Team chat is where a company thinks out loud: the questions, handoffs, corrections and decisions that never make it into a finished document. That is what AI developers want, and Troveo, Mode and Mercor all name chat tools on their pages for companies; micro1 lists internal communications.

What is in it, and what to leave out

Chat mixes work with everything else. Before licensing it, decide on:

  • Direct messages. Many companies license channels only, or exclude DMs entirely.
  • HR, legal and leadership channels: personnel issues, legal advice, board matters.
  • Customer and partner channels, such as Slack Connect, which may be covered by the other company’s confidentiality terms.
  • Secrets. Chat collects API keys and passwords. Rotate them whatever you decide.

Buyers remove names and identifiers before passing data on (see privacy and de-identification); scoping out channels is your call.

What each Slack plan can export

Slack says every plan can export public-channel messages and links to files. On Business+, workspace owners can apply for a self-serve export that includes private channels and direct messages; on Enterprise plans, org owners request export tools from Slack Support. The plan you are on decides how much of your chat history you can hand over. Details: exporting Slack data by plan.

The deadlines that matter

  • Free workspaces lose old history. Since August 26, 2024, Slack deletes messages and files older than one year on free workspaces on a rolling basis, and shows only the last 90 days. Downgrading a paid workspace to save money starts that clock.
  • Deleting a workspace is permanent. Export first.
  • Teams migrations leave history behind. Microsoft says Teams does not import Slack direct messages and has no native import for message history; free and paid tools exist. See Slack to Teams.

Microsoft Teams chats live in Microsoft 365, so they follow its subscription stages: see email for the dates. The data retention clock dates the Slack limits from your downgrade or cancellation day.

What buyers say about team chat

From each buyer’s own page for companies; open the profile for its other requirements.

BuyerWhat its page names
TroveoSlack, Microsoft Teams and Google Chat (source)
ModeChat and collaboration; Slack among its sources (source)
MercorSlack and Microsoft Teams among the tools it connects (source)
micro1Internal communications (FAQ) (source)

Questions people ask

Is a Slack export with public channels only worth anything?

It can be: public channels are where most project and team work happens. Buyers judge the whole package, so chat usually counts alongside email, documents and tickets rather than on its own.

We downgraded Slack to free. Can we get the old messages back?

Slack says that on free workspaces, messages and files older than one year are deleted on a rolling basis and the deletion can't be undone. Anything inside the year can still be exported.

We moved from Slack to Teams. Did the history come with us?

Usually not all of it. Microsoft says Teams does not import Slack history natively and does not import direct messages. If you still have the Slack workspace, export it before it is deleted.

Sources

  1. Troveo: License your business data
  2. Mode: Get paid for your operational business data
  3. Mercor: Your enterprise data can advance frontier AI
  4. micro1: Monetize your company's operational data
  5. Slack Help Center: Export your workspace data
  6. Slack Help Center: Updates to message and file history on free workspaces
  7. Slack Help Center: Delete a workspace
  8. Microsoft Learn: Migrate from Slack to Microsoft Teams

Other kinds of company data

Email

Years of customer, vendor and internal threads. Export before you cancel Google Workspace or Microsoft 365: deleted mailboxes do not come back.

Documents and files

SOPs, proposals, specs and wikis in Drive, SharePoint, Dropbox, Box, Notion or Confluence. Each vendor deletes on its own schedule.

Support tickets

Thousands of real problems and how your team solved them. They are full of customer details, so privacy promises decide what you can include.

CRM and sales records

Deals, accounts and the notes behind them. Valuable to AI buyers, and also to anyone buying your business, so decide which comes first.

Source code

Repositories, commits, pull requests and issues show how software is really built. Third-party code and client work need sorting out first.

Projects and tasks

Jira, Asana and Monday boards record who did what, when and why. Asana's export right after termination lasts only 30 days.

Meeting and call recordings

Recorded calls and transcripts capture decisions as they happen. Only two buyers name them, and consent to recording matters most here.