Laravel Messaging Groups

Group conversations extension for phunky/laravel-messaging.

Groups have an owner, name, optional avatar, and a backing Conversation — so all core messaging features work out of the box.

Installation

composer require phunky/laravel-messaging-groups

Register the group model and extension in config/messaging.php (add to the existing models and extensions arrays — do not remove the core keys):

'models' => [
    // ... conversation, participant, message, event
    'group' => \Phunky\LaravelMessagingGroups\Group::class,
],

'extensions' => [
    // ... other MessagingExtension classes, if any
    \Phunky\LaravelMessagingGroups\GroupsExtension::class,
],

php artisan migrate

Usage

Resolve GroupService via the container (constructor injection, app(GroupService::class), etc.):

use Phunky\LaravelMessagingGroups\GroupService;

$groupService = app(GroupService::class);

Create a group

$group = $groupService->create(
    owner: $user,
    name: 'Project Alpha',
    avatar: 'avatars/project-alpha.png',    // optional
    meta: ['color' => '#4f46e5'],           // optional JSON meta on the group
);

The owner is added as the first participant automatically.

Manage participants

Only the group owner may invite, remove, or transferOwnership. invite is idempotent for existing participants.

$groupService->invite($group, $owner, $newMember);
$groupService->remove($group, $owner, $memberToRemove);
$groupService->transferOwnership($group, $owner, $newOwner);
$groupService->leave($group, $member);

The owner cannot remove themselves or leave until they transferOwnership to another participant.

Send and read messages

$message = $groupService->send($group, $sender, 'Hello everyone!');
$message = $groupService->send($group, $sender, 'With meta', meta: ['url' => 'https://example.com']);

$messages = $groupService->messages($group); // CursorPaginator or LengthAwarePaginator

Relationships

$group->conversation;
$group->owner;
$group->participants()->get();

Events

All group events extend Phunky\LaravelMessaging\Events\BroadcastableMessagingEvent and broadcast on the same private conversation channels as core messaging when config('messaging.broadcasting.enabled') is true. With Laravel Echo, listen using the broadcastAs() name with a leading dot (e.g. .listen('.messaging.group.created', …)).

Messages sent through the group still dispatch the core Phunky\LaravelMessaging\Events\MessageSending and Phunky\LaravelMessaging\Events\MessageSent events.

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Event;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Notification;
use Phunky\LaravelMessagingGroups\Events\GroupParticipantInvited;

Event::listen(GroupParticipantInvited::class, function (GroupParticipantInvited $event) {
    // Your User (or other messageable) must use Illuminate\Notifications\Notifiable for Notification::send.
    Notification::send($event->participant->messageable, new \App\Notifications\AddedToGroup($event->group));
});

Create App\Notifications\AddedToGroup (or swap in your own notification class).

License

MIT — see LICENSE.md.