# Show message retention period in the UI?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/show-message-retention-period-in-the-ui/238979
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** chat
**Created:** [September 14, 2022, 11:02am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/show-message-retention-period-in-the-ui/238979 "2022-09-14T11:02:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@rishabh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rishabh)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 11:02am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/show-message-retention-period-in-the-ui/238979/1 "2022-09-14T11:02:53Z")
> **After this #chat conversation, I think we can have better copy here:**
>
> Originally sent in [chat feedback](https://meta.discourse.org/chat/c/-/129)
>
> 
>
> agungor
>
> When retention period is limited, is there a disclaimer on the channel that clearly states that? I was thinking of something along the lines of what we have at the bottom of topics that will automatically close.
>
> If I am writing in a channel and my messages will evaporate in 30 days, I would like to know đ
>
> 
>
> mcwumbly
>
> I know it's surfaced somewhere, but I think it needs to be surfaced more clearly. We don't have [per channel retention settings](https://meta.discourse.org/t/retention-settings-per-chat-channel/226704) yet; it's all site wide. I think per channel makes sense, and when we do that surfacing this more clearly will be even more important. Until then, while not ideal, the site wide setting is probably easier to communicate via other means.
**Proposed change**
- How it would work:
- We could add a tooltip âš to the end of the phrase so users are educated about retention periods and to use topics or âMove to Topicâ for important discussions
- Besides the above change, we also need to surface this somewhere that doesnât require scrolling to the first available message. The âAboutâ or âSettingsâ tabs on the chat channel info page seem like potential homes.
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### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2022, 1:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/show-message-retention-period-in-the-ui/238979/3 "2022-09-14T13:44:04Z")
The new copy just creates more confusion for me.
âShowing all messages in the last 30 daysâ implies that older messages _exist_, but some form of filter is limiting whatâs shown.
If weâre to eliminate the ambiguity we only really need to let the user know that messages over X expire/are deleted, right?
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2022, 2:12am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/show-message-retention-period-in-the-ui/238979/4 "2022-09-16T02:12:01Z")
I learned recently that we already have something for this.
Hereâs part of a screenshot:
Hereâs the spec:
>
What I donât fully understand about the logic at this point is under what conditions `needs_channel_retention_reminder` is `true`.
My quick read of the code makes me think it defaults to `true` and gets set to `false` once the user dismisses it once, and is therefore never shown again after that.
Maybe we could set it back to true under some conditions?
Or maybe we run with the design here, but just use the existing language for the text at the beginning of the message stream too?