A group object contains information about a private channel that was created before March 2021. The private channel's ID will begin with G
, as private channels were previously known as "private groups."
For information about private channels created after March 2021 (those with IDs that begin with C
the same as public channels do), refer to conversation objects. The Conversations API will tell you whether a conversation is private or not with the is_private
boolean field.
An example response is below:
{
"id": "G123456",
"name": "secretplans",
"is_group": "true",
"created": 1360782804,
"creator": "U123456",
"is_archived": false,
"is_mpim": false,
"members": [
"U012AB3CD"
],
"topic": {
"value": "Secret plans on hold",
"creator": "U123456",
"last_set": 1369677212
},
"purpose": {
"value": "Discuss secret plans that nobody else should know",
"creator": "U123456",
"last_set": 1360782804
},
"last_read": "1401383885.000061",
"latest": { β¦ },
"unread_count": 0,
"unread_count_display": 0
},
Field | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
id |
string | The ID of the private channel. |
name |
string | The name of the private channel. |
is_group |
boolean | Whether this object is a group. |
created |
Unix timestamp | When the conversation was created. |
creator |
string | The user ID of the member that created this private channel. |
is_archived |
boolean | true if the private channel is archived. |
is_mpim |
boolean | Whether a multiparty instant message (mpim ) is being emulated as a private channel. For compatibility with older clients, mpims can appear as private channels unless rtm.start is called with mpim_aware=1 . |
members |
array | A list of user IDs for all users in this private channel. This includes any disabled accounts that were in this private channel when they were disabled. |
topic |
object | The topic of the group. |
purpose |
object | The purpose of the group. |
Some API methods (such as groups.create) will include extra state information for channels when the calling user is a member:
last_read
: the Unix timestamp for the last message the calling user has read in this channel.unread_count
: a full count of visible messages that the calling user has yet to read.unread_count_display
: a count of messages that the calling user has yet to read that matter to them (this means it excludes things like join/leave messages).latest
: the latest message in the channel.