Spartan 365 - Teams Chat Retention Policy

Navigation

Select a link below to jump to that section:

• Overview
• What Happens With a Retention Policy
• What Happens if Multiple Retention Policies Conflict
• Timing
• Retention Policy Options

Overview

By default, all Microsoft Teams chat messages will always remain visible in the Teams app. This behavior can be changed by requesting an update to the retention policy. The policy can be requested for individual users or for entire channels.

Difference Between Individual and Group Chat Messages and Team Channel Messages

Individual and group chat are messages sent using the Chat option in MS Teams. They include messages sent to one or to many people. These messages are not part of any Team, even if the group chat includes all members of a particular team.

Teams are made up of one or more channels that are controlled by security groups, and may have restrictions on who can modify membership. Messages posted from the Teams option are considered Team Channel messages, rather than chats.

Back to Top

What Happens With a Retention Policy

When a retention policy is put in place, messages older than the requested retention period will be automatically deleted from the available history in the Teams app. Messages are deleted for all participants in the chat, regardless of their own retention policy or lack thereof.

This only affects messages and will not remove any files that were shared via Teams. To access the files you will need to browse to them in the Team file section or the OneDrive where it is located.

Individual User (Chats)

In chats that are not part of a Team Channel, when the retention period expires, the message will be replaced by a notification saying:

We've deleted older messages due to your org's retention policy

Team (Channel Messages)

For messages sent in a Team Channel, when the retention period expires, the message simply disappears. However, if it was the parent of a threaded conversation, it will be replaced by a notification saying:

This message has been deleted because of a Retention Policy

Back to Top

What Happens if Multiple Retention Policies Conflict

The shortest retention policy controls when messages are deleted. For example, if an individual has a 30 day retention policy in effect for their individual and group chats, and posts in a group chat that has someone with a 14 day retention policy, all messages in the group chat will be removed after 14 days.

The policies are completely separate for individual and group chats versus team channel messages. Regardless of what policy a user has for their individual and group chats, it will not affect their messages posted in a Team Channel. Similarly, a policy set on a Team will only affect messages in those Team Channels, it will not affect chats sent by any team member outside of those channels.

Back to Top

Timing

The retention time limit starts running as soon as the message is sent in Teams. Later edits do not affect the timer. For example, let's consider someone (User A) who has a 14 day retention policy on their account:

• Day 1 - User A posts message M in a group chat
• Day 10 - User A edits message M
• Day 15 - Message M is automatically deleted for all group chat participants as the 14 days from the original posting have now passed

Back to Top

Retention Policy Options

The current retention policy options are:

• None - by default there is no retention policy and all messages are kept indefinitely until manually deleted
• Individual User
  • This type of policy only affects the selected user, and only affects their individual and group chats. It does not affect any messages they post in a Team Channel.
  • The available time periods for retention are:
    • 14 days
    • 30 days
    • 6 months
    • 1 year
    • 2 years
• Team
  • This type of policy only affects messages posted in the channels of the selected Team. Members of the team will not have their individual and group chats affected by this policy.
  • The available time periods for retention are:
    • 14 days
    • 30 days
    • 6 months
    • 1 year
    • 2 years

Back to Top