Custom Providers

Use a custom provider to send CometChat SMS notifications through any gateway via webhook. Twilio is built-in; choose custom when you want another SMS service or your own bridge.

Prerequisites

1. Public https:// webhook that accepts POST JSON.
2. Return 200 OK within ~2 seconds (do heavy work async).
3. Secure the endpoint (recommended): Basic Auth or a verified signature. With Basic Auth, requests include:

Authorization: Basic <Base64-encoded-credentials>

Add credentials

1. Click on the ”+ Add Credentials” button.
2. Enable the provider.
3. Enter the publicly accessible webhook URL.
4. (Recommended) Enable Basic Authentication and set username/password.
5. Decide if you want to Trigger only if phone number is stored with CometChat (via Update Contact details API); when off, the webhook fires regardless.
6. Save the credentials.

How delivery works

The Custom provider is triggered once for an event in one-on-one conversation. In case of notifying users in a group, the custom provider is triggered once for each user present in that group.

One-on-one conversation

{
  "trigger": "sms-notification-payload-generated",
  "data": {
    "to": {
      "uid": "cometchat-uid-1",
      "phno": "[phone]", // Optional
      "name": "Andrew Joseph"
    },
    "messages": [
      {
        "sender": {
          "uid": "cometchat-uid-4",
          "avatar": "https://assets.cometchat.io/sampleapp/v2/users/cometchat-uid-4.webp",
          "name": "Susan Marie"
        },
        "message": "Are we meeting on this weekend?",
        "messageObject": {CometChat Message Object}, // Present if "Include message object" is enabled. The message object is present for new messages or in case a message was edited
      },
      {
        "sender": {
          "uid": "cometchat-uid-4",
          "avatar": "https://assets.cometchat.io/sampleapp/v2/users/cometchat-uid-4.webp",
          "name": "Susan Marie"
        },
        "message": "📷 Has shared an image",
        "messageObject": {CometChat Message Object}, // Present if "Include message object" is enabled. The message object is present for new messages or in case a message was edited
      }
    ],
    "senderDetails": {
      "uid": "cometchat-uid-4",
      "name": "Susan Marie",
      "avatar": "https://assets.cometchat.io/sampleapp/v2/users/cometchat-uid-4.webp"
    },
    "smsContent": "You've received new messages from Susan Marie! Read them at https://your-website.com/chat."
  },
  "appId": "app123",
  "region": "us/eu/in",
  "webhook": "custom"
}

Group conversation

{
  "trigger": "sms-notification-payload-generated",
  "data": {
    "to": {
      "uid": "cometchat-uid-1",
      "phno": "[phone]", // Optional
      "name": "Andrew Joseph"
    },
    "messages": [
      {
        "sender": {
          "uid": "cometchat-uid-5",
          "avatar": "https://assets.cometchat.io/sampleapp/v2/users/cometchat-uid-5.webp",
          "name": "John Paul"
        },
        "message": "Hello all! What's up?",
        "messageObject": {CometChat Message Object}, // Present if "Include message object" is enabled. The message object is present for new messages or in case a message was edited
      },
      {
        "sender": {
          "uid": "cometchat-uid-4",
          "avatar": "https://assets.cometchat.io/sampleapp/v2/users/cometchat-uid-4.webp",
          "name": "Susan Marie"
        },
        "message": "This is the place I was thinking about",
        "messageObject": {CometChat Message Object}, // Present if "Include message object" is enabled. The message object is present for new messages or in case a message was edited
      }
    ],
    "groupDetails": {
      "guid": "cometchat-guid-1",
      "name": "Hiking Group",
      "icon": "https://assets.cometchat.io/sampleapp/v2/groups/cometchat-guid-1.webp"
    },
    "smsContent": "You've received new messages in Hiking Group! Read them at https://your-website.com."
  },
  "appId": "app123",
  "region": "us/eu/in",
  "webhook": "custom"
}

Sample server-side code

const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3000;

app.use(express.json());

const basicAuth = (req, res, next) => {
  const authHeader = req.headers['authorization'];
  if (!authHeader || !authHeader.startsWith('Basic ')) {
    return res.status(401).json({ message: 'Unauthorized' });
  }
  next();
};

const triggerSMSNotification = async (to = {}, data = {}) => {
  let { name, uid, phno } = to;
  let { groupDetails, senderDetails, smsContent } = data;

  if (!uid) throw new Error('Missing data.to.uid');
  if (!smsContent) throw new Error('Missing data.smsContent');

  if (groupDetails) console.log('Received webhook for group SMS notification');
  if (senderDetails) console.log('Received webhook for one-on-one SMS notification');

  if (phno == null) {
    phno = await fetchPhoneNumberFor(uid);
  }

  if (!phno) throw new Error(`Phone number not available for uid=${uid}`);

  return await sendSMS(phno, smsContent);
};

app.post('/webhook', basicAuth, (req, res) => {
  const { trigger, data, appId, region, webhook } = req.body || {};
  const { to } = data || {};

  if (trigger !== 'sms-notification-payload-generated' || webhook !== 'custom') {
    return res.status(400).json({ message: 'Invalid trigger or webhook type' });
  }

  console.log('Received Webhook:', JSON.stringify(req.body, null, 2));

  triggerSMSNotification(to, data)
    .then((result) => {
      console.log('Successfully triggered SMS notification for', appId, to?.uid, result);
    })
    .catch((error) => {
      console.error('Something went wrong while triggering SMS notification for', appId, to?.uid, error.message);
    });

  res.status(200).json({ message: 'Webhook received successfully' });
});

app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`Server is running on port ${PORT}`);
});