Key takeaways
- Group conversations form a history that owners and admins can audit and export.
- C Chat does not offer retention settings, automatic deletion schedules or legal hold controls.
- Members can edit and delete their own messages.
- Direct messages are private and are not included in team exports.
- A retention policy for chat is a business decision; write it down and check it with counsel.
“How long do we keep chat messages?” is a question many teams never ask until a dispute, an audit or a former employee’s data request forces it. Retention is partly a product question and partly a policy question. This page separates the two: what C Chat does, and what remains your decision.
Short answer: a history you can export, no automatic rules
C Chat’s approach to chat app data retention is deliberately simple. Group conversations remain as the team’s history. Owners and admins can audit them and export them when they need a copy. There are no retention schedules, no auto-delete timers, no disappearing messages and no legal hold switch.
That simplicity has two consequences. Your team always has its working history available. And if you need formal retention rules, those rules live in your own policy and your own storage, not in a setting inside the app. If the vocabulary is new, the glossary explains what data retention means.
How data retention works in C Chat
| Data | What happens | Who controls it |
|---|---|---|
| Group messages, photos, files, voice notes | Stay in the group history | Team owners and admins can audit and export |
| A member’s own messages | The author can edit or delete them | The member |
| Direct messages | Private between participants | The participants |
| Exported conversations | Stored wherever you save them | Your company |
| Account data | Handled under the privacy policy, including on deletion | C Chat and the account holder |
Everything stored in C Chat is protected with AES-256 at rest under a key specific to your organization, and travels over TLS. When a member leaves C Chat, the process in what happens when you delete your account applies.
Who can see what
- Owners and admins see and export the team’s group history. They cannot export direct messages.
- Members see the groups they belong to for as long as they are members.
- Former members lose access to the groups as soon as they are removed.
- The platform accesses content only for moderation of reported messages or legal requirements, and logs that access.
What it means for owners, admins and members
Writing a simple retention policy
Owners and admins who need structure can start with four decisions:
- What counts as a record. For example: incident reports, client instructions, shift handovers and approvals posted in groups.
- Where those records must be posted. Always in a named group, never in direct messages.
- When to export. Monthly, at the end of each contract, or whenever an incident occurs.
- How long exports are kept and who can open them. Decide a period and a storage location with restricted access.
The starter guide on writing a chat data retention policy expands each decision, and exporting chats for compliance and disputes covers the export step.
Members
Members should know that group posts can be kept by the team, and that editing or deleting their own message is possible but should not be used to rewrite the record of an incident. Put that expectation in your team rules.
Compliance and legal
Under privacy laws such as the GDPR, your company typically decides why and how long it keeps personal data, while providers process data on its behalf for some purposes. The glossary entry on controllers and processors explains the distinction. How it applies to you is a question for your counsel.
Honest limits and caveats
- No retention settings. You cannot configure automatic deletion or minimum retention in C Chat.
- No legal hold. If you face litigation, export the relevant groups and preserve them under your own hold; the guide on legal hold and eDiscovery describes the general process.
- Edits and deletions are possible. Members can change their own messages. If you need an untouched copy, export promptly after an incident.
- No certification claims. C Chat does not claim compliance certifications. Read the compliance overview for what it does provide, and assess it against your obligations.
Getting started
Set up your team at getcchat.com/c, create groups that match the records you need, and schedule your first export. If you are filling in a vendor review, the security questionnaire guide lists the retention questions worth asking.
Frequently asked questions
How long does C Chat keep messages?
Group conversations stay available as the team's history, which is what makes audit and export possible. For the platform's own data handling and any time frames, the privacy policy at getcchat.com/privacy is the reference.
Can I set messages to delete automatically after 90 days?
No. C Chat does not offer retention schedules, disappearing messages or automatic deletion. If you need a fixed retention period, define it in your policy and manage exported records accordingly.
Can we put a legal hold on a group in C Chat?
C Chat has no legal hold feature. What owners and admins can do is export the relevant group conversations and store them under the hold in their own system. Ask your counsel how your hold process should work.
Are direct messages included in our retention exports?
No. Direct messages between people are private and are not part of team audits or exports. If a conversation must be retained, it should take place in a group.
Who is responsible for retention: C Chat or my company?
Usually both have roles. Your company decides what records it needs and keeps exports under its own policy; C Chat handles platform data under its privacy policy. The controller and processor concepts help frame this, but confirm your situation with counsel.