In at least one example, the DM data 130 can store data associated with individual direct messages. In at least one example, the direct message management component 119 can establish a direct message between and among various user computing devices, allowing the user computing devices to communicate and share data between and among each other via the direct message. In at least one example, a direct message identifier may be assigned to a direct message, which indicates the physical address in the DM data 130 where data related to that direct message is stored. In some examples, the DM data 130 can store indications of subscription(s) associated with particular direct messages.
In some examples, the datastore 122 can be partitioned into discrete items of data that may be accessed and managed individually (e.g., data shards). Data shards can simplify many technical tasks, such as data retention, unfurling (e.g., detecting that message contents include a link, crawling the link's metadata, and determining a uniform summary of the metadata), and integration settings. In some examples, data shards can be associated with groups (e.g., organizations, workspaces), communication channels, direct messages, users, or the like.