***

id: 7fdd9d52-585a-49ab-8fea-ebfd430646bb
title: ChatMessage
keywords: 'SignalWire, Realtime SDK, Node.js, chat message, message object'
slug: /node/reference/chat/chat-message
sidebar-title: ChatMessage
description: >-
ChatMessage object representing a message in a chat channel. Access message
ID, content, member info, channel, and timestamp properties.
max-toc-depth: 3
----------------

[chatmember]: /docs/server-sdk/v4/node/reference/chat/chat-member

Represents a message in a chat.

## **Properties**

<ParamField path="id" type="string" required>
  The id of this message.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="channel" type="string" required>
  The channel in which the message was sent.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="content" type="any" required>
  The content of this message. This can be any JSON-serializable object or value.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="publishedAt" type="Date" required>
  The date and time at which this message was published.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="member" type="ChatMember" required>
  The member which sent this message. See [`ChatMember`][chatmember].
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="meta" type="any">
  Any metadata associated to this message.
</ParamField>

## **Example**

Listening for messages and accessing `ChatMessage` properties:

```js
import { SignalWire } from "@signalwire/realtime-api";

const client = await SignalWire({ project: "your-project-id", token: "your-api-token" });

await client.chat.listen({
  channels: ["my-channel"],
  onMessageReceived: (message) => {
    console.log("Message ID:", message.id);
    console.log("Channel:", message.channel);
    console.log("Content:", message.content);
    console.log("Published at:", message.publishedAt);
    console.log("From member:", message.member.id);
    console.log("Metadata:", message.meta);
  }
});
```