Direct Messages

Open direct message conversations with users using bot.openDM(). For globally recognizable user IDs, the adapter is automatically inferred from the ID format.

DM behavior

DMs behave slightly differently from channel messages:

• Direct message handlers — if you register onDirectMessage, every incoming DM routes there before onSubscribedMessage, onNewMention, and pattern handlers. This keeps DM-centric flows like WhatsApp conversations, Telegram DMs, and web chat on one consistent handler.
• Mention fallback — if no onDirectMessage handlers are registered, DMs continue through normal routing. Unsubscribed DMs are treated as mentions, so existing onNewMention bots keep working without requiring the user to @-mention the bot.
• Per-conversation threading — Each top-level DM starts a new conversation. Thread replies within a DM continue the same conversation, giving you the same per-thread isolation as channels.

Handle incoming DMs

bot.onDirectMessage(async (thread, message) => {
  await thread.post(`You said: ${message.text}`);
});

Open a DM

From an Author object

The most common pattern — use the author from an incoming message:

bot.onSubscribedMessage(async (thread, message) => {
  if (message.text === "DM me") {
    const dmThread = await bot.openDM(message.author);
    await dmThread.post("Hello! This is a private message.");
  }
});

From a user ID

Pass a user ID string directly. The adapter is inferred from the ID format:

const dmThread = await bot.openDM("U1234567890"); // Slack

const threadId = await bot.getAdapter("whatsapp").openDM("15551234567");
const dmThread = bot.thread(threadId);

Check if a thread is a DM

bot.onSubscribedMessage(async (thread, message) => {
  if (thread.isDM) {
    await thread.post("This is a private conversation.");
  }
});