Voice message

Voice message is an alternate form of communication between users without sending a text or file message. By delivering voice messages, users can be more expressive with their tone and intentions. It also takes less time to record a voice message than type up a long message, which enhances efficiency for the sender. The receiver can also listen to the message at a convenient time while multi-tasking. The user can record and send a voice message in the input component of the group channel. Then, the message will appear in the message list component of the channel where the receiver can play the file.

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The voice message feature currently has the following limitations:

• Voice message is available for group channels and supergroup channels only.
• Users must record for at least one second and up to and including ten minutes.
• Users can't pause while recording a voice message.

To turn on the feature, refer to the code below:

SBUGlobals.voiceMessageConfig.isVoiceMessageEnabled = true

In order to use the voice message feature, client apps must acquire permission from users to use their microphone. Refer to the Media attachment permission page.

In order to send a voice message, users have to record a message first in the inputComponent of SBUGroupChannelViewController. By default, a voice message icon is visible on the right side of the input field. Once this icon is tapped, the voice recorder appears. Users can record a message by tapping the red record button. They can select the cancel button to go back to the message input field or they can tap the send button to send the voice message. To listen to the preview of the voice message before sending it, users can tap the play button.

Once the user's done recording, the voice message recorder deactivates the audio session configured by Sendbird UIKit and tries to reactivate the client app's audio session. See the guide on playing audio and video files on how to configure the audio session in UIKit.

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The voice message recorder is displayed through SBUVoiceMessageInputView. The voice message input view includes the record button, cancel button, and send button. You can also see the recording progress and view the play and pause buttons.

When recording a voice message, the message must be at least one second long and shorter than ten minutes. Once you tap the stop button, you can't restart to continue recording. You must either cancel the recording and record again or just send what you've recorded so far. If the message is less than one second before tapping the stop button, the message won't be saved and you'll see the message input component with the red record button again. Once you've successfully recorded a voice message, you can listen to it before sending it to others. Pausing the recorded voice message while listening to it is allowed.

The following table shows a customizable property of SBUVoiceMessageInputView to modify the UI of the voice message recorder view.

The following table shows customizable icons in the voice message recorder view.

You can receive voice messages in a group channel like any other messages sent between channel members. The voice message is shown in the inputComponent of SBUGroupChannelViewController and the listComponent of SBUMessageThreadModule. You can only listen to one voice message at a time in the channel. If you try to play another message while listening to a message, the message that was playing first will pause.

Once you're done listening to the voice message, the player deactivates the audio session configured by Sendbird UIKit and tries to reactivate the client app's audio session. For more information on how to configure and activate the audio session, see Apple's developer guide.

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Members of a group channel can view and play voice messages by tapping the play button. They can also pause the message while listening and play it as many times as they wish to. However, users can only listen to voice messages within the client app and they can't save them to their devices.

The voice message feature can be used with reactions and message threading. Users can react to a voice message with various emojis and reply to the message in a thread as shown below. Voice messages can be used starting in UIKit v3.4.0 and in lower versions of the client app that don't provide this feature, all voice messages in a channel will appear and be recognized as an audio message. While voice messages can be played directly in the group channel, audio messages need to be played on an external app.

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In a group channel view, the voice message is displayed using SBUVoiceContentView, which inherits the properties and methods of SBUBaseFileContentView. It takes the state property of SBUVoiceView to show the progress bar of the recording. Channel members can view voice messages through the SBUFileMessageCell class and through the SBUQuotedFileMessageView class if it's a thread reply.

The following table shows customizable properties of SBUVoiceContentView to modify the UI of the voice message in a group channel view.

The following table shows a customizable property of SBUStringSet that appears in a channel list view when the latest message sent to a channel is a voice message.

The following table shows customizable icons in the list component of a group channel view.