Copy link to clipboardAdd a Typing Indicator to your chat application 

Typing indicators signify when other users’ are typing a message. It is a useful feature that enables users to communicate efficiently. It sets user’s expectations that there will be a new interaction, such as a message or comment in a chat app.

Copy link to clipboardWhere can I use Typing Indicators?

• Direct 1-1 chat

• Group chat

• Large-scale chat rooms

• Commenting in a thread

Copy link to clipboardOther Possible Features?

You can incorporate more functionality within your Typing Indicator such as:

• Showing that multiple people are typing simultaneously

• Showing who is typing a message if there are more than 2 users connected

Copy link to clipboardBuilding your Typing Indicator

Ably has simple yet powerful APIs to help you to build Typing Indicators, that enhance live chat experiences.

Copy link to clipboardAbly Channels

Channel is the unit of distribution of messages. Channels can be used to segment the data. For example, different boards, different rooms in audience engagement tools etc. Users or their devices can subscribe to a specific or multiple channels.

• channels.get - to get an existing or create a new channel

• channels.presence - to get the presence object

Copy link to clipboardAbly Presence

Presence allows you to automatically track who is present in a channel. This feature can be used to update user information such as whether they are typing or not. This will publish the update information to other clients.

• presence.enter(data) - to add a user with a specific name

• presence.update - to update member data on a user which will publish a presence update

• presence.subscribe - to subscribe to updates on any member data on the channel

Copy link to clipboardGetting started: Typing Indicator checklist

You'll need to do the following to get started with adding a Typing Indicator to your chat application.

• Implement the UI for the Typing Indicator

• Create the logic to update the typing indicator status for each user

Copy link to clipboardWhat's next?

• Sign up for a free Ably account

• Download one of our SDKs

• Explore all other examples