Twilio REST API V2 - How to get unread message count for a user? - twilio

Question

I have found many links regarding unread message count but most of them are pointing at older release code.
From Current REST API v2, found this code.
.twilioClient
.chat
.services((process.env.TWILIO_CHAT_SERVICE_SID || config.TWILIO_CHAT_SERVICE_SID))
.users(req.params.userSID)
.userChannels
.list({}, (error, result) => {
for (var item in result) {
let count = item.unread_messages_count == null ? 0 : item.unread_messages_count;
totalUnreadMessages += count;
}
But the code shows unread_messages_count as null always and I searched about **consumption horizon ** from here.
https://www.twilio.com/docs/chat/consumption-horizon
But dont know how to set consumption horizon or someother thing to make this work through API.

Answer 1

Twilio developer evangelist here.
As the documentation says:
Note: Chat does not automatically set the Consumption Horizon. If you do not explicitly set this within your application, no Consumption Horizon will exist for a User within the Channel. Without a Consumption Horizon, your user's Consumption Horizon (read status) will not synchronize correctly across clients. If a user does not have a Consumption Horizon set on a channel, getting unconsumed messages will always return 0. If a member of a Channel has no consumption status, their last consumed index and timestamp will be null or 0 depending on the platform.
So, in order for there to be a consumption horizon, you need to set it via the SDK. In JavaScript, that looks a bit like:
activeChannel.updateLastConsumedMessageIndex(someMessageIndex)
.then(function () {
// consumption horizon updated
});
where activeChannel is a channel object that your user has joined and someMessageIndex is the index of the message that your user last read.
The consumption horizon for the channel must be set via the SDK for it to show in the REST API.