Slack Overview
What is Slack?
Slack is a workplace communication tool that connects users with the people and tools they work with everyday, no matter where they are or what they do. Teams in Slack work together in channels that can be organized by project, department, office location, or anything else, really. This makes it easy for users to follow the topics that are important to them. Public channels are open to anyone on the team so marketing can see what designers are working on, sales can see what’s on the product team’s roadmap, and new hires can easily get up to speed instead of starting with an empty email inbox.
Slack connects to the tools and services that businesses already use and centralizes the notifications, files, and data from hundreds of different applications. This means no more searching through emails for that one follow-up, constantly switching between different tabs and dashboards, or juggling dozens of tools - each with their own login. Slack helps teams work smarter by providing all of the information and context needed to make effective decisions quickly.
Everything shared in Slack is automatically indexed and archived so that companies can create a comprehensive knowledge base with zero effort, simply by working in Slack. And, Slack’s search makes it easy find the information users need, whenever they need it.
Slack Overview
Pricing
Pricing options
Free Plan: $0
• No limits on time or users
• Search and browse up to 10k of the most recent messages
• 10 apps or service integrations
• Native apps for iOS, Android, Mac & Windows Desktop
• Two-person voice and video calls
• 5GB total file storage for the team
• Two-factor authentication
Standard Plan: $6.67 per user / month billed annually (or $8.00/user/month when billed monthly)
Everything in the Free plan, and:
• Unlimited searchable message archives
• Unlimited apps and service integrations
• Custom retention policies for messages and files
• Guest access
• Priority support
• OAuth via Google
• Mandatory two-factor authentication
• Custom User Groups to reach a team or department
• Group voice and video calls
• 10GB file storage per team member
• Custom Profiles
Plus Plan: $11.75 per user / month
Everything in the Standard plan, and:
• SAML-based single sign-on (SSO)
• Compliance Exports of all messages
• 99.99% Guaranteed Uptime SLA
• 24/7 Support with 4-hour response time
• User provisioning and deprovisioning
• Real-time Active Directory sync with OneLogin, Okta, Centrify, and Ping Identity
• 20GB file storage per team member
Enterprise Grid
Slack Enterprise Grid powers the design, usage, and administration of multiple interconnected Slack workspaces across the entire company.
• Organization-wide search, direct messaging, and announcement-focused channels
• Unlimited workspaces, customized around the people, information and apps that matter most to a team
• Shared channels between workspaces to connect teams when needed
• Security, compliance, billing, and platform integration management in a single view
• Support for integrations with data loss prevention (DLP), e-Discovery, and offline backup providers
• 1 TB (1,000 GB) of storage per user
• Dedicated account and customer success teams
• 24/7 support with 2-hour response time
Slack Features
Screenshots
Slack Reviews
Slack Reviews
All Day, E'ery Day
It is so helpful to use with remote teams. I use it daily for two different employers, and actually convinced my main employer (a government agency) to start using slack. Slack allows teams to communicate easily and quickly, sharing links and documents all through the app. It also allows for camaraderie and fun, an important part of every workplace, even when you aren't physically with your team. The absolute most convenient thing about Slack is that you can use the desktop and mobile version, and someone can ask you a question, you can answer it, and work can move forward efficiently. For teams with people in different time zones and different work hours, this is incredibly helpful while texting and email sometimes don't cut it. For people who are outside of traditional cell service, sometimes I can connect to Slack even when text/calls are not going through.
Best Communication Tool Ever.
We had a lot of issues with communication using some Google options, we had used "Chat" and Hangouts for work purposes but we don't get at all the product.
So we decided to switch all our operations to Slack and we are amazed!
We integrate all our DevOps tools to slack and we are very productive, we are using Slack with Gitlab and other tools and we are very happy with this product.
Fun and Useful Instant Messaging Tool!
It's a great messaging tool to keep track of announcements, files and other important official information. It's also a fun messaging tool to relax. I used Slack every day and it's the first thing I open in the office. Filesharing has never been easier. The performance issues can be improved a bot and new features can be added. Overall, a very necessary tool.
Slack : A very quick review
Slack improves correspondence among colleagues.
In spite of the fact that it doesnot supplant the need of email yet yes it clearly reduces unnecessary inside messages
Slack stays a standout amongst the best group informing applications since it offers more than some other application in this classification.
For a variety of devices and platforms, Slack is available: mobile Mac, Windows, Linux, Web, Android, iOS, and Windows.
It is a cloud-based tool in real time, so you need an Internet connection to use it regardless of which app you have.
Great for communicating with coworkers and friends!
I actually do not use Slack much in a business environment, but in a personal setting for a book club. We transitioned to primarily using Facebook for communication to Slack, as not all members of the book club are on Facebook. Slack has made communication a lot easier and fully centralized.
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All Day, E'ery Day
Pros
I love how easy it is to communicate with people, and the informal format the encourages communication rather than dissuades it. People might be less inclined to send an email or call because they are interrupting your work, but slack doesn't have that feeling at all.
Cons
The limit on shared images after you hit a certain threshold with the free version - to be fair, this is a minor inconvenience at most and just another reason to pay for it!
Best Communication Tool Ever.
We had a lot of issues with communication using some Google options, we had used "Chat" and Hangouts for work purposes but we don't get at all the product.
So we decided to switch all our operations to Slack and we are amazed!
We integrate all our DevOps tools to slack and we are very productive, we are using Slack with Gitlab and other tools and we are very happy with this product.
Pros
Best ChatOps tool, Good price, high-quality product, compatible with a lot of tools for integrations, good order, good for agile teams and DevOps culture teams.
Cons
The unique problem that I had using Slack was with the "community edition" because you can lose your messages, but you can solve it buying the paid edition for $8 per user, It is really a good price and the tool is excellent.
Fun and Useful Instant Messaging Tool!
It's a great messaging tool to keep track of announcements, files and other important official information. It's also a fun messaging tool to relax. I used Slack every day and it's the first thing I open in the office. Filesharing has never been easier. The performance issues can be improved a bot and new features can be added. Overall, a very necessary tool.
Pros
Slack is an amazing instant messaging tool that feels more like an official social media platform. The different channels in Slack are great to be connected to various technical teams and be up to date on what is happening with them. The @here and @channel features are great for announcements. The conversation threads in channels are fun for like-minded people and Slack is a very efficient way to share files of a larger size as Outlook may not support it often. Slack makes it super easy to share stuff with a group or just have conversations. The email notifications help not to miss any updates, and the feature to favorite channels is great. It's very useful to search for a piece of particular information across the enterprise. A keyword search brings up all related conversations and more often than not, you get what you are looking for. The option to pin documents to a channel is helpful too.
Cons
The app consumes a lot of battery on the phone. It has some performance issues and at times crashes. The email notifications for missed conversation sometimes take a lot of time to reach. If something is accidentally typed on a channel, unless the text is deleted, it forever keeps you in a draft status, which could get annoying sometimes. It does not have a feature to sort channels based on preference when there is a long list of favorite channels.
Slack : A very quick review
Slack improves correspondence among colleagues.
In spite of the fact that it doesnot supplant the need of email yet yes it clearly reduces unnecessary inside messages
Slack stays a standout amongst the best group informing applications since it offers more than some other application in this classification.
For a variety of devices and platforms, Slack is available: mobile Mac, Windows, Linux, Web, Android, iOS, and Windows.
It is a cloud-based tool in real time, so you need an Internet connection to use it regardless of which app you have.
Pros
What I truly like is to discover individuals and ping them and begin a transformation.
Most significant, you can share records, photographs, URL, gifs (Very significant), in a solitary spot.
Making joint effort simple and something to appreciate.
at the point when significant data is imparted to other application it gets lost and there is no record of it.
With the slack channel, the data is put away and can be utilized as references
Slack makes it workable for its clients to have numerous alternatives of getting informed.
The best component, as I would see it, is the place somebody can "@" you in a message or a post.
Cons
Below are some points which I least like in Slack:
Video calls are just bolstered in the work area applications and Slack for web in the Chrome program.
In the event that you join a call from a cell phone, you get sound as it were.
So also, screen sharing just works from the work area applications,
what's more, sharing control of screen sharing just works in the Mac and Window work area applications (not Linux).
From the web application in Chrome, you can watch on the off chance that another person utilizes screen sharing, yet you can't start it.
There is also no option for downloading conversations to create a hard copy record (for minutes of meeting, etc.).
No File Preview: If you could preview a document without downloading it first, it would be nice. But Slack does'nt have this feature.
Great for communicating with coworkers and friends!
I actually do not use Slack much in a business environment, but in a personal setting for a book club. We transitioned to primarily using Facebook for communication to Slack, as not all members of the book club are on Facebook. Slack has made communication a lot easier and fully centralized.
Pros
Slack is really easy to setup and provides a great solution for secure communication b/w coworkers and even friends. The interface, while slightly confusing at first, is easy to learn. In addition, it is easy to create different channels - as to have multiple conversations on multiple topics without those conversations overlapping. There are both mobile and desktop clients, and they are cross platform. There is even a web interface so you don't have to install a local client. Finally, you can't argue with the price as it starts with free version that is suitable for many use-cases.
Cons
Slack utilizes various shortcuts and tags to implement features (such as adding a poll to a conversation), but these tags are not obvious and usually need to be looked up.
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Slack Pricing
Slack Pricing
Free Plan: $0
• No limits on time or users
• Search and browse up to 10k of the most recent messages
• 10 apps or service integrations
• Native apps for iOS, Android, Mac & Windows Desktop
• Two-person voice and video calls
• 5GB total file storage for the team
• Two-factor authentication
Standard Plan: $6.67 per user / month billed annually (or $8.00/user/month when billed monthly)
Everything in the Free plan, and:
• Unlimited searchable message archives
• Unlimited apps and service integrations
• Custom retention policies for messages and files
• Guest access
• Priority support
• OAuth via Google
• Mandatory two-factor authentication
• Custom User Groups to reach a team or department
• Group voice and video calls
• 10GB file storage per team member
• Custom Profiles
Plus Plan: $11.75 per user / month
Everything in the Standard plan, and:
• SAML-based single sign-on (SSO)
• Compliance Exports of all messages
• 99.99% Guaranteed Uptime SLA
• 24/7 Support with 4-hour response time
• User provisioning and deprovisioning
• Real-time Active Directory sync with OneLogin, Okta, Centrify, and Ping Identity
• 20GB file storage per team member
Enterprise Grid
Slack Enterprise Grid powers the design, usage, and administration of multiple interconnected Slack workspaces across the entire company.
• Organization-wide search, direct messaging, and announcement-focused channels
• Unlimited workspaces, customized around the people, information and apps that matter most to a team
• Shared channels between workspaces to connect teams when needed
• Security, compliance, billing, and platform integration management in a single view
• Support for integrations with data loss prevention (DLP), e-Discovery, and offline backup providers
• 1 TB (1,000 GB) of storage per user
• Dedicated account and customer success teams
• 24/7 support with 2-hour response time
Free Plan: $0
• No limits on time or users
• Search and browse up to 10k of the most recent messages
• 10 apps or service integrations
• Native apps for iOS, Android, Mac & Windows Desktop
• Two-person voice and video calls
• 5GB total file storage for the team
• Two-factor authentication
Standard Plan: $6.67 per user / month billed annually (or $8.00/user/month when billed monthly)
Everything in the Free plan, and:
• Unlimited searchable message archives
• Unlimited apps and service integrations
• Custom retention policies for messages and files
• Guest access
• Priority support
• OAuth via Google
• Mandatory two-factor authentication
• Custom User Groups to reach a team or department
• Group voice and video calls
• 10GB file storage per team member
• Custom Profiles
Plus Plan: $11.75 per user / month
Everything in the Standard plan, and:
• SAML-based single sign-on (SSO)
• Compliance Exports of all messages
• 99.99% Guaranteed Uptime SLA
• 24/7 Support with 4-hour response time
• User provisioning and deprovisioning
• Real-time Active Directory sync with OneLogin, Okta, Centrify, and Ping Identity
• 20GB file storage per team member
Enterprise Grid
Slack Enterprise Grid powers the design, usage, and administration of multiple interconnected Slack workspaces across the entire company.
• Organization-wide search, direct messaging, and announcement-focused channels
• Unlimited workspaces, customized around the people, information and apps that matter most to a team
• Shared channels between workspaces to connect teams when needed
• Security, compliance, billing, and platform integration management in a single view
• Support for integrations with data loss prevention (DLP), e-Discovery, and offline backup providers
• 1 TB (1,000 GB) of storage per user
• Dedicated account and customer success teams
• 24/7 support with 2-hour response time
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Slack Features
Slack Features
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Categories
Categories
Videos and Tutorials
Videos and Tutorials
Additional information for Slack
Additional information for Slack
Key features of Slack
- 1:1 and group calls
- @mentions
- API availability
- Activity logging
- Activity tracking
- All data transfer is encrypted
- Always In Sync
- Archiving & retention
- Audio / video conferencing
- Authentication & security
- Business intelligence
- Call sharing
- Chat
- Chat functionality
- Collaboration tools
- Collaborative workspace
- Commenting
- Communication management
- Compliance management
- Contact history
- Create open channels
- Deep, Contextual Search
- Desktop & mobile messaging
- Desktop notifications
- Document distribution
- Document imaging
- Document indexing
- Drag & drop interface
- Email notifications
- File Sharing
- File transfer
- Full text search
- Indexing
- Mobile integration
- Nearly 100 integrations
- Notifications
- Open API to build your own integrations
- Personalized profiles
- Prioritizing
- Private text chat
- Real time data
- Real time notifications
- Real time updates
- Screen sharing
- Search functionality
- Single sign on
- Support for private groups and 1:1 direct messaging
- Tagging
- Tags, keywords & @mentions
- Two-way audio & video
- Video support
- Workflow management
Benefits
Slack surveyed thousands of Team Owners and Admins to see how Slack helps their teams work. The average team using Slack sees:
These findings have both tangible and intangible benefits for any business. Fewer meetings, reply-all email threads, and lengthy conference calls means teams can work smarter and be more productive. Additionally, this helps teams feel more connected and engaged at work.
GetApp Analysis
GetApp Analysis
Email, voicemail, instant messages, text messages, and phone calls are just a few of the ways that busy teams communicate, but manually checking and responding to the messages coming from so many platforms consumes far too many resources for today’s busy teams. Slack is a cloud-based solution that replaces traditional forms of messaging, and brings all group communication together in one place.
Designed for businesses of all sizes, Slack is frequently used by leading technology companies such as BuzzFeed, Salesforce, Spotify, and eBay. Top features include real-time messaging, drag-and-drop file sharing, automatic indexing, and integration with hundreds of popular business apps. Slack offers its own native apps for iOS and Android, which means users are able to stay updated whether they’re working inside or outside the office.
What is Slack?
Slack is a real-time communication platform designed for teams. The cloud-based solution brings group communication together into a centralized environment and replaces long email threads and status update meetings. Conversations are automatically indexed and archived, which enables users to pull up past files—including PDFs and Google documents—regardless of how long ago those files were shared and discussed. Slack searches within files, and it also allows users to share documents with virtually anyone.
In addition to its powerful messaging and document sharing capabilities, Slack also serves as a hub for integrated business apps. Organizations are able to integrate many of the tools they use every day with their Slack accounts. Pulling this data into a single platform saves time and increases efficiency for busy teams.
Slack Main Features
Real-time messaging
Slack is best-known as a real-time messaging platform for teams. In addition to facilitating open conversations between groups of people, Slack also offers the ability to conduct private conversations in a one-on-on setting and within smaller sub-groups. (These sub-groups are ideal for handling more sensitive topics that may not apply to everyone in the company.)
Login to Slack to start participating in a group conversation. These conversations will replace lengthy email threads, and they enable you to work more quickly when communicating with large groups of people. Use the @mention feature to tag a specific colleague within the context of a larger conversation, or add an emoji to demonstrate how you’re feeling at the time when a message is sent.
Team channels
Communication within Slack is divided up into channels, private groups, and direct messages. Channels are the place where open conversations take place. These conversations are easily archived and searchable.
Anyone can join a channel, including team owners, admins, and regular users. However, you do have the option to prevent users with restricted access and single-channel guests from searching specific channels. Clicking on the information icon for each channel pulls up information about that channel’s purpose, along with the ability to add other users and browse shared files. The information icon is also what you’d select to leave any channel.
Drag-and-drop file sharing
Slack has developed a method for quickly sharing files of all types. Users can drag-and-drop files from their computers, or the cloud, directly into Slack. Slack supports PDFs, images, and videos, along with many other types of files.
Once you’ve shared a document with your colleagues, get ready for the feedback. With Slack, your colleagues can comment on the file you’ve shared. These internal discussions can take place through the comments section. You can also add stars to the documents your colleagues have uploaded to mark which files you’d like to keep handy for future reference.
Indexing and archiving
Slack automatically indexes and archives everything that goes on within a team’s account. This includes all messages, notifications, and files. Slack also indexes the content of every document that’s uploaded, which means users can search for keywords contained in specific PDFs or Word documents.
When you use Slack, you don’t have to worry about accidentally losing track of an important file, even after the group discussing that file has been disbanded. Private groups can be archived or closed after they’ve served their purpose. Archiving a group removes it from the list of available groups, but keeps all data secure for future reference.
Contextual search
The search features in most email platforms are not robust enough to handle the needs of growing organizations, which is why Slack has developed its own contextual search tools. Users are able to search for keywords across entire team archives, or within specific documents, images, and other files.
In cases where the one thing you remember about a particular file is a generic keyword, you can use Slack’s filtering tools to dig deeper into the archives and pinpoint whatever it is you need. Search results can be filtered by date range, relevancy, and person, along with many other factors.
Slack Integrations
Integrations are a major part of Slack’s platform. Slack integrates with virtually every major business app. Users are able to set up their apps to post notifications inside the app and bring data together into one place.
Slack integrates with more than 80 external services, including Asana, Box, Dropbox, Desk.com, Google Drive, JIRA, and Stripe. Users with programming knowledge also have the option to create their own integrations.
Slack Pricing
Slack is free for teams of all sizes. Teams can use Slack for an unlimited amount of time without paying a dime. Organizations that need upgraded features, such as searchable archives with unlimited messages and unlimited external integrations, can sign up for a Standard plan at $6.67 per user, per month. Slack’s Plus plan costs $12.50 per user, per month. Enterprise plans are coming soon.
Slack Bottom Line
- Real-time conversations in an open or private environment
- Creates transparency within groups and teams
- Integrates with hundreds of popular business services
- Mobile push notifications keep users updated 24/7
- Free to use for teams of all sizes
Slack FAQs
Slack FAQs
Below are some frequently asked questions for Slack.
Q. What type of pricing plans does Slack offer?
Slack offers the following pricing plans:
Starting from: US$8.00/month
Pricing model: Free, Subscription
Free Trial: Available
Free Plan: $0 • No limits on time or users • Search and browse up to 10k of the most recent messages • 10 apps or service integrations • Native apps for iOS, Android, Mac & Windows Desktop • Two-person voice and video calls • 5GB total file storage for the team • Two-factor authentication Standard Plan: $6.67 per user / month billed annually (or $8.00/user/month when billed monthly) Everything in the Free plan, and: • Unlimited searchable message archives • Unlimited apps and service integrations • Custom retention policies for messages and files • Guest access • Priority support • OAuth via Google • Mandatory two-factor authentication • Custom User Groups to reach a team or department • Group voice and video calls • 10GB file storage per team member • Custom Profiles Plus Plan: $11.75 per user / month Everything in the Standard plan, and: • SAML-based single sign-on (SSO) • Compliance Exports of all messages • 99.99% Guaranteed Uptime SLA • 24/7 Support with 4-hour response time • User provisioning and deprovisioning • Real-time Active Directory sync with OneLogin, Okta, Centrify, and Ping Identity • 20GB file storage per team member Enterprise Grid Slack Enterprise Grid powers the design, usage, and administration of multiple interconnected Slack workspaces across the entire company. • Organization-wide search, direct messaging, and announcement-focused channels • Unlimited workspaces, customized around the people, information and apps that matter most to a team • Shared channels between workspaces to connect teams when needed • Security, compliance, billing, and platform integration management in a single view • Support for integrations with data loss prevention (DLP), e-Discovery, and offline backup providers • 1 TB (1,000 GB) of storage per user • Dedicated account and customer success teams • 24/7 support with 2-hour response time
Q. What are the main features of Slack?
Slack offers the following features:
- 1:1 and group calls
- @mentions
- API availability
- Activity logging
- Activity tracking
- All data transfer is encrypted
- Always In Sync
- Archiving & retention
- Audio / video conferencing
- Authentication & security
- Business intelligence
- Call sharing
- Chat
- Chat functionality
- Collaboration tools
- Collaborative workspace
- Commenting
- Communication management
- Compliance management
- Contact history
- Create open channels
- Deep, Contextual Search
- Desktop & mobile messaging
- Desktop notifications
- Document distribution
- Document imaging
- Document indexing
- Drag & drop interface
- Email notifications
- File Sharing
- File transfer
- Full text search
- Indexing
- Mobile integration
- Nearly 100 integrations
- Notifications
- Open API to build your own integrations
- Personalized profiles
- Prioritizing
- Private text chat
- Real time data
- Real time notifications
- Real time updates
- Screen sharing
- Search functionality
- Single sign on
- Support for private groups and 1:1 direct messaging
- Tagging
- Tags, keywords & @mentions
- Two-way audio & video
- Video support
- Workflow management
Q. Who are the typical users of Slack?
Slack has the following typical customers:
Freelancers, Large Enterprises, Mid Size Business, Non Profit, Public Administrations, Small Business
Q. What languages does Slack support?
Slack supports the following languages:
English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish
Q. What type of pricing plans does Slack offer?
Slack has the following pricing plans:
Free, Subscription
Q. Does Slack support mobile devices?
Slack supports the following devices:
Android, iPhone, iPad
Q. What other apps does Slack integrate with?
Slack integrates with the following applications:
Aircall, Asana, Bitium, Breezy HR, Datadog, Dropbox, Help Scout, LiveChat, PagerDuty, Resource Guru
Q. What level of support does Slack offer?
Slack offers the following support options:
FAQs, Knowledge Base, Online Support, Video Tutorials
It is so helpful to use with remote teams. I use it daily for two different employers, and actually convinced my main employer (a government agency) to start using slack. Slack allows teams to communicate easily and quickly, sharing links and documents all through the app. It also allows for camaraderie and fun, an important part of every workplace, even when you aren't physically with your team. The absolute most convenient thing about Slack is that you can use the desktop and mobile version, and someone can ask you a question, you can answer it, and work can move forward efficiently. For teams with people in different time zones and different work hours, this is incredibly helpful while texting and email sometimes don't cut it. For people who are outside of traditional cell service, sometimes I can connect to Slack even when text/calls are not going through.