Ban Or Kick Member From A Group

Learn how to kick, ban, and unban group members, fetch banned member lists, and receive real-time events using the CometChat React Native SDK.

AI Integration Quick Reference

Field	Value
Package	@cometchat/chat-sdk-react-native
Import	import { CometChat } from "@cometchat/chat-sdk-react-native";
Key Methods	addGroupListener(), banGroupMember(), kickGroupMember(), removeGroupListener(), unbanGroupMember()
Key Classes	Action, BannedMembersRequest, BannedMembersRequestBuilder, CometChatException, Group, GroupListener
Prerequisites	SDK initialized via CometChat.init() and a logged-in user via CometChat.login()
Primary output	Promise<boolean> — true on success; rejects with CometChatException
Constraints	Kick removes but allows rejoining; ban blocks rejoining until unbanGroupMember(). Banned members need BannedMembersRequest to enumerate, not GroupMembersRequest. Every add*Listener() needs a matching remove*Listener() with the same listener ID — unremoved listeners leak and fire after unmount.
Related	Add Members · Change Member Scope · Retrieve Group Members
Full reference	GroupMember · Group · CometChatException

// Kick a member
await CometChat.kickGroupMember("GUID", "UID");

// Ban a member
await CometChat.banGroupMember("GUID", "UID");

// Unban a member
await CometChat.unbanGroupMember("GUID", "UID");

// Fetch banned members
const request = new CometChat.BannedMembersRequestBuilder("GUID").setLimit(30).build();
const bannedMembers = await request.fetchNext();

Remove members from a group by kicking or banning them. Kicked users can rejoin; banned users cannot until they’re unbanned. Only admins and moderators can perform these actions.

​

Kick a Group Member

Admins or Moderators can remove a member using kickGroupMember(). The kicked user can rejoin the group later.

TypeScript

let GUID: string = "GUID";
let UID: string = "UID";

CometChat.kickGroupMember(GUID, UID).then(
  (response: boolean) => {
      console.log("Group member kicked successfully", response);
  }, (error: CometChat.CometChatException) => {
      console.log("Group member kicking failed with error", error);
  }
);

JavaScript

let GUID = "GUID";
let UID = "UID";

CometChat.kickGroupMember(GUID, UID).then(
  (response) => {
    console.log("Group member kicked successfully", response);
  }, (error) => {
    console.log("Group member kicking failed with error", error);
  }
);

The kickGroupMember() takes the following parameters:

Parameter	Description
UID	The UID of the user to be kicked.
GUID	The GUID of the group from which user is to be kicked

The kicked user will be no longer part of the group and can not perform any actions in the group, but the kicked user can rejoin the group.

On success, the method resolves with a boolean value (true) confirming the operation.

​

Ban a Group Member

Admins or Moderators can ban a member using banGroupMember(). Unlike kicked users, banned users cannot rejoin until unbanned.

TypeScript

let GUID: string = "GUID";
let UID: string = "UID";

CometChat.banGroupMember(GUID, UID).then(
  (response: boolean) => {
      console.log("Group member banned successfully", response);
  }, (error: CometChat.CometChatException) => {
      console.log("Group member banning failed with error", error);
  }
);

JavaScript

const GUID = "GUID";
const UID = "UID";

CometChat.banGroupMember(GUID, UID).then(
response => {
  console.log("Group member banned successfully", response);
}, error => {
  console.log("Group member banning failed with error", error);
}
);

The banGroupMember() method takes the following parameters:

Parameter	Description
UID	The UID of the user to be banned
GUID	The GUID of the group from which user is to be banned

The banned user will be no longer part of the group and can not perform any actions in the group. A banned user cannot rejoin the same group without being unbanned.

On success, the method resolves with a boolean value (true) confirming the operation.

​

Unban a Group Member

Admins or Moderators can unban a previously banned member using unbanGroupMember().

TypeScript

let GUID: string = "GUID";
let UID: string = "UID";

CometChat.unbanGroupMember(GUID, UID).then(
  (response: boolean) => {
      console.log("Group member unbanned successfully", response);
  }, (error: CometChat.CometChatException) => {
      console.log("Group member unbanning failed with error", error);
  }
);

JavaScript

const GUID = "GUID";
const UID = "UID";

CometChat.unbanGroupMember(GUID, UID).then(
response => {
  console.log("Group member unbanned successfully", response);
}, error => {
  console.log("Group member unbanning failed with error", error);
}
);

The unbanGroupMember() method takes the following parameters

Parameter	Description
UID	The UID of the user to be unbanned
GUID	The GUID of the group from which user is to be unbanned

Once unbanned, the user can rejoin the group.

On success, the method resolves with a boolean value (true) confirming the operation.

​

Get List of Banned Members for a Group

Use BannedMembersRequestBuilder to fetch banned members of a Group. The GUID must be specified in the constructor.

​

Set Limit

Sets the number of banned members to fetch per request.

TypeScript

let GUID: string = "GUID";
let limit: number = 30;
let bannedGroupMembersRequest: CometChat.BannedMembersRequest = new CometChat.BannedMembersRequestBuilder(GUID)
  .setLimit(limit)
  .build();

JavaScript

let GUID = "GUID";
let limit = 30;
let bannedGroupMembersRequest = new CometChat.BannedMembersRequestBuilder(GUID)
  																.setLimit(limit)
  																.build();

​

Set Search Keyword

Filters banned members by a search string.

With offline support on, this filter is answered by the server only; the cached page is empty.

TypeScript

let GUID: string = "GUID";
let limit: number = 30;
let searchKeyword: string = "super";
let bannedGroupMembersRequest: CometChat.BannedMembersRequest = new CometChat.BannedMembersRequestBuilder(GUID)
  .setLimit(limit)
  .setSearchKeyword(searchKeyword)
  .build();

JavaScript

let GUID = "GUID";
let limit = 30;
let searchKeyword = "super";
let bannedGroupMembersRequest = new CometChat.BannedMembersRequestBuilder(GUID)
  																.setLimit(limit)
  																.setSearchKeyword(searchKeyword)
  																.build();

​

Set Scopes

Filters banned members by one or more scopes (admin, moderator, participant).

TypeScript

let GUID: string = "GUID";
let limit: number = 30;
let scopes: Array<String> = ["admin", "moderator"];
let bannedGroupMembersRequest: CometChat.BannedMembersRequest = new CometChat.BannedMembersRequestBuilder(GUID)
  .setLimit(limit)
  .setScopes(scopes)
  .build();

JavaScript

let GUID = "GUID";
let limit = 30;
let scopes = ["admin", "moderator"];
let bannedGroupMembersRequest = new CometChat.BannedMembersRequestBuilder(GUID)
  .setLimit(limit)
  .setScopes(scopes)
  .build();

Once configured, call build() to create the request, then fetchNext() to retrieve banned members.

TypeScript

let GUID: string = "GUID";
let limit: number = 30;
let bannedGroupMembersRequest: CometChat.BannedMembersRequest = new CometChat.BannedMembersRequestBuilder(GUID)
  .setLimit(limit)
  .build();

bannedGroupMembersRequest.fetchNext().then(
  (bannedMembers: CometChat.GroupMember[]) => {
      console.log("Banned Group Member list fetched successfully:", bannedMembers);
  }, (error: CometChat.CometChatException) => {
      console.log("Banned Group Member list fetching failed with exception:", error);
  }
);

JavaScript

let GUID = "GUID";
let limit = 30;
let bannedGroupMembersRequest = new CometChat.BannedMembersRequestBuilder(GUID)
 .setLimit(limit)
 .build();

bannedGroupMembersRequest.fetchNext().then(
 (bannedMembers) => {
 console.log("Banned Group Member list fetched successfully:", bannedMembers);
 }, (error) => {
 console.log("Banned Group Member list fetching failed with exception:", error);
 }
);

The fetchNext() method returns an array of GroupMember objects representing the banned members of the group.

​

Offline Behaviour

With offline support enabled, passing a BannedGroupMemberFetchListener to BannedMembersRequest.fetchNext() calls onCachedBannedGroupMembers first with the pages the server last returned for this exact request, replayed from the device (empty when nothing was recorded). Then onServerBannedGroupMembers delivers the live page to reconcile by uid. Offline, the read ends with onError (FAILED_TO_FETCH) after the cached page, and the Promise rejects. A request that uses a server-only filter records nothing, so its cached page is always empty. See Show Cached Data.

Builder method	Offline
setLimit	Cached
setScopes	Cached
setSearchKeyword	Server only, cached page is empty

​

Real-Time Kick/Ban/Unban Events

Implement these GroupListener methods to receive real-time notifications:

Method	Triggered When
onGroupMemberKicked()	A member is kicked
onGroupMemberBanned()	A member is banned
onGroupMemberUnbanned()	A member is unbanned

TypeScript

let listenerID: string = "UNIQUE_LISTENER_ID";

CometChat.addGroupListener(
  listenerID,
  new CometChat.GroupListener({
      onGroupMemberKicked: (message: CometChat.Action, kickedUser: CometChat.User, kickedBy: CometChat.User, kickedFrom: CometChat.Group) => {
          console.log("User kicked", { message, kickedUser, kickedBy, kickedFrom });
      },
      onGroupMemberBanned: (message: CometChat.Action, bannedUser: CometChat.User, bannedBy: CometChat.User, bannedFrom: CometChat.Group) => {
          console.log("User banned", { message, bannedUser, bannedBy, bannedFrom });
      },
      onGroupMemberUnbanned: (message: CometChat.Action, unbannedUser: CometChat.User, unbannedBy: CometChat.User, unbannedFrom: CometChat.Group) => {
          console.log("User unbanned", { message, unbannedUser, unbannedBy, unbannedFrom });
      }
  })
);

JavaScript

let listenerID = "UNIQUE_LISTENER_ID";

CometChat.addGroupListener(
listenerID,
new CometChat.GroupListener({
  onGroupMemberKicked: (message, kickedUser, kickedBy, kickedFrom) => {
    console.log("User kicked", { message, kickedUser, kickedBy, kickedFrom });
  },
  onGroupMemberBanned: (message, bannedUser, bannedBy, bannedFrom) => {
    console.log("User banned", { message, bannedUser, bannedBy, bannedFrom });
  },
  onGroupMemberUnbanned: (message, unbannedUser, unbannedBy, unbannedFrom) => {
    console.log("User unbanned", {message, unbannedUser, unbannedBy, unbannedFrom});
  }
})
);

Always remove group listeners when they’re no longer needed (e.g., on component unmount or page navigation). Failing to remove listeners can cause memory leaks and duplicate event handling.

CometChat.removeGroupListener("UNIQUE_LISTENER_ID");

​

Missed Group Member Kicked/Banned Events

When fetching previous messages, kick/ban/unban actions appear as Action messages (a subclass of BaseMessage).

Kicked event:

Field	Value/Type	Description
action	"kicked"	The action type
actionBy	User	The user who kicked the member
actionOn	User	The member who was kicked
actionFor	Group	The group

Banned event:

Field	Value/Type	Description
action	"banned"	The action type
actionBy	User	The user who banned the member
actionOn	User	The member who was banned
actionFor	Group	The group

Unbanned event:

Field	Value/Type	Description
action	"unbanned"	The action type
actionBy	User	The user who unbanned the member
actionOn	User	The member who was unbanned
actionFor	Group	The group

---

​

Next Steps

Add Members

Add new members to a group

Change Member Scope

Promote or demote group members

Retrieve Group Members

Fetch the list of members in a group

Leave a Group

Allow members to leave a group