---
title: "Replies & quoting — Messages for Laravel | Roundly"
description: "Reply to any message in the same thread; a quote snapshot is stored on the reply so it survives edits and deletes."
url: https://roundly-consulting.com/open-source/docs/messages-for-laravel/replies
language: en
---

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[Messages for Laravel](https://roundly-consulting.com/open-source/docs/messages-for-laravel.md)

# Replies & quoting

Any message can reply to another in the same thread. A lightweight snapshot of the quoted message is stored on the reply, so the quote survives the parent being edited or deleted:

```php
use RoundlyConsulting\Messages\Facades\Messages;

$reply = Messages::to($thread)->from($bob)->replyingTo($original)->send('On it!');

$reply->parent;       // the quoted message (relation)
$original->replies;   // every reply to it
$reply->meta['quote']; // ['id', 'sender_id', 'sender_type', 'excerpt'] snapshot
```

The snapshot’s excerpt is the parent’s preview(), truncated to preview.length characters (120 by default) — so a reply to a system notice quotes it as it reads (“Anna joined the conversation.”), never as its translation key. Replying to a message in a different thread — or to one that does not exist — throws MessageException::replyAcrossThreads(); replying to a message its author already unsent throws MessageException::alreadyDeleted().

## Replying through the action

sendMessageTo() on the trait has no reply parameter; use the builder above or pass parentMessageId to the SendMessage action:

```php
use RoundlyConsulting\Messages\Actions\SendMessage;
use RoundlyConsulting\Messages\DataTransferObjects\SendMessageData;

app(SendMessage::class)->execute(new SendMessageData(
    thread: $thread,
    sender: $bob,
    body: 'On it!',
    parentMessageId: $original->getKey(),
));
```

## Rendering replies

MessageResource exposes a reply\_to object (id, excerpt, sender\_id, sender\_type) built from the snapshot, and the Pest expectation toBeReplyTo() asserts the relationship in tests. sender\_type is the quoted sender’s class basename (User), resolved through the morph map — never its class name; the meta.quote snapshot itself keeps the morph type.

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