Get message history

Retrieve historical messages from the local database, the server, or both.

tip

Cloud message history is different from missed messages. The SDK automatically delivers missed messages (up to 7 days) when connecting — no API call needed.

Get messages with paginated query

Use NCMessagesQuery to retrieve paginated local message history. Create the query object via BaseChannel, then call loadNextPage to fetch each page.

Swift

swift

import NexconnChatSDK
// Build query parameters
let identifier = ChannelIdentifier(channelType: .direct, channelId: "targetUserId")
let params = MessagesQueryParams(channelIdentifier: identifier)
params.pageSize = 20
params.startTime = 0 // 0 = start from latest messages
params.isAscending = false // descending order (newest first)
// Create the query object
let query = BaseChannel.createMessagesQuery(params: params)
// Load the first page
query.loadNextPage { page, error in
    if let error {
        print("Failed: \(error.localizedDescription)")
        return
    }
    // page?.data: current page of messages, newest first
    // Call loadNextPage again to get the next older page
}

Objective-C

Objective C

// Build query parameters
NCChannelIdentifier *identifier =
    [[NCChannelIdentifier alloc] initWithChannelType:NCChannelTypeDirect
                                            channelId:@"targetUserId"];
NCMessagesQueryParams *params = [[NCMessagesQueryParams alloc] initWithChannelIdentifier:identifier];
params.pageSize = 20;
params.startTime = 0;       // 0 = start from latest messages
params.isAscending = NO;    // descending order (newest first)

// Create the query object
NCMessagesQuery *query = [NCBaseChannel createMessagesQueryWithParams:params];

// Load the first page
[query loadNextPageWithCompletion:^(NSArray<NCMessage *> *messages, NCError *error) {
    if (error) {
        NSLog(@"Failed: %@", error.localizedDescription);
        return;
    }
    // messages: current page of messages, newest first
    // Call loadNextPage again to get the next older page
}];

tip

Call loadNextPage repeatedly to paginate through history. The query object maintains the pagination anchor internally. When no more messages are available, loadNextPage returns an empty array.

NCMessagesQueryParams properties:

Property	Type	Default	Description
channelIdentifier	NCChannelIdentifier *	—	Channel identifier (required)
pageSize	NSInteger	20	Number of messages per page
startTime	int64_t	0	Pagination anchor timestamp in milliseconds. 0 starts from the latest messages.
isAscending	BOOL	NO	Sort order. NO for newest-first (descending), YES for oldest-first (ascending).

Get messages around a specific time

Retrieve messages before and after a given timestamp using getMessagesAroundTime on a channel instance:

Swift

swift

import NexconnChatSDK
guard let channel = DirectChannel(channelId: "targetUserId") else { return }
let params = GetMessagesAroundTimeParams(sentTime: timestamp)
params.beforeCount = 10
params.afterCount = 10
channel.getMessagesAroundTime(params: params) { messages, error in
    // messages: combined list of messages before and after the timestamp
}

Objective-C

Objective C

NCDirectChannel *channel = [[NCDirectChannel alloc] initWithChannelId:@"targetUserId"];

NCGetMessagesAroundTimeParams *params = [[NCGetMessagesAroundTimeParams alloc] initWithSentTime:timestamp];
params.beforeCount = 10;
params.afterCount = 10;

[channel getMessagesAroundTimeWithParams:params
                              completion:^(NSArray<NCMessage *> *messages, NCError *error) {
    // messages: combined list of messages before and after the timestamp
}];