Classify the conversation
Distinguish temporary coordination from support history, formal complaints, transactions, regulated records, and other categories that have different owners and requirements.
Trust centre
RoomLnk Data and Message Retention Explained
Retention should follow purpose. A temporary coordination room and a business conversation that requires follow-up do not necessarily need the same lifetime or the same system of record.
Direct answer
What you need to know
A free RoomLnk room expires after 12 hours and its messages are deleted after expiry. Business plans list room history, deletion, and expiry controls. Businesses must choose settings and procedures that fit their purpose and obligations, and should record authoritative bookings, orders, work, consent, complaints, or regulated information in the systems designed for them.
The practical context
Why this matters in a real conversation
Short retention can support data minimisation and reduce clutter for one-off exchanges. It also creates a deadline: if staff promise an action, they must update the operating system before the room disappears. Customers should be told when the room is temporary so they do not rely on it as permanent storage.
Longer history can help continuity and team handover, but it should not exist without access rules and a documented need. Retaining every message indefinitely may create privacy, discovery, access, accuracy, and security obligations that are disproportionate to a routine question.
A workable approach
Choose retention from the business purpose
Select the proper system
Decide which information may remain as room context and which outcome must be transferred to a booking, CRM, ticket, work-order, clinical, financial, or other controlled record.
Configure and disclose
Use available expiry and deletion controls according to the documented rule. Explain the relevant lifetime and privacy information before customers share data.
Review and delete
Periodically confirm settings, account access, old rooms, legal holds, customer requests, and deletion procedures with the people responsible for privacy and records.
Operating checklist
Keep the shortest useful history
A useful room starts with clear expectations. Keep the invitation specific, make ownership obvious, and give people another contact route when chat is not the right channel.
- Disclose free-room expiry.
- Define the system of record.
- Limit history to a documented purpose.
- Review account access with retention.
- Test deletion and handoff procedures.
Where RoomLnk does and does not fit
RoomLnk’s product controls do not determine the legally required retention period for a business. Deletion may also involve technical processes described in the privacy policy and applicable provider arrangements. Organisations should obtain appropriate advice for litigation, complaints, children, health, finance, employment, consumer rights, access requests, and other regulated records.
Questions and answers
Common questions about data and message retention
When are free-room messages deleted?
The documented free plan states that a room expires after 12 hours and messages are deleted after expiry. Participants should complete the exchange and save any required outcome in the proper external system before that time.
Do business plans keep room history?
The current pricing information lists room history for Starter, Pro, and Business, alongside plan-specific room-management controls and capacity. Account owners should operate those capabilities according to a documented purpose and privacy obligations.
Is room history an official business record?
It may provide supporting context, but organisations should identify their authoritative records explicitly. Confirmed bookings, financial transactions, work approvals, consent, and regulated notes commonly belong in dedicated systems with their own controls.
Try the workflow in a temporary room
Create a room, open its QR code, and see what the invited person experiences.