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Documentation Tutorials & Code Bots Applications

Public API

API Responses

How our API responses are structured

Hitting our REST API

Always include your token as a parameter when making requests.

Base Url: 

https://api.groupme.com/v3

Example posting JSON data: 

$ curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name": "Family"}' https://api.groupme.com/v3/groups?token=YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN

Example JSON response envelope ("response" key omitted in Responses for brevity): 

HTTP/1.1 201

{
  "response": {
      "id": "12345",
      "name": "Family"
      //...
    }
  }
}

Example JSON errors envelope: 

HTTP/1.1 400

{
  meta: {
    "code": 400,
    "errors": ["Name is required"]
  },
  response: null
}

Groups

Index

List the authenticated user's active groups.

The response is paginated, with a default of 10 groups per page.

Please consider using of omit=memberships parameter. Not including member lists might significantly improve user experience of your app for users who are participating in huge groups.

Request

GET /groups

Parameters

page
integer — Fetch a particular page of results. Defaults to 1.
per_page
integer — Define page size. Defaults to 10.
omit
string — Comma separated list of data to omit from output. Currently supported value is only "memberships". If used then response will contain empty (null) members field.

Responses

Status: 200 OK
[
  {
    "id": "1234567890",
    "name": "Family",
    "type": "private",
    "description": "Coolest Family Ever",
    "image_url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789",
    "creator_user_id": "1234567890",
    "created_at": 1302623328,
    "updated_at": 1302623328,
    "members": [
      {
        "user_id": "1234567890",
        "nickname": "Jane",
        "muted": false,
        "image_url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789"
      }
    ],
    "share_url": "https://groupme.com/join_group/1234567890/SHARE_TOKEN",
    "messages": {
      "count": 100,
      "last_message_id": "1234567890",
      "last_message_created_at": 1302623328,
      "preview": {
        "nickname": "Jane",
        "text": "Hello world",
        "image_url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789",
        "attachments": [
          {
            "type": "image",
            "url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789"
          },
          {
            "type": "image",
            "url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789"
          },
          {
            "type": "location",
            "lat": "40.738206",
            "lng": "-73.993285",
            "name": "GroupMe HQ"
          },
          {
            "type": "split",
            "token": "SPLIT_TOKEN"
          },
          {
            "type": "emoji",
            "placeholder": "☃",
            "charmap": [
              [
                1,
                42
              ],
              [
                2,
                34
              ]
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
]

Former

List they groups you have left but can rejoin.

Request

GET /groups/former

Responses

Status: 200 OK
[
  {
    "id": "1234567890",
    "name": "Family",
    "type": "private",
    "description": "Coolest Family Ever",
    "image_url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789",
    "creator_user_id": "1234567890",
    "created_at": 1302623328,
    "updated_at": 1302623328,
    "members": [
      {
        "user_id": "1234567890",
        "nickname": "Jane",
        "muted": false,
        "image_url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789"
      }
    ],
    "share_url": "https://groupme.com/join_group/1234567890/SHARE_TOKEN",
    "messages": {
      "count": 100,
      "last_message_id": "1234567890",
      "last_message_created_at": 1302623328,
      "preview": {
        "nickname": "Jane",
        "text": "Hello world",
        "image_url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789",
        "attachments": [
          {
            "type": "image",
            "url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789"
          },
          {
            "type": "image",
            "url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789"
          },
          {
            "type": "location",
            "lat": "40.738206",
            "lng": "-73.993285",
            "name": "GroupMe HQ"
          },
          {
            "type": "split",
            "token": "SPLIT_TOKEN"
          },
          {
            "type": "emoji",
            "placeholder": "☃",
            "charmap": [
              [
                1,
                42
              ],
              [
                2,
                34
              ]
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
]

Show

Load a specific group.

Request

GET /groups/:id

Parameters

id required
string

Responses

Status: 200 OK
{
  "id": "1234567890",
  "name": "Family",
  "type": "private",
  "description": "Coolest Family Ever",
  "image_url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789",
  "creator_user_id": "1234567890",
  "created_at": 1302623328,
  "updated_at": 1302623328,
  "members": [
    {
      "user_id": "1234567890",
      "nickname": "Jane",
      "muted": false,
      "image_url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789"
    }
  ],
  "share_url": "https://groupme.com/join_group/1234567890/SHARE_TOKEN",
  "messages": {
    "count": 100,
    "last_message_id": "1234567890",
    "last_message_created_at": 1302623328,
    "preview": {
      "nickname": "Jane",
      "text": "Hello world",
      "image_url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789",
      "attachments": [
        {
          "type": "image",
          "url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789"
        },
        {
          "type": "image",
          "url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789"
        },
        {
          "type": "location",
          "lat": "40.738206",
          "lng": "-73.993285",
          "name": "GroupMe HQ"
        },
        {
          "type": "split",
          "token": "SPLIT_TOKEN"
        },
        {
          "type": "emoji",
          "placeholder": "☃",
          "charmap": [
            [
              1,
              42
            ],
            [
              2,
              34
            ]
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Members

Results

Get the membership results from an add call.

Successfully created memberships will be returned, including any GUIDs that were sent up in the add request. If GUIDs were absent, they are filled in automatically. Failed memberships and invites are omitted.

Keep in mind that results are temporary -- they will only be available for 1 hour after the add request.

Request

GET /groups/:group_id/members/results/:results_id

Parameters

results_id required
string — This is the guid that's returned from an add request.

Responses

Status: 200 OK
{
  "members": [
    {
      "id": "1000",
      "user_id": "10000",
      "nickname": "John",
      "muted": false,
      "image_url": "https://i.groupme.com/AVATAR",
      "autokicked": false,
      "app_installed": true,
      "guid": "GUID-1"
    },
    {
      "id": "2000",
      "user_id": "20000",
      "nickname": "Anne",
      "muted": false,
      "image_url": "https://i.groupme.com/AVATAR",
      "autokicked": false,
      "app_installed": true,
      "guid": "GUID-2"
    }
  ]
}
Status: 503 Service Unavailable
Results aren't ready. Try again in a little bit.
Status: 404 Not Found
Results are no longer available. Don't try again.

Remove

Remove a member (or yourself) from a group.

Note: The creator of the group cannot be removed or exit.

Request

POST /groups/:group_id/members/:membership_id/remove

Parameters

membership_id required
string — Please note that this isn't the same as the user ID. In the members key in the group JSON, this is the id value, not the user_id.

Responses

Status: 200 OK

Update

Update your nickname in a group. The nickname must be between 1 and 50 characters.

Request

POST /groups/:group_id/memberships/update
{
  "membership": {
    "nickname": "NEW NICKNAME"
  }
}

Responses

Status: 200 OK
{
  "id": "MEMBERSHIP ID",
  "user_id": "USER ID",
  "nickname": "NEW NICKNAME",
  "muted": false,
  "image_url": "AVATAR URL",
  "autokicked": false,
  "app_installed": true
}

Messages

Index

Retrieve messages for a group.

By default, messages are returned in groups of 20, ordered by created_at descending. This can be raised or lowered by passing a limit parameter, up to a maximum of 100 messages.

Messages can be scanned by providing a message ID as either the before_id, since_id, or after_id parameter. If before_id is provided, then messages immediately preceding the given message will be returned, in descending order. This can be used to continually page back through a group's messages.

The after_id parameter will return messages that immediately follow a given message, this time in ascending order (which makes it easy to pick off the last result for continued pagination).

Finally, the since_id parameter also returns messages created after the given message, but it retrieves the most recent messages. For example, if more than twenty messages are created after the since_id message, using this parameter will omit the messages that immediately follow the given message. This is a bit counterintuitive, so take care.

If no messages are found (e.g. when filtering with before_id) we return code 304.

Note that for historical reasons, likes are returned as an array of user ids in the favorited_by key.

Request

GET /groups/:group_id/messages

Parameters

before_id
string — Returns messages created before the given message ID
since_id
string — Returns most recent messages created after the given message ID
after_id
string — Returns messages created immediately after the given message ID
limit
integer — Number of messages returned. Default is 20. Max is 100.

Responses

Status: 200 OK
{
  "count": 123,
  "messages": [
    {
      "id": "1234567890",
      "source_guid": "GUID",
      "created_at": 1302623328,
      "user_id": "1234567890",
      "group_id": "1234567890",
      "name": "John",
      "avatar_url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789",
      "text": "Hello world ☃☃",
      "system": true,
      "favorited_by": [
        "101",
        "66",
        "1234567890"
      ],
      "attachments": [
        {
          "type": "image",
          "url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789"
        },
        {
          "type": "image",
          "url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789"
        },
        {
          "type": "location",
          "lat": "40.738206",
          "lng": "-73.993285",
          "name": "GroupMe HQ"
        },
        {
          "type": "split",
          "token": "SPLIT_TOKEN"
        },
        {
          "type": "emoji",
          "placeholder": "☃",
          "charmap": [
            [
              1,
              42
            ],
            [
              2,
              34
            ]
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Create

Send a message to a group

If you want to attach an image, you must first process it through our image service.

Attachments of type emoji rely on data from emoji PowerUps.

Clients use a placeholder character in the message text and specify a replacement charmap to substitute emoji characters

The character map is an array of arrays containing rune data ([[{pack_id,offset}],...]).

The placeholder should be a high-point/invisible UTF-8 character.

Request

POST /groups/:group_id/messages
{
  "message": {
    "source_guid": "GUID",
    "text": "Hello world ☃☃",
    "attachments": [
      {
        "type": "image",
        "url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789"
      },
      {
        "type": "image",
        "url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789"
      },
      {
        "type": "location",
        "lat": "40.738206",
        "lng": "-73.993285",
        "name": "GroupMe HQ"
      },
      {
        "type": "split",
        "token": "SPLIT_TOKEN"
      },
      {
        "type": "emoji",
        "placeholder": "☃",
        "charmap": [
          [
            1,
            42
          ],
          [
            2,
            34
          ]
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Parameters

source_guid required
string — Client-side IDs for messages. This can be used by clients to set their own identifiers on messages, but the server also scans these for de-duplication. That is, if two messages are sent with the same source_guid within one minute of each other, the second message will fail with a 409 Conflict response. So it's important to set this to a unique value for each message.
text required
string — This can be omitted if at least one attachment is present. The maximum length is 1,000 characters.
attachments
array — A polymorphic list of attachments (locations, images, etc). You may have You may have more than one of any type of attachment, provided clients can display it.
  • object
    • type (string) — “image” required
    • url (string) required — Must be an image service (i.groupme.com) URL
  • object
    • type (string) — “location” required
    • name (string) required
    • lat (string) required
    • lng (string) required
  • object
    • type (string) — “split” required
    • token (string) required
  • object
    • type (string) — “emoji” required
    • placeholder (string) — “☃” required
    • charmap (array) — “[{pack_id},{offset}]” required

Responses

Status: 201 Created
{
  "message": {
    "id": "1234567890",
    "source_guid": "GUID",
    "created_at": 1302623328,
    "user_id": "1234567890",
    "group_id": "1234567890",
    "name": "John",
    "avatar_url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789",
    "text": "Hello world ☃☃",
    "system": true,
    "favorited_by": [
      "101",
      "66",
      "1234567890"
    ],
    "attachments": [
      {
        "type": "image",
        "url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789"
      },
      {
        "type": "image",
        "url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789"
      },
      {
        "type": "location",
        "lat": "40.738206",
        "lng": "-73.993285",
        "name": "GroupMe HQ"
      },
      {
        "type": "split",
        "token": "SPLIT_TOKEN"
      },
      {
        "type": "emoji",
        "placeholder": "☃",
        "charmap": [
          [
            1,
            42
          ],
          [
            2,
            34
          ]
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Chats

Index

Returns a paginated list of direct message chats, or conversations, sorted by updated_at descending.

Request

GET /chats

Parameters

page
integer — Page number
per_page
integer — Number of chats per page

Responses

Status: 200 OK
[
  {
    "created_at": 1352299338,
    "updated_at": 1352299338,
    "last_message": {
      "attachments": [

      ],
      "avatar_url": "https://i.groupme.com/200x200.jpeg.abcdef",
      "conversation_id": "12345+67890",
      "created_at": 1352299338,
      "favorited_by": [

      ],
      "id": "1234567890",
      "name": "John Doe",
      "recipient_id": "67890",
      "sender_id": "12345",
      "sender_type": "user",
      "source_guid": "GUID",
      "text": "Hello world",
      "user_id": "12345"
    },
    "messages_count": 10,
    "other_user": {
      "avatar_url": "https://i.groupme.com/200x200.jpeg.abcdef",
      "id": 12345,
      "name": "John Doe"
    }
  }
]

Likes

Create

Like a message.

Request

POST /messages/:conversation_id/:message_id/like

Responses

Status: 200 OK

Destroy

Unlike a message.

Request

POST /messages/:conversation_id/:message_id/unlike

Responses

Status: 200 OK

Bots

Create

Create a bot. See our Bots Tutorial for a full walkthrough.

Request

POST /bots

Parameters

bot[name] required
string
bot[group_id] required
string
bot[avatar_url]
string
bot[callback_url]
string
bot[dm_notification]
boolean
bot[active] required
boolean

Responses

Status: 201 Created
{
  "bot_id": "1234567890",
  "group_id": "1234567890",
  "name": "hal9000",
  "avatar_url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789",
  "callback_url": "https://example.com/bots/callback",
  "dm_notification": false,
  "active": true
}

Post a Message

Post a message from a bot

Request

POST /bots/post

Parameters

bot_id required
string
text required
string
picture_url
string — Image must be processed through image service.

Responses

Status: 201 Created

Index

List bots that you have created

Request

GET /bots

Responses

Status: 200 OK
[
  {
    "bot_id": "1234567890",
    "group_id": "1234567890",
    "name": "hal9000",
    "avatar_url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789",
    "callback_url": "https://example.com/bots/callback",
    "dm_notification": false,
    "active": true
  }
]

Destroy

Remove a bot that you have created

Request

POST /bots/destroy

Parameters

bot_id required

Responses

Status: 200 OK

Users

Me

Get details about the authenticated user

Request

GET /users/me

Responses

Status: 200 OK
{
  "id": "1234567890",
  "phone_number": "+1 2123001234",
  "image_url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789",
  "name": "Ronald Swanson",
  "created_at": 1302623328,
  "updated_at": 1302623328,
  "email": "me@example.com",
  "sms": false
}

Update

Update attributes about your own account

Request

POST /users/update
{
  "avatar_url": "https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GAeMYT8SZoI/TtBTK209xMI/AAAAAAAAWts/5nmvpmmvoWo/s1600/TopGun_059Pyxurz.jpg",
  "name": "Tom Skerritt",
  "email": "viper@topgun.usaf.mil",
  "zip_code": "92145"
}

Parameters

avatar_url
string — URL to valid JPG/PNG/GIF image. URL will be converted into an image service link (https://i.groupme.com/....)
name
string — Name must be of the form FirstName LastName
email
string — Email address. Must be in name@domain.com form.
zip_code
string — Zip code.

Responses

Status: 200 OK
{
  "id": "1234567890",
  "phone_number": "+1 2123001234",
  "image_url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789",
  "name": "Ronald Swanson",
  "created_at": 1302623328,
  "updated_at": 1302623328,
  "email": "me@example.com",
  "sms": false
}

Blocks

Index

A list of contacts you have blocked. These people cannot DM you.

Request

GET /blocks?user=<your user id>

Responses

Status: 200 OK
{
  "blocks": [
    {
      "user_id": "1234567890",
      "blocked_user_id": "1234567890",
      "created_at": 1302623328
    }
  ]
}

Block Between

Asks if a block exists between you and another user id

Request

GET /blocks/between?user=<you>&otherUser=<other user>

Responses

Status: 200 OK
{
  "between": true
}

Create Block

Creates a block between you and the contact

Request

POST /blocks?user=<you>&otherUser=<other user>

Parameters

user required
string — your user id.
otherUser required
string — user id of person you want to block.

Responses

Status: 201 Created
{
  "block": {
    "user_id": "1234567890",
    "blocked_user_id": "1234567890",
    "created_at": 1302623328
  }
}

Unblock

Removes block between you and other user

Request

DELETE /blocks?user=<you>&otherUser=<other user>

Responses

Status: 200 OK

Unblock

Removes block between you and other user

Request

POST /blocks/delete?user=<you>&otherUser=<other user>

Responses

Status: 200 OK
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