What are Slack Ephemeral Chats?

Slack ephemeral (disappearing) chats enable you to easily create ad-hoc, auto-destructing private channels between you and one or more people.

What does "auto-destructing" mean?

After a configurable time-period (12 hours by default) all of the messages and content shared in the ephemeral chat will be deleted from your Slack logs, and the channel will be archived.

How do I create an ephemeral chat?

In Slack, run this command: @sharesecret chat with @user1 @user2

What are some typical use cases for ephemeral chats?

Ephemeral chats are great for:

• Customer support triage, when you may need to share personally identifiable information (PII) about a customer, but want to ensure it won't live forever in your Slack logs.
• Ad-hoc, potentially sensitive conversations, where you want to ensure the chat history gets deleted.

Can I customize the auto-destruct timer?

Yes. In an ephemeral chat, run: @sharesecret ttl 24 hours. You can also use minutes and days as units.

How does the auto-destruct timer work?

The auto-destruct timer count from the time the last message was sent. This means that every additional message sent in the chat effectively resets the auto-destruct timer.

Can I manually delete the chat before the auto-destruct timer expires?

Yes. To manually delete the chat, run this command from inside the chat: @sharesecret shred