Send message and shortly delete it

Question

I'm trying to make a Discord bot delete its "system messages" after, say, 10 seconds, because I've been seeing a lot of "Invalid command" errors and "Done!" notifications, and I'd like to clear them out for actual messages. This is different from deleting messages where the user has a command; I already have that capability.

The bot uses ``message.channel.send(text)`` for all its sent messages. I don't know where to start. — haley, Oct 24 '17 at 11:31
@HarutheBishie did LW001's answer below work for you? If so, please mark it as correct. If not, please explain what else you are looking for. — Blundering Philosopher, Jan 02 '18 at 12:01

LW001 · Accepted Answer · 2021-05-28T11:31:06.110

31

I recommend you send the message, wait for the response and delete the returned message after that time. Here's how it'd work now:

message.reply('Invalid command')
  .then(msg => {
    setTimeout(() => msg.delete(), 10000)
  })
  .catch(/*Your Error handling if the Message isn't returned, sent, etc.*/);

See the Discord.JS Docs for more information about the Message.delete() function and the Node Docs for information about setTimeout().

Old ways to do this were:

Discord.JS v12:

message.reply('Invalid command')
  .then(msg => {
    msg.delete({ timeout: 10000 })
  })
  .catch(/*Your Error handling if the Message isn't returned, sent, etc.*/);

Discord.JS v11:

message.reply('Invalid command')
  .then(msg => {
    msg.delete(10000)
  })
  .catch(/*Your Error handling if the Message isn't returned, sent, etc.*/);

edited May 28 '21 at 11:31

answered Oct 24 '17 at 19:43

LW001

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14

if you're using discord.js v12 (master branch currently) you will need to change `msg.delete(10000)` to `msg.delete({ timeout: 10000 })` – Tony Jan 08 '20 at 00:24
Now deprecated. Please use `setTimeout(() => msg.delete(), 10000)` – PiggyPlex Feb 07 '21 at 12:41
As this is still active, I've updated the answer to the way to do it on the current master branch (v13). – LW001 May 28 '21 at 11:32

Jsowa · Answer 2 · 2021-06-10T10:35:09.500

20

Current API differs from older versions. Proper way to pass timeout looks like this now.

Discord.js v13

message.reply('Invalid command!')
  .then(msg => {
    setTimeout(() => msg.delete(), 10000)
  })
  .catch(console.error);

Discord.js v12

message.reply('Invalid command!')
  .then(msg => {
    msg.delete({ timeout: 10000 })
  })
  .catch(console.error);

edited Jun 10 '21 at 10:35

answered May 23 '20 at 14:47

Jsowa

9,104
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score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 22 '22 at 05:16

3

Every Discord.JS Version has a new way to delete with timeout.

Discord.JS V11:

message.channel.send('Test!').then(msg => msg.delete(10000));

Discord.JS V12:

message.channel.send('Test!').then(msg => msg.delete({timeout: 10000}));

Discord.JS V13:

message.channel.send('Test!').then(msg => setTimeout(() => msg.delete(), 10000));

Time is in milliseconds

edited Feb 22 '22 at 05:16

Paul Anderson

3
1

answered Feb 14 '21 at 15:35

PLASMA chicken

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Send message and shortly delete it

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