Twilio Programmable Chat getChannelByUniqueName throws "Forbidden" Error - node.js

Question

After creating a channel in my backend service, I am trying to join the channel in my react frontend in an useEffect hook like this:
const initChat = async () => {
const chatClient = await Client.create(props.token);
const channel = await chatClient.getChannelByUniqueName(props.room);
if (channel) {
if (channel.status !== "joined") {
chatClient.on("channelJoined", () => {
registerChannelListeners(channel);
});
await channel.join();
} else {
registerChannelListeners(channel);
}
setChannel(channel);
setMessages((await channel?.getMessages()).items);
}
};
}
When initially navigating to the page, the error
upstream.js?a850:136 Uncaught (in promise) Error: Forbidden
at Upstream.actualSend (upstream.js?a850:136)
gets thrown sporadically.
On reloading the page, everything works fine.
The problematic line seems to be:
const channel = await chatClient.getChannelByUniqueName(props.room);
As no further code gets executed. token and room are both assigned with valid values.
In the decoded socket messages, this error message is sent from twilio:
{"method":"reply"...,"http_status":{"code":403,"status":"Forbidden"}}
{"status":403,"message":"User not member of channel","code":50400}
although both participants are invited via the backend with this function:
inviteParticipantToChannel(participant: Participant, channelSid: string) {
this.logger.log(
`Inviting paricipant ${participant.getIdentifier()} to channel ${channelSid}`,
);
return this.twilioClient.chat
.services(process.env.TWILIO_CHAT_SERVICE_ID)
.channels(channelSid)
.invites.create({ identity: participant.getIdentifier() });
}
Is there more that I need to do to enable the participant to find/join the channel?

Answer 1

Have you tried setting a short timeout? The channel resource at twilio might need some time.