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Send Presence Update

Let contacts know whether you’re online, offline, typing, recording audio, or viewing their status.

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Basic Usage

await sock.sendPresenceUpdate('available', jid)

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WAPresence Types

The presence parameter can be one of the following WAPresence values:
  • 'unavailable' - Offline/not available
  • 'available' - Online/available
  • 'composing' - Typing a message
  • 'recording' - Recording audio message
  • 'paused' - Stopped typing (treated as available)
The presence expires after about 10 seconds. You need to send periodic updates to maintain an active presence state.

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Update Your Global Presence

To update your overall online/offline status: 
// Go online
await sock.sendPresenceUpdate('available')

// Go offline  
await sock.sendPresenceUpdate('unavailable')

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Send Typing Indicator

Let the other person know you’re typing in their chat: 
// Start typing
await sock.sendPresenceUpdate('composing', jid)

// Stop typing (go back to available)
await sock.sendPresenceUpdate('paused', jid)

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Send Recording Indicator

Show that you’re recording an audio message: 
await sock.sendPresenceUpdate('recording', jid)
When using ‘composing’ or ‘recording’, always provide the jid parameter to specify which chat you’re active in.

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Subscribe to Presence Updates

To receive presence updates from a contact or group: 
// Request updates for a chat
await sock.presenceSubscribe(jid)

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Listen for Presence Updates

Receive notifications when contacts change their presence: 
// The presence update is fetched and called here
sock.ev.on('presence.update', (update) => {
    console.log(update)
    // {
    //   id: '[email protected]',
    //   presences: {
    //     '[email protected]': {
    //       lastKnownPresence: 'available' | 'unavailable' | 'composing' | 'recording',
    //       lastSeen?: number // Unix timestamp
    //     }
    //   }
    // }
})

// Request updates for a chat
await sock.presenceSubscribe(jid)

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Push Notifications

If a desktop client is active, WA doesn’t send push notifications to the device. If you would like to receive said notifications — mark your Baileys client offline using sock.sendPresenceUpdate('unavailable')

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Implementation Details

The sendPresenceUpdate function is implemented in src/Socket/chats.ts:684-724:
  • For available/unavailable: Sends a global presence update
  • For composing/recording/paused: Sends a chatstate update to specific JID
  • Automatically handles LID (Lightweight Identity) for supported users
  • Recording presence is sent as composing with media type ‘audio’
The function automatically replaces ’@’ symbols in your display name when sending presence updates.

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