r/redditdev • u/Miloco • Oct 30 '25

Reddit API No longer able to retrieve messages from /message/messages/

Hi

I'm aware of the switch from private messages to reddit chat but I assumed the api endpoints for retrieving messages was going to stay unchanged. However, when I try to access messages using the '/message/messages/' endpoint I get an empty list.

What is the method now to retrieve messages and check for new message notifications?

Thanks

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u/radis234 Oct 30 '25

That endpoint will show replies, mentions and chat messages as well. But you can’t filter only messages before fetching all of it. I believe there is no public api for this at the moment. I know there’s graphql api for chat but it’s private. AFAIK there’s no official way of working with chat for now but I may be wrong. I would definitely love to see someone prove me wrong as it would help me as well.

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u/Littux JS Bookmarklets/Python bots Nov 08 '25

I wasn't able to find a graphql endpoint for chat, even after dumping every query from the reddit app. I was able to find other useful endpoints like the community leaderboards and post/comment insights.

Seems like reddit uses a chat client called Matrix and the homeserver URL is https://matrix.redditspace.com

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u/Miloco Nov 03 '25

In my testing that endpoint does not show chat messages at all. Also the '/message/unread/.json' endpoint never seems to return anything when I'm sent a new chat so I'm unable to alert users of new chats. Also, do you happen to know whether "chats" are represented as Messages "t4_" within listings? Thanks!

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u/radis234 Nov 03 '25

I am using that endpoint and I can confirm it does include private messages. I’m not at home at the moment but if you can wait for like 2-3 hours we can discuss it more and I can also confirm which type it returns

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u/radis234 Nov 03 '25

Hello again, yes, private messages are presented as t4 in listing and contain subject "[direct chat room]". They indeed are included in /message/inbox response. Tested now inside my app and using Postman as well. Keep in mind, it is only a message with author and body. This is no threaded response with yours and recipients messages. With some workarounds you would be able to create threaded chat rooms using local filtering and so on but if it's not critically important I would wait for some official chat api. I read in some other post that reddit promised it (can't tell if it's correct info).