Group Chats

Group chats allow you to create conversations with three or more participants. They support display names, icons, and participant management. See the Chats API Reference for the full endpoint specification.

Note: Typing indicators, delivery receipts, and read receipts are not supported in group chats. These features only work in one-to-one conversations.

Creating a group chat

Create a group by sending a message to multiple recipients:

curl -X POST https://api.linqapp.com/api/partner/v3/chats \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LINQ_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "from": "+12223334444",
    "to": ["+15556667777", "+18889990000"],
    "message": {
      "parts": [
        { "type": "text", "value": "Welcome to the group!" }
      ]
    }
  }'

const chat = await client.chats.create({
  from: '+12223334444',
  to: ['+15556667777', '+18889990000'],
  message: {
    parts: [{ type: 'text', value: 'Welcome to the group!' }],
  },
});

chat = client.chats.create(
    from_="+12223334444",
    to=["+15556667777", "+18889990000"],
    message={
        "parts": [{"type": "text", "value": "Welcome to the group!"}]
    },
)

A few constraints on this request:

• The first outbound message must not contain links. link parts and text parts containing URLs are rejected on POST /v3/chats — send the initial message without links, then follow up with a link preview using the returned chat ID.
• A chat’s to array supports a maximum of 31 recipients. SMS/MMS group chats are additionally limited by carrier settings — most carriers cap group texts at around 20 participants, and some restrict this to as few as 10. Plan for the stricter of the two when delivery falls back to SMS/MMS.

Updating group details

Set a display name and icon for the group. Only available for group conversations:

curl -X PUT https://api.linqapp.com/api/partner/v3/chats/{chat_id} \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LINQ_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "display_name": "Project Team",
    "group_chat_icon": "https://cdn.example.com/team-icon.png"
  }'

await client.chats.update(chatId, {
  display_name: 'Project Team',
  group_chat_icon: 'https://cdn.example.com/team-icon.png',
});

client.chats.update(
    chat_id,
    display_name="Project Team",
    group_chat_icon="https://cdn.example.com/team-icon.png",
)

Note: group_chat_icon is a publicly accessible HTTPS URL to the icon image. Updating display names and icons only works for group chats (error code 1006 is returned for direct messages). See the Update Chat endpoint for the full request schema.

Managing participants

Note: Managing participants is currently supported for iMessage group chats only.

Adding a participant

Add a phone number or email to an existing group chat. See the Add Participant API reference.

Removing a participant

Remove a participant by handle. See the Remove Participant API reference.

Important: Groups must always have at least 3 members. You cannot remove a participant if it would drop below this minimum.

Leaving a group chat

Remove your own phone number from a group conversation. See the Leave Chat API reference.

Important: Groups must always have at least 3 members. You cannot leave a group if it would drop below this minimum.

Once you leave, you can no longer access the chat unless an active participant adds you back. Recreating a chat with the same set of participants will create a new, separate chat. A participant.removed webhook fires once the leave has been processed.

For the webhook events that fire on chat creation, group updates, and participant changes, see Webhook Events → Chat events.