chat.postEphemeral
Sends an ephemeral message to a user in a channel.
Facts
Method URL: | https://slack.com/api/chat.postEphemeral | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Preferred HTTP method: | POST | ||||||||
Accepted content types: | application/x-www-form-urlencoded , application/json | ||||||||
Rate limiting: | Tier 4 | ||||||||
Works with: |
|
This method posts an ephemeral message, which is visible only to the assigned user in a specific public channel, private channel, or private conversation.
Ephemeral message delivery is not guaranteed — the user must be currently active in Slack and a member of the specified channel
. By nature, ephemeral messages do not persist across reloads, desktop and mobile apps, or sessions.
Use ephemeral messages to send users context-sensitive messages, relevant to the channel they're detectably participating in. Avoid sending unexpected or unsolicited ephemeral messages.
Arguments
token
Authentication token bearing required scopes. Tokens should be passed as an HTTP Authorization header or alternatively, as a POST parameter.
Examplexxxx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxx
attachments
A JSON-based array of structured attachments, presented as a URL-encoded string.
Example[{"pretext": "pre-hello", "text": "text-world"}]
channel
Channel, private group, or IM channel to send message to. Can be an encoded ID, or a name.
ExampleC1234567890
text
How this field works and whether it is required depends on other fields you use in your API call. See below for more detail.
ExampleHello world
user
id
of the user who will receive the ephemeral message. The user should be in the channel specified by the channel
argument.
U0BPQUNTA
as_user
Pass true to post the message as the authed user. Defaults to true if the chat:write:bot scope is not included. Otherwise, defaults to false.
Exampletrue
blocks
A JSON-based array of structured blocks, presented as a URL-encoded string.
Example[{"type": "section", "text": {"type": "plain_text", "text": "Hello world"}}]
icon_emoji
Emoji to use as the icon for this message. Overrides icon_url
. Must be used in conjunction with as_user
set to false
, otherwise ignored. See authorship below.
:chart_with_upwards_trend:
icon_url
URL to an image to use as the icon for this message. Must be used in conjunction with as_user
set to false, otherwise ignored. See authorship below.
http://lorempixel.com/48/48
link_names
Find and link channel names and usernames.
Exampletrue
thread_ts
Provide another message's ts
value to post this message in a thread. Avoid using a reply's ts
value; use its parent's value instead. Ephemeral messages in threads are only shown if there is already an active thread.
1234567890.123456
username
Set your bot's user name. Must be used in conjunction with as_user
set to false, otherwise ignored. See authorship below.
My Bot
application/json
via HTTP POST. Present your token
in your request's Authorization
header. Learn more.
Using text
with blocks
or attachments
The usage of the text
field changes depending on whether you're using blocks
. If you are using blocks
, this is used as a fallback string to display in notifications. If you aren't, this is the main body text of the message. It can be formatted as plain text, or with mrkdwn
.
The text
field is not enforced as required when using blocks
or attachments
. However, we highly recommended that you include text
to provide a fallback when using blocks
, as described above.
Formatting
Messages are formatted as described in the formatting spec. You can specify values for parse
and link_names
to change formatting behavior.
The optional attachments
argument should contain a JSON-encoded array of attachments.
For more information, see the attachments spec. If you're using a Slack app, you can also use this method to attach message buttons.
Use the Message Builder to preview your message formatting and attachments in real time! It's easy to translate your JSON examples to the parameters understood by chat.postEphemeral
.
For best results, limit the number of characters in the text
field to a few thousand bytes at most. Ideally, messages should be short and human-readable, if you need to post longer messages, please consider uploading a snippet instead. (A single message should be no larger than 4,000 bytes.)
Consider reviewing our message guidelines, especially if you're using attachments or message buttons.
Authorship
How message authorship is attributed varies by a few factors, with some behaviors varying depending on the kinds of tokens you're using to post a message.
The best way to realize your intended result is to be explicit with the as_user
parameter.
chat.postEphemeral
wants your message posting to succeed and may attempt to guess the most appropriate as_user
interpretation based on the kind of token you're using.
If as_user
is not provided at all, then the value is inferred, based on the scopes granted to the caller: If the caller could post with as_user
passed as false
, then that is how the method behaves; otherwise, the method behaves
as if as_user
were passed as true
.
When as_user
is false
When the as_user
parameter is set to false
, messages are posted as "bot_messages
", with message authorship attributed to the user name and icons associated with the Slack App.
When as_user
is true
Set as_user
to true
and the authenticated user will appear as the author of the message. Posting as the authenticated user requires the
client
or the more preferred chat:write:user
scopes.
Target channels and users
You must specify a conversation container (public channel, private channel, or an IM channel) by providing its ID to the channel
argument. You also must specify a target user
.
Each type of channel behaves slightly differently based on the authenticated user's permissions and additional arguments. If the target user
is not in the given channel, the ephemeral message will not be delivered, and we'll return a user_not_in_channel
error.
Workspace apps will receive a no_permission
error when they are not a member of the specified channel
.
Note that the user
parameter expects a user's id
, and not a username or display name.
Post to a public channel
You can either pass the channel's name (#general
) or encoded ID (C024BE91L
), and the message will be posted to that channel. The channel's ID can be retrieved through the channels.list API method.
Post to a private group
As long as the authenticated user is a member of the private group, you can either pass the group's name (secret-group
) or encoded ID (G012AC86C
), and the message will be posted to that group. The private group's ID can be retrieved through the groups.list API method.
Post to an IM channel
Posting to an IM channel is a little more complex depending on the value of as_user
.
- If
as_user
is false:- Pass a username (
@chris
) as the value ofchannel
to post to that user's @slackbot channel as the bot. - Pass the IM channel's ID (
D023BB3L2
) as the value ofchannel
to post to that IM channel as the bot. The IM channel's ID can be retrieved through the im.list API method.
- Pass a username (
- If
as_user
is true:- Pass the IM channel's ID (
D023BB3L2
) as the value ofchannel
to post to that IM channel as the authenticated user. The IM channel's ID can be retrieved through the im.list API method.
- Pass the IM channel's ID (
To send a direct message to the user owning the token used in the request, provide the channel
field with the a conversation/IM ID value found in a method like im.list
.
Response
Common successful response
Typical success response
{
"ok": true,
"message_ts": "1502210682.580145"
}
Common error response
Typical error response
{
"ok": false,
"error": "user_not_in_channel"
}
The message_ts
included with the response cannot be used with chat.update
, as it does not represent an actual message written to the database like it does with other api methods.
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
params in the response.
Error | Description |
---|---|
restricted_action | A workspace preference prevents the authenticated user from posting. |
too_many_attachments | Too many attachments were provided with this message. A maximum of 100 attachments are allowed on a message. |
is_archived | Channel has been archived. |
channel_not_found | Value passed for |
msg_too_long | Message text is too long |
no_text | No message text provided |
user_not_in_channel | Intended recipient is not in the specified channel. |
not_authed | No authentication token provided. |
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. |
account_inactive | Authentication token is for a deleted user or workspace. |
token_revoked | Authentication token is for a deleted user or workspace or the app has been removed. |
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. |
org_login_required | The workspace is undergoing an enterprise migration and will not be available until migration is complete. |
ekm_access_denied | Administrators have suspended the ability to post a message. |
missing_scope | The token used is not granted the specific scope permissions required to complete this request. |
not_allowed_token_type | The token type used in this request is not allowed. |
method_deprecated | The method has been deprecated. |
deprecated_endpoint | The endpoint has been deprecated. |
two_factor_setup_required | Two factor setup is required. |
enterprise_is_restricted | The method cannot be called from an Enterprise. |
team_access_not_granted | The token used is not granted the specific workspace access required to complete this request. |
invalid_arguments | The method was either called with invalid arguments or some detail about the arguments passed are invalid, which is more likely when using complex arguments like blocks or attachments. |
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 |
invalid_array_arg | The method was passed an array as an argument. Please only input valid strings. |
invalid_charset | The method was called via a |
invalid_form_data | The method was called via a |
invalid_post_type | The method was called via a |
missing_post_type | The method was called via a |
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. |
ratelimited | The request has been ratelimited. Refer to the |
accesslimited | Access to this method is limited on the current network |
request_timeout | The method was called via a |
service_unavailable | The service is temporarily unavailable |
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. |
Warnings
This table lists the expected warnings that this method will return. However, other warnings can be returned in the case where the service is experiencing unexpected trouble.
Warning | Description |
---|---|
missing_charset | The method was called via a |
superfluous_charset | The method was called via a |