The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for failed message error recovery using application specific error queues. An application message, a reference to a receive queue that corresponds to a receiving application, and a reference to an application specific error queue specific to a sending application are received from the sending application. The application message is enqueued in a transmission queue. Transfer of the application message to the receive queue is attempted. It is detected that the application message was not delivered to the receiving application due to an error. The application message is moved from the transmission queue to the application specific error queue. The application message and appropriate error information is returned from the application specific error queue to the sending application.