New scope required for workspace token-based chat operations (API Preview)

Published:Thursday, January 11, 2018

Workspace apps are deprecated

Legacy workspace apps are deprecated and will retire in August 2021. Learn more.

We're simplifying some permission scopes as part of the workspace apps developer preview.

Beginning today, workspace apps must request chat:write instead of chat:write:user during installation or when seeking elevated permissions.

Now chat:write represents your app's ability to post messages in the channels and contexts granted to it.

What's changing?

Workspace apps currently requesting the classic chat:write:user scope must begin asking for chat:write instead.

Your app still uses chat.postMessage and other methods the same way as before.

When receiving an authorization grant with oauth.token or apps.permissions.info, instead of receiving the chat:write:user scope, you'll receive chat:write.

What isn't changing?

Traditional Slack apps have nothing to fear.

Slack apps that are not part of the developer preview are not impacted by this change. Bot users are also left unharmed.

chat:write:user and chat:write:bot remain functional, distinct OAuth scopes for traditional Slack apps.

Existing workspace token grants are already converted

We automatically migrated existing grants for chat:write:user to chat:write. You won't need to re-negotiate existing workspace token installations.

How do I prepare?

If your workspace app requests the chat:write:user scope to gain the ability to post messages, you'll need to request chat:write instead. It's a drop-in replacement.

When is this happening?

This change already happened, today, on January 11, 2018.

Something amiss? Let us know.