Delete messages

delete() permanently removes a message from Message Persistence or marks it as deleted (soft delete).

Requires Message Persistence

Enable Message Persistence and Enable Delete-From-History in the Admin Portal.

Method signature

delete() calls Message Actions API and the JavaScript SDK addMessageAction() method to mark the removed messages as deleted (for soft delete), the Message Persistence API and the deleteMessages() method to permanently remove messages from Message Persistence, and the Files API with the deleteFile() method to remove files attached to the message.

Under the hood

This method takes the following parameters:

1message.delete(
2    {
3        soft?: boolean
4    },
5    preserveFiles?: boolean
6): Promise<true | Message>

Input

* required

Parameter	Description
soft Type: boolean Default: false	Define if you want to permanently remove message data. By default, the message data gets permanently deleted from Message Persistence. If you set this parameter to true, the Message object gets the deleted status and you can still restore/get its data.
preserveFiles Type: boolean Default: n/a	Define if you want to keep the files attached to the message or remove them.

Output

Type	Description
Promise<true> or Promise<Message>	For hard delete, a confirmation that the message data was permanently deleted. For soft delete, an updated message instance with an added deleted action type.

Sample code

Permanently delete the message with the 16200000000000001 timetoken from the support channel.

1// reference the "message" object
2const message = await channel.getHistory({
3    startTimetoken: "16200000000000000",
4    endTimetoken: "162000000000000001"
5})
6// invoke the "delete()" method. By default, the "soft" parameter is set to "false" and can be skipped.
7await message.delete()

Other examples

Archive (soft delete) the message with the 16200000000000001 timetoken from the support channel, keeping its data in Message Persistence.

1await message.delete({
2    soft: true
3})