Did you post an error in your Slack announcement? Was an inside joke intended for a team colleague mistakenly sent to management instead? No worries, there’s still time to save your blushes. Here’s a guide on how to delete your Slack messages.
Unlike in some other messaging apps, deleting a message in Slack doesn’t notify others. So, if you are quick enough to delete your text, nobody will find out what happened — not even the admins unless the message and file retention setting has been configured to “Keep everything,” in which case they can track edits and deletions.
Moreover, you can only delete your sent messages and not anyone else’s, even if it was DMed directly to you. Another thing to keep in mind is that if message deletion has been disabled for your workspace, you won’t be able to delete your messages either.
Steps to delete a Slack message
As obvious, message deletion is a basic Slack feature, and you can delete your messages on both desktop and mobile apps. The following section shows how you can easily get rid of your sent messages.
Deleting a message on the Slack desktop app
- From the left column, select the conversation where you sent the erroneous message.
- Hover your cursor over the desired message and click on the vertical ellipsis.
3. Click on “Delete message.”
4. When prompted, click on Delete again.
Deleting a message on the Slack mobile app
- Select the channel or DM from where you want to delete your message.
- Press and hold the desired message to view options.
- Scroll down and tap on “Delete message.”
4. When prompted, tap on “Delete” to confirm your decision.
That’s it! Those steps round up our guide on how to delete your Slack messages. Once you do this, your messages will be gone forever, and you can’t undo this action. But, the admin might be able to track message deletion if message and file retention settings have been configured appropriately.
Besides this, you can check out more Slack how-tos, such as how to delete/archive a Slack channel, from our dedicated section.
