How to make team chat messages disappear

Set a timer on a conversation so its messages delete themselves, and keep the ones you need.

Updated 2026-10-17

In team chat, a conversation can have a timer: every message written after it is set is deleted when the time is up. Anyone in the conversation, a direct message or a channel, can set it.

Team chat is under Operations → Team, on the Chat tab.

Set a timer

Open the conversation.
Press the clock at the top, beside the conversation's name.
Pick Off, 5 minutes, 1 hour, 8 hours, 1 day, 1 week or 4 weeks.

Everyone in the conversation sees a line such as "Chase set messages to disappear after 1 day". The clock then shows the timer.

Changing it affects new messages only. A message carries the timer that was set when it was written, so turning the timer off later does not save older messages, and turning it on does not delete them.

When you start a new channel, you can choose its Disappearing messages timer straight away. It starts at the business's default.

Keep a message

To stop one message from disappearing, open its menu and press Keep. It shows "Kept by" and your name, and it stays for good.

To change your mind, press Undo keep. The message then disappears at its original time; if that time has already passed, it disappears for everyone straight away. Only whoever kept it, or a manager, can undo it.

What "gone" means

When a message's time is up, it is hidden at once and then deleted from Otto, along with its notices and any Otto answer that quoted it. Otto only reads disappearing messages when asked in that same conversation, and exports leave them out.

If it doesn't work

"This business has switched disappearing messages off in Settings." — ask an owner or admin about the business policy.
"That message does not disappear, so there is nothing to keep."
"Only whoever kept it, or a manager, can undo that."