Manage group permissions

Robust group chat permissions are key to providing users with a friendly and safe group chat experience.

Understand the group permissions system

Member statuses

Member statuses are the roles that can be assigned to each participant (inbox ID) in a group chat. These are the available member statuses:

• Member
  • Everyone in a group chat is a member. A member can be granted admin or super admin status. If a member's admin or super admin status is removed, they are still a member of the group.
• Admin
• Super admin

Options

Use options to assign a role to a permission. These are the available options:

• All members
• Admin only
  • Includes super admins
• Super admin only

Permissions

Permissions are the actions a group chat participant can be allowed to take. These are the available permissions:

• Grant admin status to a member
• Remove admin status from a member
• Add a member to the group
• Remove a member from the group
• Update group metadata, such as group name, description, and image
• Update group permissions on an item-by-item basis, such as calling updateNamePermission or updateAddMemberPermission . To learn more, see Group.kt in the xmtp-android SDK repo.

The following permissions can be assigned by super admins only. This helps ensure that a “regular” admin cannot remove the super admin or otherwise destroy a group.

• Grant super admin status to a member
• Remove super admin status from a member
• Update group permissions

How the group permissions system works

When a group is created, all groups have the same initial member "roles" set:

• There is one super admin, and it is the group creator
• There are no admins
• Each user added to the group starts out as a member

The super admin has all of the available permissions and can use them to adjust the group’s permissions and options.

As the app developer, you can provide a UI that enables group participants to make further adjustments. For example, you can give the super admin the following permission options for group members when creating the group:

• Add members
• Update group metadata

You can use member statuses, options, and permissions to create a custom policy set. The following table represents the valid policy options for each of the permissions:

If you aren’t opinionated and don’t set any permissions and options, groups will default to using the delivered All_Members policy set, which applies the following permissions and options:

• Add member - All members
• Remove member - Admin only
• Add admin - Super admin only
• Remove admin - Super admin only
• Update group permissions - Super admin only
• Update group metadata - All members

To learn more about the All_Members and Admin_Only policy sets, see group_permissions.rs in the LibXMTP repo.

Manage group chat admins

Check if inbox ID is an admin

const isAdmin = group.isAdmin(inboxId);

Check if inbox ID is a super admin

const isSuperAdmin = group.isSuperAdmin(inboxId);

List admins

const admins = group.admins;

List super admins

const superAdmins = group.superAdmins;

Add admin status to inbox ID

await group.addAdmin(inboxId);

Add super admin status to inbox ID

await group.addSuperAdmin(inboxId);

Remove admin status from inbox ID

await group.removeAdmin(inboxId);

Remove super admin status from inbox ID

await group.removeSuperAdmin(inboxId);

Manage group chat membership

Add members by inbox ID

await group.addMembers([inboxId]);

Remove member by inbox ID

await group.removeMembers([inboxId]);

Get inbox IDs for members

const inboxId = await client.findInboxIdByIdentities([bo.identity, caro.identity]);

Get identities for members

// sync group first
await group.sync();
 
// get group members
const members = await group.members();
 
// map inbox ID to account identity
const inboxIdIdentityMap = new Map(
  members.map((member) => [member.inboxId, member.accountIdentity])
);

Get the inbox ID that added the current member

const addedByInboxId = group.addedByInboxId;