Presence

The Presence struct provides methods for managing your online/offline status and subscribing to contact presence updates.

Access

Access presence operations through the client:

let presence = client.presence();

Methods

set

Set your presence status (online or offline).

pub async fn set(&self, status: PresenceStatus) -> Result<(), PresenceError>

Parameters:

status: PresenceStatus - Either Available (online) or Unavailable (offline)

Requirements:

Push name must be set before sending presence
Returns error if push name is empty

Example:

use whatsapp_rust::features::presence::PresenceStatus;

// Set status to online
client.presence().set(PresenceStatus::Available).await?;

// Set status to offline
client.presence().set(PresenceStatus::Unavailable).await?;

set_available

Convenience method to set status to available (online).

pub async fn set_available(&self) -> Result<(), PresenceError>

Example:

client.presence().set_available().await?;
println!("Now online");

set_unavailable

Convenience method to set status to unavailable (offline).

pub async fn set_unavailable(&self) -> Result<(), PresenceError>

Example:

client.presence().set_unavailable().await?;
println!("Now offline");

Subscribe to a contact’s presence updates.

pub async fn subscribe(&self, jid: &Jid) -> Result<(), PresenceError>

Parameters:

jid - Contact JID to subscribe to

Behavior:

Sends a <presence type="subscribe"> stanza
Automatically includes TC token if available for the contact
Tracks the subscription internally so it can be restored on reconnect
Used to receive notifications when the contact goes online/offline

Example:

let contact_jid: Jid = "15551234567@s.whatsapp.net".parse()?;
client.presence().subscribe(&contact_jid).await?;
println!("Subscribed to {}'s presence", contact_jid);

unsubscribe

Unsubscribe from a contact’s presence updates.

pub async fn unsubscribe(&self, jid: &Jid) -> Result<(), PresenceError>

Parameters:

jid - Contact JID to unsubscribe from

Behavior:

Sends a <presence type="unsubscribe"> stanza
Removes the contact from the internal subscription tracker
You will no longer receive presence updates for this contact

Example:

let contact_jid: Jid = "15551234567@s.whatsapp.net".parse()?;
client.presence().unsubscribe(&contact_jid).await?;
println!("Unsubscribed from {}'s presence", contact_jid);

PresenceStatus Enum

#[non_exhaustive]
pub enum PresenceStatus {
    Available,    // Online
    Unavailable,  // Offline
}

PresenceStatus is #[non_exhaustive], so match statements should include a wildcard arm to handle future variants. Methods:

as_str() - Returns "available" or "unavailable"

Conversion:

let status = PresenceStatus::Available;
assert_eq!(status.as_str(), "available");

Push name requirement

WhatsApp requires a push name (display name) to be set before sending presence updates. This matches WhatsApp Web behavior. Error example:

use whatsapp_rust::features::presence::PresenceError;

// If push name not set
match client.presence().set_available().await {
    Ok(_) => println!("Presence set"),
    Err(PresenceError::PushNameEmpty) => {
        eprintln!("Cannot send presence without a push name set");
    }
    Err(e) => eprintln!("Other error: {}", e),
}

The push name is typically set during the pairing/connection process from app state sync.

Wire Format

Setting Presence

<!-- Available (online) -->
<presence type="available" name="YourPushName"/>

<!-- Unavailable (offline) -->
<presence type="unavailable" name="YourPushName"/>

Subscribing to Presence

<!-- Without TC token -->
<presence type="subscribe" to="15551234567@s.whatsapp.net"/>

<!-- With TC token (privacy gating) -->
<presence type="subscribe" to="15551234567@s.whatsapp.net">
  <tctoken><!-- raw token bytes --></tctoken>
</presence>

Unsubscribing from Presence

<presence type="unsubscribe" to="15551234567@s.whatsapp.net"/>

TC token handling

When subscribing to presence, the library automatically:

Looks up TC token for the target JID
Includes token as child node if available
Skips token if not found (non-error)

This matches WhatsApp Web’s privacy gating behavior.

Subscription Tracking

The library automatically tracks which contacts you have subscribed to. This enables automatic re-subscription after a reconnect, so you don’t lose presence updates when the connection drops.

How it works

Calling subscribe(jid) adds the contact to an internal tracked set
Calling unsubscribe(jid) removes the contact from the tracked set
Duplicate subscriptions are deduplicated automatically
On reconnect, the library re-subscribes to all tracked contacts

Automatic re-subscription on reconnect

When the client reconnects after a connection drop, it automatically calls resubscribe_presence_subscriptions() to restore all tracked presence subscriptions. This happens transparently — you don’t need to manually re-subscribe after a reconnect. The re-subscription process includes safety checks:

Bails out early if the connection generation changes (a new reconnect occurred)
Skips re-subscription if the client is no longer connected

This matches WhatsApp Web behavior, which re-subscribes to all active presence subscriptions after reconnecting.

Behavior Notes

Available (Online)

When setting status to Available, the library automatically:

Validates push name is set
Sends unified session (internal protocol requirement)
Broadcasts presence stanza with push name

Unavailable (Offline)

When setting status to Unavailable:

Validates push name is set
Broadcasts unavailable presence

Note: This marks you as offline but doesn’t disconnect the client.

PresenceError

The set, set_available, and set_unavailable methods return Result<(), PresenceError>:

#[non_exhaustive]
#[derive(Debug, Error)]
pub enum PresenceError {
    #[error("cannot send presence without a push name set")]
    PushNameEmpty,
    #[error("{0}")]
    Client(#[from] ClientError),
    #[error("{0}")]
    Other(#[from] anyhow::Error),
}

Variants:

PushNameEmpty - Push name must be set before sending presence
Client — wraps a ClientError (connection errors from set, set_available, set_unavailable, subscribe, and unsubscribe)
Other - Wraps any other error (network, connection, etc.)

Error handling

use whatsapp_rust::features::presence::PresenceError;

match client.presence().set_available().await {
    Ok(_) => println!("Successfully set to online"),
    Err(PresenceError::PushNameEmpty) => {
        eprintln!("Need to set push name first");
    }
    Err(e) => eprintln!("Unexpected error: {}", e),
}

Complete Example

use whatsapp_rust::features::presence::PresenceStatus;

// Set yourself online
client.presence().set_available().await?;

// Subscribe to contacts' presence
let contacts: Vec<Jid> = vec![
    "15551111111@s.whatsapp.net".parse()?,
    "15552222222@s.whatsapp.net".parse()?,
];

for contact in &contacts {
    client.presence().subscribe(contact).await?;
    println!("Subscribed to {}", contact);
}

// Do work while online...
// If the connection drops, tracked subscriptions are
// automatically re-subscribed on reconnect.

// Unsubscribe from a specific contact
client.presence().unsubscribe(&contacts[0]).await?;
println!("Unsubscribed from {}", contacts[0]);

// Set yourself offline when done
client.presence().set_unavailable().await?;

Receiving presence updates

After subscribing to a contact’s presence, you’ll receive presence events through the event handler. See the Events documentation for details on handling incoming presence updates.

Core

Messaging

Features

Storage & Backends

Core Modules

Access

Methods

set

set_available

set_unavailable

unsubscribe

PresenceStatus Enum

Push name requirement

Wire Format

Setting Presence

Subscribing to Presence

Unsubscribing from Presence

TC token handling

Subscription Tracking

How it works

Automatic re-subscription on reconnect

Behavior Notes

Available (Online)

Unavailable (Offline)

PresenceError

Error handling

Complete Example

Receiving presence updates

​Access

​Methods

​set

​set_available

​set_unavailable

​subscribe

​unsubscribe

​PresenceStatus Enum

​Push name requirement

​Wire Format

​Setting Presence

​Subscribing to Presence

​Unsubscribing from Presence

​TC token handling

​Subscription Tracking

​How it works

​Automatic re-subscription on reconnect

​Behavior Notes

​Available (Online)

​Unavailable (Offline)

​PresenceError

​Error handling

​Complete Example

​Receiving presence updates

Access

Methods

set

set_available

set_unavailable

subscribe

unsubscribe

PresenceStatus Enum

Push name requirement

Wire Format

Setting Presence

Subscribing to Presence

Unsubscribing from Presence

TC token handling

Subscription Tracking

How it works

Automatic re-subscription on reconnect

Behavior Notes

Available (Online)

Unavailable (Offline)

PresenceError

Error handling

Complete Example

Receiving presence updates