Allow webhooks to use reply messages

[davfsa]

A webhook is attached to a specific channel. Surely the channel association alone would be enough to say "this webhook can reply to messages in this channel"? If that's not enough, what about the (bot) user that created the webhook?

In our particular use case, we use a bot user for reading messages, but a webhook for sending messages. So we would always be able to get message IDs of non-webhook-sent messages. It's just that the webhook specifically allows for added flexibility in setting the username/avatar.

Note that WebhookExecute returns the message ID that was created (if you provide ?wait=1), so a webhook on its own (without a bot user) is always able to get some message ID to reply to.

And similarly webhooks have these other endpoints that allow a webhook to modify messages that it sent:

• PATCH /webhooks/{webhook.id}/{webhook.token}/messages/{message.id}
• DELETE /webhooks/{webhook.id}/{webhook.token}/messages{message.id}

So, at the very least, the functionality to reply to a webhook's own messages seems reasonable to me. Although, it would be ideal if a webhook could reply to any messages in its channel. I would be extremely thankful if you could consider this.

Originally posted by @qaisjp in #2118 (comment)

[muddyfish]

Not being able to receive the message reference through ?wait=1 or through editing would be completely fine for my use case, and could potentially clear some security issues on your side.
An alternate could be providing some proof that you know the message content regardless so no information is leaked.

For what it's worth, I've already had 5 users of my bot ask why this isn't already a thing

[EvyBongers]

Any news if/when this might be implemented?

[sairam4123]

Would it be possible for a webhook to reply to it's own messages?

[qaisjp]

#2410 (comment) is pretty awesome!

The slash command interactions support fetching a previously created message:

/webhooks/<webhook_id>/<webhook_token>/messages/@original
/webhooks/<webhook_id>/<webhook_token>/messages/<message_id>

And slash command message posting is based on webhook infrastructure.

I'm hoping that the implementation of these endpoints has paved the road for potential future support of Webhook Replies.

[barraIhsan]

#2410 (comment) is pretty awesome!

The slash command interactions support fetching a previously created message:

/webhooks/<webhook_id>/<webhook_token>/messages/@original
/webhooks/<webhook_id>/<webhook_token>/messages/<message_id>

And slash command message posting is based on webhook infrastructure.

I'm hoping that the implementation of these endpoints has paved the road for potential future support of Webhook Replies.

Why not just support message_reference tho? There is in the API Docs for messages.

[sairam4123]

Haven't tried that, I guess it might work.

[sairam4123]

That's good to hear! I am still here waiting for the replies system! And I got a little question, can you change the discriminator number of the webhooks, I'd be happy to see it, because I am making a global chat system, and if the user had same same and avatar, it'd become confusing, so I hope it's possible to create something like that sometime in the future.

Edit: Let me know if it's possible to get all the messages a webhook sent? Thank you.

[qaisjp]

if the user had same same and avatar, it'd become confusing

FYI, you can use something like an avatar generator, and salt the username with the source platform.

In practice I've never seen two different people with the same name and avatar, so I wouldn't bother accounting for situations where they have the same avatar.

E.g.

• https://robohash.org/sairam4123_PLATFORM1.png?set=set4
• https://robohash.org/sairam4123_PLATFORM2.png?set=set4

[cherryblossom000]

This would be really useful for bots that bridge other communication services to Discord. For example, the Matrix appservice for Discord uses webhooks to simulate users sending messages from Matrix. It would be great if a Matrix user could use the reply feature in Matrix and it would be properly represented in Discord (see matrix-org/matrix-appservice-discord#693).

[JDJGInc]

People have made bridges already, and also for revolt.chat but yeah.

[ShadowJonathan]

Why was this issue moved to a discussion?

[FasterSpeeding]

See #3360 (comment)

[ProIcons]

This would be useful

[DynamicField]

This would be really useful

[Luc1412]

With the addition of this feature reply support for announcement channels could be added, because currently you can't publish a reply.

[sairam4123]

I agree! it would help me implement more stuff!

[banocean]

Any updates?

[barraIhsan]

Yes, is there any updates? This feature is very cool ngl

[PixelHir]

I'm guessing that this is just another thing that was dropped into suggestion hell.

[barraIhsan]

lmao

[flleeppyy]

poke

its been almost a year since the creation of this issue/discussion
w h e n ?

[mgmolisani]

Agreed. Update on this would be dope. Trying to get my friends over to Discord by making a GroupMe bridge to make it their choice until I start making messages that say "view the original message in Discord* for things GroupMe can't do to prove it's inferior. Feels bad that I can't show the better native reply interface and will have to resort to embed replies from the Webhook. Would also accept the Bot sending messages as a different username/avatar as an alternative - the Webhook execute has always felt hacky just for that functionality.

[lolcatww]

I don't think they'll ever implement this as developers seeking to use it are all using it for one purpose: bridging chats with competing chat apps.

Better forget about it ;)

[mgmolisani]

Trying to bridge it so my friends stop using other worse platforms though 🙃

[glasgowm148]

And Discord can get the upper hand by allowing the most seamless bridge. Telegram bridged messages are horrendous.

If another chat platform (ie, Matrix) ends up supporting this natively - I would advertise that as the main for all my Discords instead.

[glasgowm148]

And Discord can get the upper hand by allowing the most seamless bridge. Telegram bridged messages are horrendous.

If another chat platform (ie, Matrix) ends up supporting this natively - I would advertise that as the main for all my Discords instead.

Please add this!

[testman42]

What are current practices for implementing approximation of this functionality as closely as possible?

[josegonzalez]

@NoahvdAa where have you seen that sort of implementation? Is that something you can do in matterbridge?

[rollingmoai]

The Connections Bot uses buttons instead and I think it looks cleaner:

[PlavorSeol]

The Connections Bot uses buttons instead and I think it looks cleaner

1. Is second link button the reference to target message and did you mean it?
2. How did you make the webhook show WEBHOOK badge instead of BOT?

[rollingmoai]

1. Is second link button the reference to target message and did you mean it?

Yes.

2. How did you make the webhook show WEBHOOK badge instead of BOT?

BetterBotTags plugin from BetterDiscord.

[kingmigdor]

The Connections Bot uses buttons instead and I think it looks cleaner:

We are only using this BECAUSE there's no way for webhooks to reply to messages. So the bot would need the implementation of this feature.
And greetings from the Connections Bot admin :)

[muddyfish]

Given that webhooks now know which user they're invoked with to handle external emojis, would now be a good time to look back at it? If it's a slash command or bot-owned webhook, then you can use the 'read message history' permission of the bot to enable or disable replies.

[spectrapulse]

I kind of understand that Discord wouldn't want this for cross-platform bridging? But what about bridging guilds on platform though? Like we've already seen various "phone" or guild-to-guild features provided by some bots. Like there's a lot of creative use cases for it. Like even cross-channel bridging or using this in "starboard" channels would be kind of nice.

[kellyaka]

is it implemented?

[flleeppyy]

nope... but i found a bot based off of a friends bot that implements replies in a somewhat neat fashion

https://github.com/cloudytraveller/Proxia/issues/1

[Krumgar]

Nice alternative

[BobojonM]

Any updates? This will be a really useful feature. We need this for our bot that imitates different characters, and creating separate bots for all of them is not a good idea, with webhooks it can be any number of characters