Block Users

Block and unblock users, and retrieve blocked user lists using the CometChat React Native SDK.

Quick Reference - Block and unblock users:

// Block users
await CometChat.blockUsers(["UID1", "UID2"]);

// Unblock users
await CometChat.unblockUsers(["UID1", "UID2"]);

// Fetch blocked users
const request = new CometChat.BlockedUsersRequestBuilder().setLimit(30).build();
const blockedUsers = await request.fetchNext();

Available via: SDK | REST API

Block Users

In other words, as a logged-in user, how do I block a user from sending me messages?

You can block users using the blockUsers() method. Once any user is blocked, all the communication to and from the respective user will be completely blocked. You can block multiple users in a single operation. The blockUsers() method takes a Array as a parameter which holds the list of UID's to be blocked.

JavaScript

var usersList = ["UID1", "UID2", "UID3"];
CometChat.blockUsers(usersList).then(
list => {
  console.log("users list blocked", { list });
}, error => {
  console.log("Blocking user fails with error", error);
}
);

TypeScript

var usersList: String[] = ["UID1", "UID2", "UID3"];

CometChat.blockUsers(usersList).then(
  (list: Object) => {
      console.log("users list blocked", { list });
  }, (error: CometChat.CometChatException) => {
      console.log("Blocking user fails with error", error);
  }
);

Response

On Success — blockUsers() returns an object with each UID as key and result object as value:

Parameter	Type	Description	Sample Value
[UID]	object	Result object for each blocked UID	See below

Result Object (per UID):

Parameter	Type	Description	Sample Value
success	boolean	Whether the block operation succeeded	true
message	string	Descriptive message about the operation	"The user with UID cometchat-uid-7 has blocked user with UID cometchat-uid-2 successfully."

It returns a Array which contains UID's as the keys and “success” or “fail” as the value based on if the block operation for the UID was successful or not.

Unblock Users

In other words, as a logged-in user, how do I unblock a user I previously blocked?

You can unblock the already blocked users using the unblockUsers() method. You can unblock multiple users in a single operation. The unblockUsers() method takes a Array as a parameter which holds the list of UID's to be unblocked.

JavaScript

var usersList = ["UID1", "UID2", "UID3"];

CometChat.unblockUsers(usersList).then(
list => {
  console.log("users list unblocked", { list });
}, error => {
  console.log("unblocking user fails with error", error);
}
);

TypeScript

var usersList: String[] = ["UID1", "UID2", "UID3"];

CometChat.unblockUsers(usersList).then(
  (list: Object) => {
      console.log("users list blocked", { list });
  }, (error: CometChat.CometChatException) => {
      console.log("Blocking user fails with error", error);
  }
);   

Response

On Success — unblockUsers() returns an object with each UID as key and result object as value:

Parameter	Type	Description	Sample Value
[UID]	object	Result object for each unblocked UID	See below

Result Object (per UID):

Parameter	Type	Description	Sample Value
success	boolean	Whether the unblock operation succeeded	true
message	string	Descriptive message about the operation	"The user with UID cometchat-uid-7 has unblocked user with UID cometchat-uid-2 successfully."

It returns a Array which contains UID's as the keys and success or fail as the value based on if the unblock operation for the UID was successful or not.

Get List of Blocked Users

In other words, as a logged-in user, how do I get a list of all users I’ve blocked?

In order to fetch the list of blocked users, you can use the BlockedUsersRequest class. To use this class i.e to create an object of the BlockedUsersRequest class, you need to use the BlockedUsersRequestBuilder class. The BlockedUsersRequestBuilder class allows you to set the parameters based on which the blocked users are to be fetched.

The BlockedUsersRequestBuilder class allows you to set the below parameters:

Set Limit

This method sets the limit i.e. the number of blocked users that should be fetched in a single iteration.

JavaScript

let limit = 30;
let blockedUsersRequest = new BlockedUsersRequest.BlockedUsersRequestBuilder()
                  				.setLimit(limit)
                  				.build();

TypeScript

let limit: number = 30;
let blockedUsersRequest: CometChat.BlockedUsersRequest = new CometChat.BlockedUsersRequestBuilder()
  .setLimit(limit)
  .build();

Set Search Keyword

This method allows you to set the search string based on which the blocked users are to be fetched.

JavaScript

let limit = 30;
let searchKeyword = "super";
let blockedUsersRequest = new BlockedUsersRequest.BlockedUsersRequestBuilder()
                  				.setLimit(limit)
                  				.setSearchKeyword(searchKeyword)
                  				.build();

TypeScript

let limit: number = 30;
let searchKeyword: string = "super";
let blockedUsersRequest: CometChat.BlockedUsersRequest = new CometChat.BlockedUsersRequestBuilder()
  .setLimit(limit)
  .setSearchKeyword(searchKeyword)
  .build();

Response

On Success — fetchNext() with search filter returns an array of blocked User objects matching the search:

Parameter	Type	Description	Sample Value
uid	string	Unique identifier of the user	"cometchat-uid-2"
name	string	Display name of the user	"George Alan"
avatar	string	URL to user’s avatar image	"https://assets.cometchat.io/sampleapp/v2/users/cometchat-uid-2.webp"
status	string	User’s online status	"offline"
role	string	User’s role	"default"
lastActiveAt	number	Unix timestamp of last activity	1772104172
hasBlockedMe	boolean	Whether this user has blocked the current user	false
blockedByMe	boolean	Whether the current user has blocked this user	true
deactivatedAt	number	Timestamp when user was deactivated (0 if active)	0
blockedByMeAt	number	Timestamp when blocked by current user	1772173462
blockedAt	number	Timestamp of block action	1772173462
conversationId	string	Conversation ID between this user and logged-in user	"cometchat-uid-2_user_cometchat-uid-6"

Set Direction

• CometChat.BlockedUsersRequest.directions.BLOCKED_BY_ME - This will ensure that the list of blocked users only contains the users blocked by the logged in user.
• CometChat.BlockedUsersRequest.directions.HAS_BLOCKED_ME - This will ensure that the list of blocked users only contains the users that have blocked the logged in user.
• CometChat.BlockedUsersRequest.directions.BOTH - This will make sure the list of users includes both the above cases. This is the default value for the direction variable if it is not set.

JavaScript

let limit = 30;
let blockedUsersRequest = new BlockedUsersRequest.BlockedUsersRequestBuilder()
                  				.setLimit(limit)
                  				.setDirection(CometChat.BlockedUsersRequest.directions.BLOCKED_BY_ME)
                  				.build();

TypeScript

let limit: number = 30;
let blockedUsersRequest: CometChat.BlockedUsersRequest = new CometChat.BlockedUsersRequestBuilder()
  .setLimit(limit)
  .setDirection(CometChat.BlockedUsersRequest.directions.BLOCKED_BY_ME)
  .build();

Response (BLOCKED_BY_ME)

On Success — fetchNext() with BLOCKED_BY_ME direction returns users blocked by the logged-in user:

Parameter	Type	Description	Sample Value
uid	string	Unique identifier of the user	"cometchat-uid-2"
name	string	Display name of the user	"George Alan"
avatar	string	URL to user’s avatar image	"https://assets.cometchat.io/sampleapp/v2/users/cometchat-uid-2.webp"
status	string	User’s online status	"offline"
role	string	User’s role	"default"
lastActiveAt	number	Unix timestamp of last activity	1772104172
hasBlockedMe	boolean	Whether this user has blocked the current user	false
blockedByMe	boolean	Whether the current user has blocked this user	true
deactivatedAt	number	Timestamp when user was deactivated (0 if active)	0
blockedByMeAt	number	Timestamp when blocked by current user	1772173462
blockedAt	number	Timestamp of block action	1772173462
conversationId	string	Conversation ID between this user and logged-in user	"cometchat-uid-2_user_cometchat-uid-6"

Response (HAS_BLOCKED_ME)

On Success — fetchNext() with HAS_BLOCKED_ME direction returns users who have blocked the logged-in user. Returns an empty array if no users have blocked you.

Response (BOTH)

On Success — fetchNext() with BOTH direction returns all blocked users (both directions):

Parameter	Type	Description	Sample Value
uid	string	Unique identifier of the user	"cometchat-uid-2"
name	string	Display name of the user	"George Alan"
avatar	string	URL to user’s avatar image	"https://assets.cometchat.io/sampleapp/v2/users/cometchat-uid-2.webp"
status	string	User’s online status	"offline"
role	string	User’s role	"default"
lastActiveAt	number	Unix timestamp of last activity	1772104172
hasBlockedMe	boolean	Whether this user has blocked the current user	false
blockedByMe	boolean	Whether the current user has blocked this user	true
deactivatedAt	number	Timestamp when user was deactivated (0 if active)	0
blockedByMeAt	number	Timestamp when blocked by current user	1772173462
blockedAt	number	Timestamp of block action	1772173462
conversationId	string	Conversation ID between this user and logged-in user	"cometchat-uid-2_user_cometchat-uid-6"

Finally, once all the parameters are set to the builder class, you need to call the build() method to get the object of the BlockedUsersRequest class.

Once you have the object of the BlockedUsersRequest class, you need to call the fetchNext() method. Calling this method will return a list of User objects containing n number of blocked users where N is the limit set in the builder class.

JavaScript

var limit = 30;
var blockedUsersRequest = new CometChat.BlockedUsersRequestBuilder()
                  				.setLimit(limit)
                  				.build();
blockedUsersRequest.fetchNext().then(
userList => {
  console.log("Blocked user list received:", userList);
}, error => {
  console.log("Blocked user list fetching failed with error:", error);
}
);

TypeScript

let limit: number = 30;
let blockedUsersRequest: CometChat.BlockedUsersRequest = new CometChat.BlockedUsersRequestBuilder()
  .setLimit(limit)
  .build();

blockedUsersRequest.fetchNext().then(
  (userList: CometChat.User[]) => {
      console.log("Blocked user list received:", userList);
  }, (error: CometChat.CometChatException) => {
      console.log("Blocked user list fetching failed with error:", error);
  }
);     

Response

On Success — fetchNext() returns an array of blocked User objects:

Parameter	Type	Description	Sample Value
uid	string	Unique identifier of the user	"123456"
name	string	Display name of the user	"Farhan Ahmed"
avatar	string	URL to user’s avatar image	"https://st2.depositphotos.com/38197074/46684/v/450/depositphotos_466848082-stock-illustration-initial-letter-vector-logo.jpg"
status	string	User’s online status	"offline"
role	string	User’s role	"extrarole"
lastActiveAt	number	Unix timestamp of last activity	1768988601
hasBlockedMe	boolean	Whether this user has blocked the current user	false
blockedByMe	boolean	Whether the current user has blocked this user	true
deactivatedAt	number	Timestamp when user was deactivated (0 if active)	0
metadata	object	Custom metadata attached to the user	{"meta": "anyValue"}
blockedByMeAt	number	Timestamp when blocked by current user	1772164515
blockedAt	number	Timestamp of block action	1772164515
conversationId	string	Conversation ID between this user and logged-in user	"123456_user_cometchat-uid-7"

Best Practices

Use hideBlockedUsers when fetching user lists

When displaying user lists in your app, use hideBlockedUsers(true) in the UsersRequestBuilder to automatically exclude blocked users from the results.

Handle block/unblock results per UID

The blockUsers() and unblockUsers() methods return a map with each UID’s result (“success” or “fail”). Check individual results rather than assuming all operations succeeded.

Troubleshooting

Blocked user can still send messages

Blocking is enforced server-side. If a blocked user’s messages still appear, verify the block operation returned “success” for that UID. Also ensure you’re not using a cached conversation list — refresh after blocking.

fetchNext returns empty for blocked users list

Check the setDirection filter. If set to BLOCKED_BY_ME, only users you blocked are returned. If set to HAS_BLOCKED_ME, only users who blocked you are returned. Use BOTH to see all.

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Next Steps

Retrieve Users

Fetch user lists with filtering and pagination

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