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Image Service

Image Service

Images uploaded to the GroupMe Image CDN will have URLs that look like this:

https://i.groupme.com/{width}x{height}.{format}.{id}

Where {width} and {height} are in pixels, {format} is for example "png" or "jpeg" and {id} is a unique id e.g.

https://i.groupme.com/480x325.jpeg.9e20b71dd6af4b58bbd132d4a7dec009

To try this out via cURL:

Store your access token in the GM_TOKEN environment variable first.

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curl 'https://image.groupme.com/pictures' -X POST -H "X-Access-Token: $GM_TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: image/jpeg" --data-binary @AwesomePicture.jpg

Thumbnails

Images are automatically thumbnailed at the following sizes:

suffix size example
preview 200x200, centered and cropped https://i.groupme.com/100x100.png.123456789.preview
large 960x960, preserve aspect ratio so largest side is 960 https://i.groupme.com/100x100.png.123456789.large
avatar 60x60, centered and cropped https://i.groupme.com/100x100.png.123456789.avatar

Images

Nearly every instance of an image URL within the API MUST be processed by the Image CDN before it can be used.

You can upload a variety of different kinds of image formats (including GIFs) to the image CDN in order for them to be processed, stored, and thumbnailed.

Uploading local images

If you want to send an image you have stored locally, you first have to upload it to GroupMe's servers via their image service. This is done with a simple request:

HTTP Request
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POST https://image.groupme.com/pictures

Importantly, this request MUST be done with the following headers:

  • Content-Type: "image/jpeg" (For some reason it doesn't work with "image/png" as far as I can tell, but you can still send .png files under "image/jpeg")
  • Content-Length: The size of your image in bytes
  • X-Access-Token: Your user's token

Then, send the binary data of your image file.

Issues with this feature are often caused by problems with the user token.

HTTP Response
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Status: 200 OK
{
  "payload": {
    "url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789",
    "picture_url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789"
  }
}

Uploading remote images

If you want to send a remote image by its URL, you'll still have to upload it to GroupMe's servers via their image service. This will behave similar to uploading local images, but with a new url parameter:

HTTP Request
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POST https://image.groupme.com/pictures?url=<image_url>

As far as I can tell, you only need to provide the X-Access-Token user token as a header.

Response

Your response will be of the same format as above: json linenums="1" titile="HTTP Response" Status: 200 OK { "payload": { "url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789", "picture_url": "https://i.groupme.com/123456789" } }