user) {
    Log.d(TAG, user.getName() + "is online.");
  }
  @Override public void onUserOffline(User user) {
    Log.d(TAG, user.getName() + "is offline.");
  }
});   

Kotlin

val listenerID:String = "UNIQUE_LISTENER_ID"

CometChat.addUserListener(listenerID,object :CometChat.UserListener(){
  override fun onUserOffline(user: User?) {
    Log.d(TAG, user?.name + "is offline.")
  }
  override fun onUserOnline(user: User?) {
    Log.d(TAG, user?.name + "is online.")
  }
})

Parameter	Description
listenerID	An ID that uniquely identifies that listener. We recommend using the activity or fragment name.

You will receive an object of the User class in the listener methods.

We recommend you remove the listener once the activity or fragment is not in use. We suggest adding this method in the onPause() method of the activity or the fragment where you wish to receive these events in.

Java

private String listenerID = "UNIQUE_LISTENER_ID";

CometChat.removeUserListener(listenerID);     

Kotlin

val listenerID:String = "UNIQUE_LISTENER_ID"

CometChat.removeUserListener(listenerID)   

User List Presence

In other words, as a logged-in user, when I retrieve the user list, how do I know if a user is online/offline?

When you retrieve the list of users, in the User object, you will receive 2 keys:

1. status - This will hold either of the two values :

• online - This indicates that the user is currently online and available to chat.
• offline - This indicates that the user is currently offline and is not available to chat.

2. lastActiveAt - In case the user is offline, this field holds the timestamp of the time when the user was last online. This can be used to display a Last seen for that user.