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Migrating to the Agent messaging experience

In the Agent messaging experience, agent conversations happen in the classic Messages tab of the app, with threads shown in a timeline above the composer. Apps that already use the Assistant messaging experience can continue to use it for now, but assistant_view will eventually be deprecated, and we'll ask existing apps to migrate.

To move an existing app from the Assistant messaging experience to the Agent messaging experience, work through the following steps.

  1. Switch the manifest from assistant_view to agent_view.

    This change enables the Agent messaging experience for all users of your app. See the app manifest reference for the field definitions. To configure in the app settings, navigate to the Agent tab in the left nav, then select the button to update the app. When switching to agent_view, the nested assistant_description switches to agent_description.

  2. Detect when a user opens a DM with the app_home_opened event.

    Subscribe to the app_home_opened event to be notified when a user has opened a DM with your app. Specifically, check the value of the tab property of the event to verify when its value is "messages".

    JavaScript example:

    if (event.tab === 'messages')

    Python example:

    if event.get("tab") == "messages"

    This replaces the assistant_thread_started event. Without the assistant_thread_started events, messages received in the DM channel will not have a root message with subtype = "assistant_app_thread"; rather, the root message will appear from the user.

  3. Revisit how you set suggested prompts.

    Suggested prompts now live at the top of the Messages tab instead of within a thread. If your app set prompts contextually for each thread, review that logic.

  4. Keep your thread titled as it was previously.

    The assistant.threads.setTitle method is unchanged, so no action is needed for named threads.

Switching to agent_view cannot be reversed

Once you change your app's manifest from assistant_view to agent_view, you can't revert to the Assistant messaging experience. After the change, users will need to hard refresh Slack to see the Agent messaging experience. If your app is already distributed, this change will require going through Marketplace review.