Skip to main content

chat.delete method

Facts​

DescriptionDeletes a message.
Method Access
POST https://slack.com/api/chat.delete
Scopes
Bot token:
User token:
Content types
application/x-www-form-urlencoded
application/json
Rate LimitsTier 3: 50+ per minute

Arguments​

Required arguments

tokenstringRequired

Authentication token bearing required scopes. Tokens should be passed as an HTTP Authorization header or alternatively, as a POST parameter.

Example: xxxx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxx
channelstringRequired

Channel containing the message to be deleted.

tsstringRequired

Timestamp of the message to be deleted.

Example: "1405894322.002768"

Optional arguments

as_userbooleanOptional

(Legacy) Pass true to delete the message as the authed user with chat:write:user scope. Bot users in this context are considered authed users. See legacy as_user parameter below.

Example: true

Usage info​

This method deletes a message from a conversation.

When used with a user token, this method may only delete messages that user themselves can delete in Slack.

When used with a bot token, this method may delete only messages posted by that bot.

This method has no accommodations for impersonation. If a message is sent impersonating another user, you will not be able to call chat.delete to delete that same message.

Response​

Typical success response

{
  "ok": true,
  "channel": "C123ABC456",
  "ts": "1401383885.000061"
}

Typical error response

{
  "error": "message_not_found",
  "ok": false
}

The response includes the channel and timestamp properties of the deleted message.

Legacy concerns​

Information in the section below applies only to classic apps.

This feature works differently for classic apps.

Legacy authorship​

Classic apps using the umbrella bot scope can't request additional scopes to adjust message authorship.

Legacy as_user parameter​

For classic apps, the best way to control the authorship of a message was to be explicit with the legacy as_user parameter. If you didn't use the as_user parameter, chat.delete would guess the most appropriate as_user interpretation based on the kind of token you were using. If as_user was not provided at all, the value was inferred based on the scopes granted to the caller: If the caller could delete with as_user passed as false, then that was how the method behaved; otherwise, the method behaved as if as_user were passed as true. When the as_user parameter was set to false, messages were deleted as "bot_messages", with message authorship attributed to the user name and icons associated with the classic app.

Errors​

This table lists the expected errors that this method could return. However, other errors can be returned in the case where the service is down or other unexpected factors affect processing. Callers should always check the value of the ok parameter in the response.

Error
Description
access_denied

Access to a resource specified in the request is denied.

accesslimited

Access to this method is limited on the current network

account_inactive

Authentication token is for a deleted user or workspace when using a bot token.

cant_delete_message

Authenticated user does not have permission to delete this message.

channel_not_found

Value passed for channel was invalid.

deprecated_endpoint

The endpoint has been deprecated.

ekm_access_denied

Administrators have suspended the ability to post a message.

enterprise_is_restricted

The method cannot be called from an Enterprise.

fatal_error

The server could not complete your operation(s) without encountering a catastrophic error. It's possible some aspect of the operation succeeded before the error was raised.

internal_error

The server could not complete your operation(s) without encountering an error, likely due to a transient issue on our end. It's possible some aspect of the operation succeeded before the error was raised.

invalid_arg_name

The method was passed an argument whose name falls outside the bounds of accepted or expected values. This includes very long names and names with non-alphanumeric characters other than _. If you get this error, it is typically an indication that you have made a very malformed API call.

invalid_arguments

The method was called with invalid arguments.

invalid_array_arg

The method was passed an array as an argument. Please only input valid strings.

invalid_auth

Some aspect of authentication cannot be validated. Either the provided token is invalid or the request originates from an IP address disallowed from making the request.

invalid_charset

The method was called via a POST request, but the charset specified in the Content-Type header was invalid. Valid charset names are: utf-8 iso-8859-1.

invalid_form_data

The method was called via a POST request with Content-Type application/x-www-form-urlencoded or multipart/form-data, but the form data was either missing or syntactically invalid.

invalid_post_type

The method was called via a POST request, but the specified Content-Type was invalid. Valid types are: application/json application/x-www-form-urlencoded multipart/form-data text/plain.

message_not_found

No message exists with the requested timestamp.

method_deprecated

The method has been deprecated.

missing_post_type

The method was called via a POST request and included a data payload, but the request did not include a Content-Type header.

missing_scope

The token used is not granted the specific scope permissions required to complete this request.

no_permission

The workspace token used in this request does not have the permissions necessary to complete the request. Make sure your app is a member of the conversation it's attempting to post a message to.

not_allowed_token_type

The token type used in this request is not allowed.

not_authed

No authentication token provided.

org_login_required

The workspace is undergoing an enterprise migration and will not be available until migration is complete.

ratelimited

The request has been ratelimited. Refer to the Retry-After header for when to retry the request.

request_timeout

The method was called via a POST request, but the POST data was either missing or truncated.

service_unavailable

The service is temporarily unavailable

team_access_not_granted

The token used is not granted the specific workspace access required to complete this request.

team_added_to_org

The workspace associated with your request is currently undergoing migration to an Enterprise Organization. Web API and other platform operations will be intermittently unavailable until the transition is complete.

token_expired

Authentication token has expired

token_revoked

Authentication token is for a deleted user or workspace or the app has been removed when using a user token.

two_factor_setup_required

Two factor setup is required.