Create a new chat
Create a new chat with specified participants and send an initial message. The initial message is required when creating a chat.
Message Effects
You can add iMessage effects to make your messages more expressive. Effects are optional and can be either screen effects (full-screen animations) or bubble effects (message bubble animations).
Screen Effects: confetti, fireworks, lasers, sparkles, celebration,
hearts, love, balloons, happy_birthday, echo, spotlight
Bubble Effects: slam, loud, gentle, invisible
Only one effect type can be applied per message.
Inline Text Decorations (iMessage only)
Use the text_decorations array on a text part to apply styling and animations to character ranges.
Each decoration specifies a range: [start, end) and exactly one of style or animation.
Styles: bold, italic, strikethrough, underline
Animations: big, small, shake, nod, explode, ripple, bloom, jitter
{
"type": "text",
"value": "Hello world",
"text_decorations": [
{ "range": [0, 5], "style": "bold" },
{ "range": [6, 11], "animation": "shake" }
]
}
Note: Style ranges (bold, italic, etc.) may overlap, but animation ranges must not overlap with other animations or styles. Text decorations only render for iMessage recipients. For SMS/RCS, text decorations are not applied.
First-Message Link Restriction
To protect sender deliverability, the first outbound message of a new chat cannot be a link.
The request is rejected with 400 (error code 1005) when:
- The message contains a
linkpart (explicit rich-preview link), or - Any
textpart contains a URL.
This rule applies only to POST /v3/chats. Follow-up messages on an existing chat
(POST /v3/chats/{chatId}/messages) are not subject to this restriction.
Reusing an Existing Chat
Chats are keyed on the from line plus the exact set of to handles. Repeating this
request with the same from and to returns the existing chat and sends the message
into it instead of starting a second conversation.
A group chat that has a display_name is excluded from that matching. To run several
parallel groups over the same participants, name each one with PUT /v3/chats/{chatId}
before creating the next: the following POST /v3/chats with the same to then returns a
new, separate chat_id. Two other cases also produce a new chat instead of reusing one —
the participant set changed (a participant was added or removed), or the from line left
the group.
Whenever the response is a new chat, the first-message rules above apply to that request:
no link in the first message, and no reply_to or message effect. To send into a chat you
already know, use POST /v3/chats/{chatId}/messages with its chat_id.
Create a new chat
curl https://api.linqapp.com/api/partner/v3/chats \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $LINQ_API_V3_API_KEY" \
-d '{
"from": "+12052535597",
"message": {
"parts": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "Hello! How can I help you today?"
}
]
},
"to": [
"+12052532136"
]
}'{
"chat": {
"id": "94c6bf33-31d9-40e3-a0e9-f94250ecedb9",
"display_name": "+14155551234, +14155559876",
"handles": [
{
"id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440010",
"handle": "+14155551234",
"joined_at": "2025-05-21T15:30:00.000Z",
"service": "iMessage",
"is_me": true,
"left_at": "2019-12-27T18:11:19.117Z",
"status": "active"
},
{
"id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440011",
"handle": "+14155559876",
"joined_at": "2025-05-21T15:30:00.000Z",
"service": "iMessage",
"is_me": false,
"left_at": "2019-12-27T18:11:19.117Z",
"status": "active"
}
],
"health_status": {
"doc_url": "https://docs.linqapp.com/guides/chats/chat-health#at-risk",
"status": "AT_RISK",
"updated_at": "2026-05-01T18:28:25Z"
},
"is_group": false,
"message": {
"id": "69a37c7d-af4f-4b5e-af42-e28e98ce873a",
"created_at": "2025-10-23T13:07:55.019-05:00",
"delivery_status": "pending",
"is_read": false,
"parts": [
{
"reactions": [
{
"handle": {
"id": "69a37c7d-af4f-4b5e-af42-e28e98ce873a",
"handle": "+15551234567",
"joined_at": "2025-05-21T15:30:00.000-05:00",
"service": "iMessage",
"is_me": false,
"left_at": "2019-12-27T18:11:19.117Z",
"status": "active"
},
"is_me": false,
"type": "love",
"custom_emoji": null,
"sticker": {
"file_name": "sticker.png",
"height": 420,
"mime_type": "image/png",
"url": "https://cdn.linqapp.com/attachments/a1b2c3d4/sticker.png?signature=...",
"width": 420
}
}
],
"type": "text",
"value": "Hello!",
"text_decorations": [
{
"range": [
0,
5
],
"animation": "shake",
"style": "bold"
}
]
}
],
"sent_at": null,
"delivered_at": null,
"effect": {
"name": "confetti",
"type": "screen"
},
"from_handle": {
"id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
"handle": "+15551234567",
"joined_at": "2025-05-21T15:30:00.000-05:00",
"service": "iMessage",
"is_me": false,
"left_at": "2019-12-27T18:11:19.117Z",
"status": "active"
},
"preferred_service": "iMessage",
"reply_to": {
"message_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
"part_index": 0
},
"service": "iMessage"
},
"service": "iMessage"
}
}{
"error": {
"status": 400,
"code": 1002,
"message": "Phone number must be in E.164 format",
"doc_url": "https://docs.linqapp.com/error/codes/1xxx/1002/"
},
"success": false
}{
"error": {
"status": 401,
"code": 2004,
"message": "Unauthorized - missing or invalid authentication token",
"doc_url": "https://docs.linqapp.com/error/codes/2xxx/2004/"
},
"success": false
}{
"error": {
"status": 500,
"code": 3006,
"message": "Internal server error",
"doc_url": "https://docs.linqapp.com/error/codes/3xxx/3006/"
},
"success": false
}Returns Examples
{
"chat": {
"id": "94c6bf33-31d9-40e3-a0e9-f94250ecedb9",
"display_name": "+14155551234, +14155559876",
"handles": [
{
"id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440010",
"handle": "+14155551234",
"joined_at": "2025-05-21T15:30:00.000Z",
"service": "iMessage",
"is_me": true,
"left_at": "2019-12-27T18:11:19.117Z",
"status": "active"
},
{
"id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440011",
"handle": "+14155559876",
"joined_at": "2025-05-21T15:30:00.000Z",
"service": "iMessage",
"is_me": false,
"left_at": "2019-12-27T18:11:19.117Z",
"status": "active"
}
],
"health_status": {
"doc_url": "https://docs.linqapp.com/guides/chats/chat-health#at-risk",
"status": "AT_RISK",
"updated_at": "2026-05-01T18:28:25Z"
},
"is_group": false,
"message": {
"id": "69a37c7d-af4f-4b5e-af42-e28e98ce873a",
"created_at": "2025-10-23T13:07:55.019-05:00",
"delivery_status": "pending",
"is_read": false,
"parts": [
{
"reactions": [
{
"handle": {
"id": "69a37c7d-af4f-4b5e-af42-e28e98ce873a",
"handle": "+15551234567",
"joined_at": "2025-05-21T15:30:00.000-05:00",
"service": "iMessage",
"is_me": false,
"left_at": "2019-12-27T18:11:19.117Z",
"status": "active"
},
"is_me": false,
"type": "love",
"custom_emoji": null,
"sticker": {
"file_name": "sticker.png",
"height": 420,
"mime_type": "image/png",
"url": "https://cdn.linqapp.com/attachments/a1b2c3d4/sticker.png?signature=...",
"width": 420
}
}
],
"type": "text",
"value": "Hello!",
"text_decorations": [
{
"range": [
0,
5
],
"animation": "shake",
"style": "bold"
}
]
}
],
"sent_at": null,
"delivered_at": null,
"effect": {
"name": "confetti",
"type": "screen"
},
"from_handle": {
"id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
"handle": "+15551234567",
"joined_at": "2025-05-21T15:30:00.000-05:00",
"service": "iMessage",
"is_me": false,
"left_at": "2019-12-27T18:11:19.117Z",
"status": "active"
},
"preferred_service": "iMessage",
"reply_to": {
"message_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
"part_index": 0
},
"service": "iMessage"
},
"service": "iMessage"
}
}{
"error": {
"status": 400,
"code": 1002,
"message": "Phone number must be in E.164 format",
"doc_url": "https://docs.linqapp.com/error/codes/1xxx/1002/"
},
"success": false
}{
"error": {
"status": 401,
"code": 2004,
"message": "Unauthorized - missing or invalid authentication token",
"doc_url": "https://docs.linqapp.com/error/codes/2xxx/2004/"
},
"success": false
}{
"error": {
"status": 500,
"code": 3006,
"message": "Internal server error",
"doc_url": "https://docs.linqapp.com/error/codes/3xxx/3006/"
},
"success": false
}