List messages

This guide explains how to use the list method on the Message resource of the Google Chat API to see a paginated, filterable list of messages in a space.

The Message resource represents a text or card message in Google Chat. You can create, get, update, or delete a message in the Google Chat API by calling corresponding methods. To learn more about text and card messages, see Google Chat messages overview.

Prerequisites

Python

  • Python 3.6 or greater
  • The pip package management tool

  • The latest Google client libraries for Python. To install or update them, run the following command in your command-line interface:

    pip3 install --upgrade google-api-python-client google-auth-oauthlib
  • A Google Cloud project with the Google Chat API enabled and configured. For steps, see Build a Google Chat app.

  • Authorization configured for the Chat app. Listing messages requires User authentication with the chat.messages.readonly or chat.messages authorization scope.

List messages

To list messages with user authentication, pass the following in your request:

The following example lists messages in a Chat space sent after March 16, 2023:

Python

  1. In your working directory, create a file named chat_messages_list.py.

  2. Include the following code in chat_messages_list.py:

    from google_auth_oauthlib.flow import InstalledAppFlow
from googleapiclient.discovery import build

# Define your app's authorization scopes.
# When modifying these scopes, delete the file token.json, if it exists.
SCOPES = ["https://www.googleapis.com/auth/chat.messages.readonly"]

def main():
    '''
    Authenticates with Chat API via user credentials,
    then lists messages in a space sent after March 16, 2023.
    '''

    # Authenticate with Google Workspace
    # and get user authorization.
    flow = InstalledAppFlow.from_client_secrets_file(
                      'client_secrets.json', SCOPES)
    creds = flow.run_local_server()

    # Build a service endpoint for Chat API.
    chat = build('chat', 'v1', credentials=creds)

    # Use the service endpoint to call Chat API.
    result = chat.spaces().messages().list(

          # The space for which to list messages.
          parent = 'spaces/SPACE',

          # An optional filter that returns messages
          # created after March 16, 2023.
          filter = 'createTime > "2023-03-16T00:00:00-00:00"'

      ).execute()

    # Prints details about the created membership.
    print(result)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

  3. In the code, replace SPACE with a space name, which you can obtain from the spaces.list method in the Chat API, or from a space's URL.

  4. In your working directory, build and run the sample:

    python3 chat_messages_list.py

The Google Chat API returns a list of messages sent in the specified space after March 16, 2023.