MAY 2026

This month's update brings message and conversation search to the Components SDK, lets you subscribe to live emoji reactions and see who reacted to a message, and adds a couple of requested improvements to React Native. We've also renamed a few APIs for clarity and fixed a handful of bugs.

Added

Components SDKs

Version 0.1.9

• Added a new useReactions() hook which lets you lazy-load up to 10 users that first sent a specified emoji reaction on a given message. More on real-time message reactions.
• Added a special t-tooltip-text attribute which lets you display a tooltip on an element when hovered. Currently used for displaying who left a given emoji reaction.

Version 0.1.8

• Added support for message search and conversation search, which is available on the Growth plan and higher. This includes adding new GlobalSearchBox, GlobalSearchResultHeader, and GlobalSearchResultItem theme components.
• Added support for in-conversation message search, which is available on Growth plan and higher.
• Added the Highlightable system component to mark text which can be highlighted. These highlights can appear from other chat features such as in-conversation search.
• Added the SearchInput system component which is used to initiate a search.

JavaScript Data API (@talkjs/core)

Version 1.9.0

• Added ReactionsRef.subscribe, which subscribes to the list of users who added a specific reaction onto a message. Also added SingleReactionSnapshot, ReactionsSubscription, and ReactionsActiveState. More on real-time message reactions.
• Added ReactionRef.getFirstReactions, which is a simpler way to just fetch the first page of users who reacted with an emoji.

React Native

Version 0.17.0

• Added support for SendMessageEvent.override. This function allows you to modify the contents of the message or its metadata before the message is sent.
• Added smallIcon as a property to AndroidSettings. This allows you to change the small icon on Android notifications.

Changed

Components SDKs

Version 0.1.10

• Made changes to the CompactMessageContent, ConversationListItem, Message, and MessageField theme files. Compare theme versions 0.1.9 and 0.1.10.

Version 0.1.9

• Requires a @talkjs/core peer dependency version 1.9.0 or higher.
• Adjusted the reaction count to use tabular digits, meaning each digit takes up the same amount of space.
• Made changes to the Message and NoConversationSelected theme files. Compare theme versions 0.1.8 and 0.1.9.

Version 0.1.8

• Made the NoConversationsSelected theme component display ‘Select a conversation’ by default instead of displaying nothing.
• Made slight UI adjustments for error states that show up when a conversation can't be found or something else goes wrong.
• Changed various theme files. Compare theme versions 0.1.6 and 0.1.8 (theme versions 0.1.7 and 0.1.8 are identical).

JavaScript Data API (@talkjs/core)

Version 1.9.0

• Renamed multiple classes and methods for clarification. Old names remain available as aliases for backwards compatibility:

  • ReactionRef to ReactionsRef
  • MessageRef.reaction to MessageRef.reactions
  • ReactionSnapshot to ReactionsSummarySnapshot

Classic JavaScript SDK

Version 0.45.1

• Renamed hasUnreadMessages to isUnread in conversation predicates, to make it clearer that this includes conversations that are manually marked as unread. hasUnreadMessages will continue to be supported as an alias for back-compatibility.

REST API

• The unreadsOnly query parameter now simply sets isUnread: true in the filter rather than adding to the query, simplifying the query logic.

React Native 

Version 0.17.0

• Updated dependencies.

Fixed

Components SDKs

Version 0.1.10

• Fixed an issue where the send or voice recorder button would be visible despite the user having read-only access to a conversation.
• Fixed an issue where lists in ConversationListItem, ReplyBar and ReferencedMessage components didn't display properly on Safari.

  Version 0.1.9

• Fixed a bug that prevented the emoji picker from being dismissed by tapping outside of it on mobile devices.

  Version 0.1.8

• Fixed an issue where the waveform inside the AudioPlayer would cause a layout shift during the initial load.

JavaScript Data API (@talkjs/core)

Version 1.9.1

• Fixed a bug where it was assumed that all ‘participant edited’ events were about the current user. This meant if you did ConversationRef.subscribe and ConversationRef.subscribeParticipants at the same time, changes to any participant's access or notify triggered the conversation subscription to emit as if your access or notify had changed.

React Native (@talkjs/expo)

Version 0.17.1

• Fixed an issue with dynamically importing @react-native-firebase/messaging when using versions 23.8.0 and above.

Resources

New Expo example project

Get started integrating TalkJS into React Native apps with a new Expo example project.