Responding to actions

There are two main ways to respond to actions. The first (and most common) way is to use the say function. The say function sends a message back to the conversation where the incoming request took place.

The second way to respond to actions is using respond(), which is a simple utility to use the response_url associated with an action.

// Your middleware will be called every time an interactive component with the action_id “approve_button” is triggered
app.action('approve_button', async ({ ack, say }) => {
  // Acknowledge action request
  await ack();
  await say('Request approved 👍');
});

Using respond()

Since respond() is a utility for calling the response_url, it behaves in the same way. You can pass a JSON object with a new message payload that will be published back to the source of the original interaction with optional properties like response_type (which has a value of in_channel or ephemeral), replace_original, and delete_original.

// Listens to actions triggered with action_id of “user_select”
app.action('user_select', async ({ action, ack, respond }) => {
  await ack();
  if (action.type === 'users_select') {
    await respond(`You selected <@${action.selected_user}>`);
  }
});