A group object contains information about a private channel created before March 2021. The private channel's ID will begin with G, as private channels were once known as "private groups." Conversation objects contain the information for private channels created after March 2021 (those with IDs that begin with C).
{
"id": "G123456",
"name": "secretplans",
"is_group": "true",
"created": 1360782804,
"creator": "U123456",
"is_archived": false,
"is_mpim": false,
"members": [
"U024BE7LH"
],
"topic": {
"value": "Secret plans on hold",
"creator": "U123456",
"last_set": 1369677212
},
"purpose": {
"value": "Discuss secret plans that no-one else should know",
"creator": "U123456",
"last_set": 1360782804
},
"last_read": "1401383885.000061",
"latest": { … }
"unread_count": 0,
"unread_count_display": 0
},
The name parameter indicates the name of the private channel.
creator is the user ID of the member that created this private channel. created is a Unix timestamp of when the conversation was created.
is_archived will be true if the private channel is archived.
members is 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.
mpims is a boolean that indicated if a multiparty IM (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.
topic and purpose provide information about the private channel topic and purpose.
Some API methods (such as groups.create) will include extra state information for channels when the calling user is a member:
last_read is the Unix timestamp for the last message the calling user has read in this channel.unread_count is a full count of visible messages that the calling user has yet to read.unread_count_display is 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 is the latest message in the channel.