Receiving and deleting a message in Amazon SQS

After sending messages to an Amazon SQS queue, you can retrieve and delete them to process your application workflow. This process ensures secure and reliable message handling. This topic walks you through retrieving and deleting messages using the Amazon SQS console and explains key settings to optimize this operation. The following are key concepts for receiving and deleting messages:

1. Receiving messages

   • When you retrieve messages from an Amazon SQS queue, you cannot target specific messages. Instead, specify the maximum number of messages to retrieve in a single request (up to 10).

   • Due to Amazon SQS's distributed nature, retrieving from a queue with few messages may return an empty response. To mitigate this:

     • Use long polling, which waits until a message is available or the poll times out. This approach reduces unnecessary polling costs and improves efficiency.

     • Re-issue the request if needed.

2. Message visibility and deletion

   • Messages are not deleted automatically after retrieval. This feature ensures you can reprocess messages in case of application failures or network disruptions.

   • After processing, you must explicitly send a delete request to remove the message permanently. This action confirms successful handling.

   • Messages retrieved using the Amazon SQS console remain visible for re-retrieval. Adjust the visibility timeout setting for automated environments to temporarily hide messages from other consumers while they are being processed.

3. Visibility timeout

   • This setting determines how long a message remains hidden after retrieval. Set an appropriate timeout to ensure messages are processed only once and to prevent duplication during distributed processing.

To receive and delete a message using the console

1. Open the Amazon SQS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/sqs/.

2. In the navigation pane, choose Queues.

3. On the Queues page, choose the queue you want to receive messages from, and then select Send and receive messages.

4. On the Send and receive messages page, select Poll for messages.

   Amazon SQS displays a progress bar indicating the polling duration. Messages retrieved will appear in the Messages section, showing:

   • Message ID

   • Sent date

   • Size

   • Receive count

5. To delete messages, choose the ones you want to remove and select Delete.

   Confirm deletion in the Delete Messages dialog box by selecting Delete.

For more details on advanced operations, including API-based message retrieval and deletion, see the Amazon SQS API Reference Guide.