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Use the section for your platform, then verify scope, administrator rights, conversation history, legal holds, and the actual deletion window before announcing a retention schedule.
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At a glance: three different control systems
| Platform | Primary control plane | Typical scope | What users see | Important timing or compliance detail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slack | Workspace settings; organization policy for Enterprise organizations | Entire workspace, organization, or selected channels and direct messages when overrides are enabled | Messages are removed from Slack when the policy runs; deletion is permanent in Slack | Retention runs once daily. Paid plans default to lifetime retention; free plans offer 90 days or one year. |
| Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Purview retention policies | Selected users, teams, Teams chats, and channel-message locations | A user-visible message can disappear while a secured compliance copy remains searchable through eDiscovery | Retention is measured from message creation. Deletion can take up to seven days after the period expires. |
| Google Chat | Google Admin console auto-deletion, with Google Vault rules and holds affecting preservation | Direct messages, group messages, or spaces | Messages are auto-deleted only when the applicable history and category conditions are met | Space auto-deletion is documented from 30 to 36,500 days. Without a Vault rule, removed messages are kept for 30 days before purge begins. |
These are operational settings, not a universal answer to a legal or regulatory requirement. Your counsel, records schedule, contracts, and jurisdiction may require a different period or a legal hold.
Decide what “retention” means before changing a setting
Administrators often mix three separate questions:
- Availability: How long should people be able to open and search a message in the collaboration product?
- Compliance preservation: Must an additional copy remain available for eDiscovery, audit, or an investigation after a user deletes the visible message?
- User permissions: Should people be allowed to edit or delete messages before the retention period ends?
Slack combines workspace or organization retention with optional conversation-level controls. Teams separates Purview retention from Teams Messaging policies, which control features such as editing and deleting sent messages. Google Chat combines Admin console auto-deletion with Google Vault retention rules and holds.
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Document the intended scope before implementation. A workspace-wide setting, a selected Teams team, and a Google Chat space category are different units. Also record whether the policy is intended to delete content, retain it for a fixed period, or retain it and then delete it.
Slack message retention
Set retention for a Slack workspace
A Workspace Owner changes the workspace-level policy from the desktop app or web interface:
- Open Admin and choose Workspace settings.
- Expand Data retention.
- Select the message-retention option for the workspace.
- Save the setting and complete Slack’s review and confirmation prompt.
On paid plans, Slack keeps messages for the lifetime of the workspace by default. The free plan presents choices of 90 days or one year. Slack’s help guidance describes older free-plan data as deleted on a rolling basis after one year, so owners should check the controls visible in their specific workspace before promising users an exact result.
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In an Enterprise organization, an Org Owner can apply a message-retention policy across workspaces. Slack’s published procedure directs the Org Owner to contact Slack Support to set the organization-level policy. By default, that policy can prevent Workspace Owners from changing their local retention setting.
Slackbot notifies the Primary Org Owner and requests approval. After approval, Workspace Owners receive notice of the organization-level change. Treat the organization policy as the governing layer when a workspace setting appears unavailable or cannot be edited.
Allow or change conversation-specific retention
Owners can enable member overrides so that retention can differ for particular conversations. Members can then set a period for private channels and direct messages they belong to; owners can adjust public-channel retention. On Business+ and Enterprise plans, owners or administrators with the required permission can manage channel retention.
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To change a conversation setting:
- Open the channel or direct message.
- Select the conversation name in the header.
- Open Settings and edit Message history.
- Choose deletion after the specified period and save.
- Review the notice Slack posts in the conversation confirming that the setting changed.
Enterprise multi-workspace channels follow the organization policy. If an override is missing, first check the plan, your role, the conversation type, and whether the organization owner has disabled local changes.
Understand Slack deletion behavior
Slack says deletion is permanent. The retention job runs once daily, so content can be removed shortly after a policy change rather than at the exact instant a message reaches its age limit. Retention also affects exports.
Deleting a channel is a separate destructive action: it permanently deletes the channel’s messages and revisions regardless of the workspace retention setting. Files hosted by third-party services remain in their source service even when the Slack message or attachment reference is removed, so a Slack policy does not erase the external service’s copy.
Slack rollout checks
- Confirm whether you are changing a workspace setting or an organization policy.
- Record the plan because free and paid defaults differ.
- Decide whether members may use conversation-level overrides.
- Warn users that Slack deletion is permanent and that exports are affected.
- Check external file services separately if messages contain links or hosted attachments.
Microsoft Teams retention through Microsoft Purview
Use Purview retention policies, not Teams Messaging policies
Teams message retention is an administrator and compliance task in Microsoft Purview. Teams Messaging policies are a different control: they govern available messaging features, including whether users may edit or delete messages. Changing a Messaging policy does not create a retention schedule.
Create a Teams retention policy
- Open the Microsoft Purview portal.
- Go to Solutions > Data Lifecycle Management > Policies > Retention policies.
- Create a policy and choose an adaptive or static scope.
- Select the Teams chat and/or channel-message location.
- Define the users or teams covered by the scope.
- Choose whether to retain content, delete it, or retain it for a period and then delete it.
- Review the scope and publish the policy.
Chats and channel messages are distinct locations. Teams chat locations include private one-to-one chats, group chats, meeting chats, and chats with yourself. Channel-message policies cover messages posted in channels. Shared channels inherit retention settings from their parent team.
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Microsoft’s administrator documentation notes a private-channel message migration in 2025. If your policy involves private channels, check the current Purview location guidance in your tenant before creating or modifying the policy; labels and supported locations can change during a migration.
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How the Teams retention clock works
The retention period is calculated from the message’s creation date. A policy configured only for Exchange mailboxes does not include Teams messages, so an Exchange retention rule cannot substitute for a Teams chat or channel-message location.
Use adaptive scopes when membership may change and the policy should follow users or teams dynamically. Use a static scope when you need a fixed set of people or teams and have a process for maintaining that list. Whichever scope you choose, record the included locations separately so that a policy covering chats does not get mistaken for one covering channel posts.
Visible deletion versus the compliance copy
When a retain policy applies, users may still edit or delete a message in Teams while Microsoft preserves a compliance copy in a secured location. That copy can remain searchable through eDiscovery even after the original is no longer visible in the chat or channel.
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Investigate a Teams retention discrepancy
- Identify whether the content was a chat, meeting chat, channel message, or private-channel message.
- Check the Purview policy’s location and scope, including whether the user or team was covered when the message was created.
- Review holds and other retention policies that may preserve the content.
- Check eDiscovery for a retained compliance copy.
- Allow for the documented deletion delay before concluding that the policy did not run.
Google Chat automatic deletion
Configure auto-deletion in the Admin console
Google Workspace administrators configure Chat auto-deletion by conversation category:
- Sign in with an administrator account.
- Open Admin console > Apps > Google Workspace > Google Chat > Auto-deletion.
- Choose the relevant category: direct messages, group messages, or spaces.
- Set the deletion period and save.
The administrator page lists supported editions and requires the Service Settings administrator privilege. Google updates the edition and control details over time, so confirm that your tenant and administrator role expose the setting before publishing a schedule to users.
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For spaces, Google documents a configurable period from 30 to 36,500 days. That range applies to the documented space control; direct-message and group-message controls may present different choices in the Admin console.
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History must be on when the message is sent
Auto-deletion applies only to messages sent while conversation history is on. If history was off when a message was sent, changing the setting later does not turn that old message into a normally retained item. Include the history state in your implementation checklist and test each conversation category separately.
How Google Vault changes the outcome
Chat auto-deletion and user removals are subject to Google Chat and Google Vault retention rules. If no Vault retention rule applies, Google says automatically deleted or user-removed messages are kept for 30 days after removal, after which purge begins and may take several days.
When a Vault rule applies, messages may remain in Vault for the rest of that rule’s retention period or for at least 30 days. A Vault hold can prevent deletion. Google describes an exception for extra-large spaces with more than 50,000 users, so do not assume the ordinary hold behavior applies to such a space.
External conversations and organization ownership
For work or school accounts, the organization controls whether history can be saved. After May 1, 2025, in some one-to-one conversations started by a person from a different organization, the external organization’s administrator policy determines how long history is available to everyone in the conversation.
This means the administrator of your domain may not be able to guarantee the same history period for every external one-to-one chat. Identify the conversation creator’s organization when users report a history setting that differs from your local policy.
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| Question | Slack | Microsoft Teams | Google Chat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who normally changes the setting? | Workspace Owners; Org Owners for organization-wide Enterprise policy | Purview administrators and compliance administrators | Google Workspace administrator with Service Settings privilege |
| Can scope be narrower than the whole organization? | Yes, when conversation overrides are enabled and permitted by plan and role | Yes; adaptive or static scopes can target users or teams and separate chat from channel locations | Yes; settings are organized by direct messages, group messages, and spaces |
| Is visible deletion the same as compliance deletion? | Slack says deletion is permanent; external file-service copies are outside Slack | No; a compliance copy can remain searchable through eDiscovery | No; Vault rules and holds can preserve content after auto-deletion |
| What can delay disappearance? | The once-daily retention run | Up to seven days after expiry, plus holds or another retain policy | The 30-day post-removal period and purge processing when no Vault rule applies; Vault rules or holds can extend preservation |
| What external or shared-conversation issue matters? | Enterprise multi-workspace channels follow organization policy | Shared channels inherit the parent team’s retention settings | In some post-May 1, 2025 external one-to-one chats, the other organization controls history availability |
A safe implementation workflow
- Inventory conversations. List workspaces, Teams chat and channel locations, Google Chat categories, shared channels, private channels, and external conversations.
- Define the business rule. Decide whether the objective is user-visible cleanup, compliance retention, retain-then-delete, or a combination.
- Map administrators and licenses. Confirm Slack plan and owner roles, Purview permissions and licensing, and Google Workspace edition and Service Settings privilege.
- Check legal holds first. A hold or another retention policy can override an apparent deletion deadline.
- Configure a pilot scope. Use a controlled workspace, test team, or test Chat category before applying a broad policy.
- Send test messages. Record creation time, history state, conversation type, and the expected deletion date.
- Verify both views. Check what an ordinary user sees and, where applicable, what eDiscovery or Vault can still retrieve.
- Communicate the schedule. State the platform, scope, countdown rule, expected processing delay, and whether deletion is permanent or compliance copies may remain.
- Monitor after rollout. Recheck policy scope after organizational changes, product migrations, plan changes, and new shared or external conversation types.
Troubleshooting common results
“The setting is missing.”
In Slack, check whether an organization policy locks the workspace, whether your role is an owner, and whether the plan supports the control. In Teams, verify that you are working in Purview rather than the Teams Messaging policy area. In Google Chat, verify the edition and Service Settings administrator privilege.
“The message is still visible after the deadline.”
Slack retention runs once daily. Teams can keep an expired message visible for up to seven days, and another policy or hold may preserve it. Google Chat may retain a removed message for 30 days before purge begins when no Vault rule applies, while Vault rules can preserve it longer.
“The message disappeared, but an administrator can still find it.”
This is expected when a Teams compliance copy or a Google Vault-retained item remains after the user-facing message is gone. Check the applicable retention policy, hold, and eDiscovery or Vault access before treating the result as an error.
“Different participants see different history behavior.”
Check whether the conversation is external. Google’s post-May 1, 2025 rule for some cross-organization one-to-one conversations places history availability under the other organization’s policy. In Slack and Teams, also check whether the conversation is an Enterprise multi-workspace channel or a shared channel inheriting a parent policy.
“A file still exists after the message was deleted.”
Slack retention does not remove files hosted by third-party services. Investigate the source service’s retention and deletion controls separately from the Slack message policy.
Keep the policy maintainable
Store the policy owner, scope, retention period, deletion mode, exception process, and last verification date in your administrative records. Revalidate after a plan or edition change, a product migration, creation of a new shared or external conversation type, or a change to legal-hold procedures. The product interfaces and supported capabilities can change, so use the current administrator documentation and the labels shown in your tenant when a setting differs from this guide.
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