As your team chats more, your sidebar can fill up quickly. Archiving is a clean way to hide a conversation you're done with — without losing its history. You can bring it back any time. Deleting is permanent and only available to Chat Managers for Channels.
Archiving a Direct Message
Anyone can archive a Direct Message. Hover over the conversation in the sidebar and click the archive button. This hides it from your sidebar only — the other participants still see the conversation normally.
Archiving a Channel or Record Chat
Only Chat Managers can archive a Channel or Record Chat, and doing so hides it for everyone. Use this when a Channel or deal discussion has wrapped up and you want it off the whole team's sidebar.
Finding and Restoring Archived Conversations
- Click the Archived icon at the top of the sidebar.
- Find the conversation you want to restore.
- Click Unarchive to bring it back to the sidebar.
Deleting a Channel (Chat Managers Only)
Deleting permanently removes a Channel and all of its messages for everyone on your team. This cannot be undone.
- Open the Channel and click the gear icon.
- Click Delete channel.
- Read the warning carefully and confirm.
When in doubt, archive instead — archiving keeps the full message history and can always be reversed.
Archive vs. Delete
| Archive | Delete | |
|---|---|---|
| Who can do it | Anyone (Direct Messages); Chat Managers (Channels & Record Chats) | Chat Managers only (Channels only) |
| What it does | Hides the conversation from the sidebar | Permanently removes the conversation and all messages |
| Reversible? | Yes — click Unarchive | No |
| Affects everyone? | Only you (Direct Messages); everyone (Channels & Record Chats) | Everyone |
Good to Know
- Archiving a Direct Message is personal — the other person won't know you archived it and can still see the conversation on their end.
- Deleting a Channel can't be undone. If there's any chance you'll need those messages later, archive instead.