Chatter Messages ride along with Chatter itself. To make private messaging available and safe to use, an admin enables Chatter, confirms messages are turned on, and then adds governance for content that needs supervision. These steps happen in Setup under Chatter Settings.
- Enable Chatter
In Setup, go to Feature Settings, then Chatter, then Chatter Settings. Confirm Chatter is enabled for the org. Private messages depend on Chatter being on, so this is the foundation everything else sits on.
- Confirm private messages are available
In Chatter Settings, check that messaging is allowed. Internal users get Chatter Messages with Chatter. For Experience Cloud, verify the site's settings and the relevant user profiles permit messaging so members can actually start conversations.
- Add moderation if you need it
Write an Apex trigger on the ChatterMessage object to scan or block content as messages are created. Use this when policy requires keyword filtering or other checks before private content is stored.
- Plan capture and retention
For regulated orgs, pair messaging with Salesforce Shield Event Monitoring or a third-party archival tool. Decide retention rules before users start messaging so you have a reviewable record from the first conversation.
The Setup page that turns Chatter on and exposes feed and messaging behavior for the org.
Site and profile controls that decide whether external members can send private messages.
Apex triggers on the ChatterMessage object for moderating or filtering private content.
The add-on that helps capture activity for compliance review and retention.
- The participant list is locked at creation. Adding someone later means starting a brand new conversation, not editing the existing one.
- Admins cannot read users' messages in the standard interface without elevated access such as View All Data, so do not assume you can audit content casually.
- Default storage is not a compliance archive. If you must supervise communications, configure capture before users begin, because nothing is retained retroactively.