Load previous messages

The load() method of a PreviousMessageListQuery instance returns a list of BaseMessage objects. Using this method, you can retrieve previous messages in a specific channel. If you want to include the replies of the target messages in the results, change the value of properties in the PreviousMessageListQuery instance.

For group channels, you can decide whether a user can see messages sent prior to the user joining the channel. To allow new users to view the message history of the group channels they joined, you can turn on Chat history by going to Settings > Chat > Channels > Group channels on Sendbird Dashboard. If this option is turned off, new users can't see messages sent prior to joining the group channel. The table below shows a list of parameters in PreviousMessageListQuery.

const params: PreviousMessageListQueryParams = {
    limit: LIMIT,
    reverse: REVERSE,
    messageTypeFilter: MESSAGE_TYPE_FILTER,
    replyType: REPLY_TYPE,
    includeThreadInfo: INCLUDE_THREAD_INFO,
    includeParentMessageInfo: INCLUDE_PARENT_MESSAGE_INFO,
};
const query: PreviousMessageListQuery = channel.createPreviousMessageListQuery(params);

const messages = await query.load();

The limit property indicates how many messages should be included in a returned list. A query instance itself does the pagination of a result set according to the value of the limit property and internally manages a token to retrieve the next page in the result set.

Each time the load() method is called, the instance retrieves a set number of messages in the next page and then updates the value of the token to complete the current call and prepare the next call.

If you create a new query instance and call the load() method, a set number of the most recently sent messages are retrieved because its token has nothing to do with the previously created instance. So we recommend that you create a single query instance and store it as a member variable for traversing through the entire message history.

Before calling the load() method again, you must receive a success callback from the server.

The following table shows all the supported parameters you can use as filters for PreviousMessageListQuery to search for messages you want to retrieve. You can use any parameters in a similar fashion with the sample code above.