Delete a Message

While deleting a message is straightforward, receiving events for deleted messages with CometChat has two parts:

1. Adding a listener to receive real-time message deletes when your app is running.
2. Calling a method to retrieve missed message deletes when your app was not running.

Delete a Message

In other words, as a sender, how do I delete a message?

In case you have to delete a message, you can use the deleteMessage() method. This method takes the message ID of the message to be deleted.

Delete Message

let messageId = "ID_OF_THE_MESSAGE_YOU_WANT_TO_DELETE";

CometChat.deleteMessage(messageId).then(
message => {
  console.log("Message deleted", message);
}, error => {
  console.log("Message delete failed with error:", error);
}
);

Typescript

let messageId: number = 1;

CometChat.deleteMessage(messageId).then(
  (message: CometChat.BaseMessage) => {
      console.log("Message deleted", message);
  }, (error: CometChat.CometChatException) => {
      console.log("Message delete failed with error:", error);
  }
);

Once the message is deleted, In the onSuccess() callback, you get an object of the BaseMessage class, with the deletedAt field set with the timestamp of the time the message was deleted. Also, the deletedBy field is set. These two fields can be used to identify if the message is deleted while iterating through a list of messages.

By default, CometChat allows certain roles to delete a message.

User Role	Conversation Type	Deletion Capabilities
Message Sender	One-on-One Conversation	Messages they have sent.
Message Sender	Group Conversation	Messages they have sent.
Group Admin	Group Conversation	All the messages in the group.
Group Moderator	Group Conversation	All the messages in the group.

Real-time Message Delete Events

In other words, as a recipient, how do I know when someone deletes a message when my app is running?

In order to receive real-time events for a message being deleted, you need to override the onMessageDeleted() method of the MessageListener class.

Message Listener

var listenerID = "UNIQUE_LISTENER_ID";

CometChat.addMessageListener(
listenerID,
new CometChat.MessageListener({
  onMessageDeleted: message => {
    console.log("Deleted Message", message);
  }
})
);

Typescript

let listenerID: string = "UNIQUE_LISTENER_ID";

CometChat.addMessageListener(
  listenerID,
  new CometChat.MessageListener({
      onMessageDeleted: (message: CometChat.BaseMessage) => {
          console.log("Deleted Message", message);
      }
  })
);

Missed Message Delete Events

In other words, as a recipient, how do I know if someone deleted a message when my app was not running?

When you retrieve the list of previous messages, for the messages that were deleted, the deletedAt and the deletedBy fields will be set. Also, for example, of the total number of messages for a conversation are 100, and the message with message ID 50 was deleted. Now the message with id 50 will have the deletedAt and the deletedBy fields set whenever it is pulled from the history. Also, the 101st message will be an Action message informing you that the message with id 50 has been deleted.

For the message deleted event, in the Action object received, the following fields can help you get the relevant information-

1. action - deleted
2. actionOn - Updated message object which was deleted.
3. actionBy - User object containing the details of the user who has deleted the message.
4. actionFor - User/group object having the details of the receiver to which the message was sent.

Important

In order to edit or delete a message you need to be either the sender of the message or the admin/moderator of the group in which the message was sent.