- Product Updates
- Product Introduction
- Purchase Guide
- Trying the Demo
- Downloading SDK
- Getting Started
- Speed Integration (Including UI Library)
- General Integration (No UI Library)
- Best Practice
- Scene Practice
- Client API
- Server API
- Generating UserSig
- REST API
- RESTful API Overview
- RESTful API List
- Account Management
- One-to-One Messages
- Online States
- Profile Management
- Relationship Chain Management
- Group Management
- Obtaining All Groups in an App
- Creating a Group
- Obtaining Detailed Group Profiles
- Obtaining Group Member Profiles
- Modifying Basic Group Profiles
- Adding Group Members
- Deleting Group Members
- Modifying Group Member Profiles
- Disbanding Groups
- Obtaining the Groups a User Has Joined
- Querying the Identity of a User in a Group
- Muting and Unmuting Group Members
- Obtaining the List of Muted Group Members
- Sending Ordinary Messages in a Group
- Sending System Messages in a Group
- Recalling Group Messages
- Transferring a Group
- Importing Basic Group Profiles
- Importing Group Messages
- Importing Group Members
- Configuring Unread Message Counts
- Deleting Messages Sent by the Specified User
- Getting Historical Group Messages
- Obtaining the Number of Online Users in a Livestreaming Group
- Operations Management
- Global Mute Management
- Push Notifications (in Beta)
- Third-party Callback
- Third-Party Callback Overview
- Callback Command List
- Online State Callbacks
- Data relation chain related callback
- Single chat message related callback
- Group system related callback
- Invoke a Callback Before Creating a Group
- Invoke a Callback After Creating a Group
- Invoke a Callback Before Applying to Join a Group
- Invoke a Callback Before Adding a Member to a Group
- Invoke a Callback After Adding a Member to a Group
- Invoke a Callback After a Group Member Drops Out
- Invoke a Callback Before Delivering Group Messages
- Invoke a Callback After Delivering Group Messages
- Invoke a Callback When a Group is Full
- Invoke a Callback After Disbanding a Group
- Invoke a Callback After Modifying Group Profiles
- Callback two-way authentication configuration guide
- Console Guide
- Error Codes
- FAQs
- General Reference
- Product Updates
- Product Introduction
- Purchase Guide
- Trying the Demo
- Downloading SDK
- Getting Started
- Speed Integration (Including UI Library)
- General Integration (No UI Library)
- Best Practice
- Scene Practice
- Client API
- Server API
- Generating UserSig
- REST API
- RESTful API Overview
- RESTful API List
- Account Management
- One-to-One Messages
- Online States
- Profile Management
- Relationship Chain Management
- Group Management
- Obtaining All Groups in an App
- Creating a Group
- Obtaining Detailed Group Profiles
- Obtaining Group Member Profiles
- Modifying Basic Group Profiles
- Adding Group Members
- Deleting Group Members
- Modifying Group Member Profiles
- Disbanding Groups
- Obtaining the Groups a User Has Joined
- Querying the Identity of a User in a Group
- Muting and Unmuting Group Members
- Obtaining the List of Muted Group Members
- Sending Ordinary Messages in a Group
- Sending System Messages in a Group
- Recalling Group Messages
- Transferring a Group
- Importing Basic Group Profiles
- Importing Group Messages
- Importing Group Members
- Configuring Unread Message Counts
- Deleting Messages Sent by the Specified User
- Getting Historical Group Messages
- Obtaining the Number of Online Users in a Livestreaming Group
- Operations Management
- Global Mute Management
- Push Notifications (in Beta)
- Third-party Callback
- Third-Party Callback Overview
- Callback Command List
- Online State Callbacks
- Data relation chain related callback
- Single chat message related callback
- Group system related callback
- Invoke a Callback Before Creating a Group
- Invoke a Callback After Creating a Group
- Invoke a Callback Before Applying to Join a Group
- Invoke a Callback Before Adding a Member to a Group
- Invoke a Callback After Adding a Member to a Group
- Invoke a Callback After a Group Member Drops Out
- Invoke a Callback Before Delivering Group Messages
- Invoke a Callback After Delivering Group Messages
- Invoke a Callback When a Group is Full
- Invoke a Callback After Disbanding a Group
- Invoke a Callback After Modifying Group Profiles
- Callback two-way authentication configuration guide
- Console Guide
- Error Codes
- FAQs
- General Reference
IM SDK Concepts
Conversation: there are two types of conversations in the IM SDK. One is the C2C conversation, which is a one-to-one chat between users with messages read and sent within the conversation. The other is the group conversation, which is a group chat where all group members can receive messages.
Message: a message in the IM SDK is the information to be sent to the recipient. A message includes properties such as whether it was read by yourself, whether it was sent successfully, the sender’s account, and the message generation time. A message consists of several Elems, which can be text, images, emojis, and others. A message can contain multiple Elems.
Group ID: a group ID uniquely identifies a group. It is generated by the backend and returned when a group is created.
Introduction to IM SDK Objects
iOS IM SDK objects include the communication manager, conversation, message, and group management. The following table describes them in detail.
| Object | Description | Features |
|---|---|---|
| TIMManager | Manager | Responsible for basic IM SDK operations such as initialization, login, logout, and creating conversations |
| TIMConversation | Conversation | Responsible for conversation-related operations such as sending messages, obtaining cached conversation messages, and obtaining the unread count |
| TIMMessage | Message | Support various message types including text and image messages |
| TIMGroupManager | Group manager | Responsible for creating groups, adding and deleting members, and modifying group profiles |
| TIMFriendshipManager | Friend relationship chain manager | Responsible for adding and deleting friends and managing friend profiles |
Calling Sequence
The IM SDK calls APIs in the following sequence, and other methods will be called after login succeeds.
| Step | Function | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Initialization | TIMManager:initSdk | Configure SDK settings |
| Initialization | TIMManager:setUserConfig | Configure user settings |
| Login | TIMManager:login | Log users in |
| Receiving and sending messages | TIMManager:getConversation | Obtain conversations |
| Receiving and sending messages | TIMConversation:sendMessage | Send messages |
| Group management | TIMGroupManager | Manage groups |
| Relationship chain management | TIMFriendshipManager | Manage relationship chains |
| Logout | TIMManager:logout | Log users out (optional for users) |
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