Hi ​@FutworkAdmin!

The New Message Posted to Private Channel trigger should pick up any messages in a private Slack channel. Additionally, if the Trigger for Bot Messages? option is set to Yes, those will trigger the Zap as well.

To better assist you, could you check if the selected channel in your Zap does have messages posted yet? If there are existing messages in the private channel, yet the Test tab is not returning any samples, this is likely related to a recent bug report. I can add you to the list of impacted users if you confirm that the channel has messages.

I look forward to your reply!

Yes, I tried multiple channels, all with messages but it doesn’t pick up. It did pick up messages from my public channels but failed to work for any private channel. 

Hey ​@FutworkAdmin! 

Thank you for getting back to me. I’ve added you to the bug report and you will be contacted via email once the issue is resolved.

In the meantime, as a workaround, you could try configuring your Zap so you can publish it/turn it on, trigger it with a test message to the Private channel, then turn the Zap back off and use the field names returned in the Zap History to continue setting up the Zap by creating custom pills of the fields that you want to use in subsequent steps.

Here is a Community guide that explains this process in detail:

I hope this helps!

Thanks, I’ll check the guide, but while I have your attention, can you advise if what I want to set up is possible via this method?

My problem statement: Slack users are missing replying to messages they are tagged in 

Goal: If a user is mentioned on slack in a thread and there is no response from them in 24 hours, zapier triggers a message to their DM with a link to this thread/ or tags them in this thread again/ nudges them in anyway. 

I am unable to make a generic workspace solution that implements this across channels, further I am only able to create the automation for 1 specific user mention instead of a generic one. 

Any guidance will be much appreciated. 

Hi there, ​@FutworkAdmin 

Yes, the desired set up would be possible with Zapier! The following trigger and actions could be used to achieve what you’re after here:

• Trigger: New Message Posted to Private Channel (Slack) - triggers when a new message is posted in a private channel.
• Action: Only Continue If… (Filter by Zapier) - set to only continue if the message has a user mentioned. For example: set it to check the Raw Text field (Text) contains this value: <@ as user mentions would appear in that field in this format ‘<@SLACKUSERID>’.
• Action: Delay For (Delay by Zapier) - set it to wait for 24 hours. 
• Action: Text (Formatter by Zapier) - use the Extract Pattern action and the <@( A-Z0-9]+)> regex pattern to extract the user id of the user that was @ mentioned. 
• Action: Retrieve Thread Messages (Slack) - In the Thread Timestamp field select the Thread Ts field from the trigger step. 
• Action: Only Continue If… (Filter by Zapier) - set it to check whether the Result Reply User field (Text) Does not contain the user id that is output by the Formatter action. This would indicate that the mentioned user has not replied yet. 
• Action: Send Direct Message (Slack) - In the To Usernames field select the User Id field from the Formatter step and select the Permalink field (from the trigger) to share a link to the message that they haven’t responded to yet.

If you’re not familiar with using delays, filters or regex patterns we have some guides that you might find useful:

• Add delays to Zaps 
• Add conditions to Zaps with filters
• Use regular expressions (regex) to find text in Zaps

Hope that helps to get you pointed in the right direction. If you run into any issues on setting that up or have any further questions just let us know! 

Thanks, since the first step is New Message Posted to Private Channel, it is unfortunately a blocker given the bug report above in this thread due to which the messages are not being found. 

Will wait for an update on that report and then attempt this setup, appreciate your assistance. 

Thanks for getting back to me, ​@FutworkAdmin. The workaround Marge shared, of using custom pill mapping to select the fields, should allow you to set up the Zap despite the test record not coming through. I’d recommend skipping the test on the trigger step to bypass the error and giving that workaround a try to get things up and running in the meantime.

Let me know if you get stuck implementing it or have any questions—happy to help! 

I cannot configure the 2nd step (Filter) without clearing the trigger step. I get an error. 

“First, you need to complete this step

Configuring the step gives you access to Slack's data to use in fields like this one. Go complete this step & come back to have access to its data.”

Hey ​@FutworkAdmin!

Since it is not possible to insert a custom pill in the Choose field… dropdown of a Filter step, to work around this, you can add a Formatter step using the Text action event > Default transform option which will return an Output field with the desired value. You will then be able to select the output of the Formatter step into the Filter step.

Please note that both Formatter and Filter steps do not consume any tasks, so you do not have to worry about adding these extra steps to your Zap.