

Enable Audio in your Application

In this guide we'll cover adding audio events to the Conversation we have created in the simple conversation with events guide. We'll deal with sending and receiving media events to and from the conversation.


This guide will introduce you to the following concepts:

  • Audio Stream - The stream that the SDK gives you in your browser to listen to audio and send audio
  • Audio Leg - A server side API term. Legs are a part of a conversation. When audio is enabled on a conversation, a leg is created
  • Media Event - a member:media event that fires on a Conversation when the media state changes for a member

Before you begin

1 - Update the JavaScript App

We will use the application we created for the third getting started guide. All the basic setup has been done in the previous guides and should be in place. We can now focus on updating the client-side application.

1.1 - Add audio UI

First, we'll add the UI for the user to enable and disable audio, as well as an <audio> element that we'll use to play the Audio stream from the conversation. Let's add the UI at the top of the messages area.

<section id="messages">
    <audio id="audio">
    <button id="enable">Enable Audio</button>
    <button id="disable">Disable Audio</button>

And add the buttons and <audio> element in the class constructor

constructor() {
... = document.getElementById('audio')
  this.enableButton = document.getElementById('enable')
  this.disableButton = document.getElementById('disable')

1.2 - Add enable audio handler

We'll then update the setupUserEvents method to trigger when the user clicks the Enable Audio button. The returns a promise with a stream object, which we'll use as the source for our <audio> element. We'll then add a listener on the <audio> element to start playing as soon as the metadata has been loaded.

setupUserEvents() {
  this.enableButton.addEventListener('click', () => {
      .then(stream => {
        // Older browsers may not have srcObject
        if ("srcObject" in {
 = stream;
        } else {
          // Avoid using this in new browsers, as it is going away.
 = window.URL.createObjectURL(stream);
        } = () => {


Note that enabling audio in a conversation establishes an audio leg for a member of the conversation. The audio is only streamed to other members of the conversation who have also enabled audio.

1.3 - Add disable audio handler

Next, we'll add the ability for a user to disable the audio stream as well. In order to do this, we'll update the setupUserEvents method to trigger when the user clicks the Disable Audio button.

setupUserEvents() {
  this.disableButton.addEventListener('click', () => {

1.4 - Add member:media listener

With these first parts we're sending member:media events into the conversation. Now we're going to register a listener for them as well that updates the messageFeed. In order to do that, we'll add a listener for member:media events at the end of the setupConversationEvents method

setupConversationEvents(conversation) {

  conversation.on("member:media", (member, event) => {
    console.log(`*** Member changed media state`, member, event)
    const text = `${} <b>${ ? 'enabled' : 'disabled'} audio in the conversation</b><br>`
    this.messageFeed.innerHTML = text + this.messageFeed.innerHTML


If we want the conversation history to be updated, we need to add a case for member:media in the showConversationHistory switch:

showConversationHistory(conversation) {
  switch (value.type) {
    case 'member:media':
      eventsHistory = `${conversation.members.get(value.from)} @ ${date}: <b>${ ? "enabled" : "disabled"} audio</b><br>` + eventsHistory

1.5 - Open the conversation in two browser windows

Now run index.html in two side-by-side browser windows, making sure to login with the user name jamie in one and with alice in the other. Enable audio on both and start talking. You'll also see events being logged in the browser console.

That's it! Your page should now look something like this.