Typing Indicators

Show the bot is composing a reply, or react to user typing.

Overview

Typing activities are ephemeral presence signals that indicate the bot or user is composing. They are useful for:

Showing typing indicators when the bot processes a long-running operation (improves perceived responsiveness)
Reacting to user typing (analytics, state management, or acknowledgments)

Typing activities differ from message activities in that they carry no text or persistent content — they are transient UI feedback.

For the full specification, see specs/activity-schema.md — typing examples.

Sending Typing Indicators

Use sendTyping() / SendTypingAsync() / send_typing() on TurnContext to show a typing indicator. This is useful when processing takes a few seconds — it signals to the user that the bot is working.

.NETNode.jsPython

csharp

app.On("message", async (ctx, ct) =>
{
    // Show typing indicator
    await ctx.SendTypingAsync(ct);
    
    // Simulate long-running work (e.g. database lookup, LLM inference)
    await Task.Delay(3000, ct);
    
    // Send the reply
    await ctx.SendAsync("Processing complete!", ct);
});

typescript

app.on('message', async (ctx) => {
  // Show typing indicator
  await ctx.sendTyping()
  
  // Simulate long-running work
  await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 3000))
  
  // Send the reply
  await ctx.send('Processing complete!')
})

python

@app.on("message")
async def on_message(ctx):
    # Show typing indicator
    await ctx.send_typing()
    
    # Simulate long-running work
    await asyncio.sleep(3)
    
    # Send the reply
    await ctx.send("Processing complete!")

Note: .NET SendTypingAsync() returns Task<string> (the activity ID), but most bots ignore this value.

Receiving Typing Activities

Register a handler to process incoming typing activities using the standard on() pattern. This is less common (most bots ignore inbound typing), but useful for analytics or state tracking.

.NETNode.jsPython

csharp

app.On("typing", async (ctx, ct) =>
{
    Console.WriteLine($"{ctx.Activity.From?.Name} is typing...");
});

typescript

app.on('typing', async (ctx) => {
  console.log(`${ctx.activity.from?.name} is typing...`)
})

python

@app.on("typing")
async def on_typing(ctx):
    print(f"{ctx.activity.from_account.name} is typing...")

Unregistered Typing Activities

If no handler is registered for typing activities, they are silently ignored — the bot continues normally. You do not need to register a typing handler unless your bot needs to react to user typing.

Tips

Don't overuse typing. Sending a typing indicator every 500 milliseconds is noisy. Reserve it for operations that genuinely take 1–3+ seconds.
Combine with proactive delays. If a message reply is delayed, send a typing indicator first to keep the user engaged.
Multiple sends are OK. You can send typing multiple times in a single turn if the operation has distinct phases.

Typing Indicators ​

Overview ​

Sending Typing Indicators ​

Receiving Typing Activities ​

Unregistered Typing Activities ​

Tips ​