Re: Slack:Send a Message ...is it possible to reply to a specific message?

Steve_Kiwi · ‎Sep 19, 2022

We use the Slack:Send a Message automation to send new messages to channels.

Is it possible to reply to an existing message? I’ve been able to capture the Slack Message Identifier (permalink), but I’ve not found any options in the AirTable automation that would allow a reply.

Use Case / Details:

AirTable
1a) Form Submission
1b) automation: NEW Slack Message “Confirmation of Form Submission” (includes AT record id)
Zapier
2a) monitors channel for new bot messages
2b) Zapier formatter to extract the AT record id
2c) update AirTable record with ‘slack permalink’
AirTable
3a) Record status “complete”
3b) automation: use the permalink to REPLY TO (1b) - “Request has been completed”

I could use Zapier for step 3, but would prefer to use AirTable if at all possible. thanks!

p.s.
this is the format of the permalink, but I can capture channel ID (cid) , timestamp (ts) if that will help develop the action:
https://xxxxxxxxx.slack.com/archives/xxxxxxx/xxxxxx?thread_ts=1663343544.273199&cid=C03V8TG41L2

Vivid-Squid · ‎Sep 19, 2022

Hi @Steve_Kiwi,
You will need to use a 3rd party application like Zapier or Make.com to monitor your Slack messages.

ScottWorld · ‎Sep 19, 2022

Yes, it is very easy to reply to a specific thread in Slack with an API call.

It’s the exact same API call as posting a normal message, but you just need to add the “thread_ts” parameter (i.e. thread timestamp value) to your message when you make the API call.

You can read Slack’s API documentation on this topic here:

However, this is not supported as a part of Airtable’s native automations for sending Slack messages.

To implement this, you can do one of the following:

Write your own JavaScript programing code to handle this, or
Use the DataFetcher.com API extension, or
Use an automation & integration tool like Make.com, which has built-in support for this. See screenshot below: