Slack is one of the most powerful team collaboration platforms, it is among the most widely used messaging tools in the world.
There are a lot of amazing features that Slack offers to improve user experience and communication among teammates and colleagues.
In this blog post, you’ll learn about some useful things you could do in Slack that you might not know about.
What is Slack?
Slack is a workspace communication application created to transform communication in companies and improve how information is passed across in a team.
Although it can be adopted for personal purposes, Slack is mostly used by organizations to interact with their teams and ensure there’s a correct flow of communication.
Brief History of Slack
Slack started as a tool for Stewart Butterfield’s company, Tiny Speck, during the production of an online game called Glitch. It was publicly launched in February 2014 and has witnessed drastic changes since then.
A few months later in August, Tiny Speck officially changed its name to Slack Technologies. It raised $42.8M just 10 weeks after its launch with over 60,000 daily users.
This marked the beginning of greatness for Slack as it got more and more users as time went by. Over 10 million people worldwide now use Slack for communication.
Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do In Slack
Beyond Slack being a SaaS brand, here are some cool and important features that Slack has to offer beyond just messaging:
1. Create Posts in Slack
This sounds basic, but you can write long-form content as a post on Slack, it’s more than just sending quick short messages between colleagues.
You can share meeting notes or plans for a project, posts can help you share fully formatted documents in your Slack workspace.
Although you can view posts on your Slack mobile app, you can only create posts on desktop.
Here’s how to do this:
On your desktop:
- Click the plus icon next to the message button
- Select create a post from the menu available
- Enter your title and type your post
- It’ll be saved automatically, you can format it as you wish
- For more explanation of your post, you can add image(s) by pasting the URL
2. Schedule Messages
Did you know that you can schedule your messages to send whenever you want to on Slack?
Let’s say you have an important message to send for later and you’re worried you might forget, this feature would be perfect for you.
Here’s how you can do that on your Slack app.
For Desktop:
- Click the compose icon in the conversation or channel you want to send it to
- Type your message
- Click the arrow down around the send icon
- You can then customize the time you’ll like the message to be delivered
For Mobile:
- Like on the desktop, click the compose icon
- Type your message
- Tap and hold down the send button
- Then you’ll see the custom options
3. Host a Huddle
Slack huddle is basically a phone call created for informal discussions that are likely to happen in physical offices. You can either choose to start a huddle in a channel or use a teammate’s DM (Direct Message).
For the free subscription, a huddle can only contain two participants. On paid subscriptions, you can have up to 50 participants and anyone is permitted to join once it starts.
Here’s how you can start a Huddle:
For Desktop:
- Open a channel or a person’s DM
- Click the headphones toggle in the bottom left corner of your sidebar or press Ctrl + Shift + H for Windows and Shift + H for Mac
For Mobile:
- Open a channel or DM
- Click the headphones icon in the top-right corner of your screen
4. Open a Conversation in Split View
The Split View on Slack lets you access information from different channels or DMs side by side. You can open two different things and view them at the same time without having to move back and forth.
This can be helpful if you’re attending to two things simultaneously, although this is only available on the Slack desktop.
Here’s how you can do this on your Slack account:
- Press Ctrl on Windows and Cmd on Macbook
- Click the name of what you want to split in your left sidebar
- You can adjust the width of the conversation as you would prefer
- If you’re done you can click the X icon at your top right to exit the view
5. Create Custom Emojis
This is one of the coolest features on the Slack workspace. It’s limited to only members, guests are not allowed to use custom emojis, and workspace owners or admins can restrict the permission for this feature.
Here’s how you can do this:
To add a customised emoji and emoji pack
- From your desktop, click the emoji icon
- Click Add emoji.
- Click Upload image, and select what you’d like to add
- Under Give it a name, put in a name for your emoji, then click Save
To add emoji aliases
- Using your desktop app, click on your workspace name in the top left
- Select Customise
- Workspace owners or admins, you’ll need to click Settings & administration first
- Click Customise
- Select Add alias, then click choose emoji
- Choose an emoji from the menu
- You can also enter an alias and the new code you want to use
- Then save it
6. Set Reminders
Another cool thing you can do on Slack is to set reminders, this is available to all members but guests can only set personal reminders.
You can set reminders to stay updated with tasks or meeting times, you can also set reminders for messages you’ll like to come back to.
Here’s how you can do this:
On Desktop:
- In the message space, enter the details of your reminder following this format: /remind [@someone or #channel] [what] [when]
- Send your message to schedule the reminder
Slackbot will proceed to send the person a DM with the reminder details or send it as a message to the channel that you selected.
On Mobile
- From a channel or DM, tap the message space
- Then enter the details of your reminder following this format: /remind [@someone or #channel] [what] [when]
- Send your message to schedule the reminder.
To send a reminder for yourself, click the plus icon in the message space and select the reminder option.
7. Customise Automated Slackbot Responses
Customised Slackbot responses can be helpful in cases of responses to FAQs, if there are questions frequently asked by your teammate you can customise a response so you won’t have to stress each time they ask.
Here’s how to do this:
- Go to the customise your workspace page
- Then add and edit responses for the frequently asked questions
8. Star Important Messages and Channels
This is helpful to keep track of the important information in conversations and channels. The starred messages can be accessible in the starred section of the sidebar.
Here’s how to do this:
On Desktop
- Go to the message you want to star
- Click on the channel or user’s name in the message header
- Click the star icon beside the channel or user’s name
On Mobile
- Like on the desktop, open the channel or message that you want to star
- Select the channel or user’s name in the header
- Tap the star channel option in the menu
9. Send GIFs
Slack can be more fun when you send GIFs to your teammates and friends. This feature shows the fun and creative parts of having a workspace and it’s great for communicating and interacting with people.
Here’s how you can send GIFs using Slack:
- In a conversation, click the plus icon next to the message space
- Click on shortcuts then select Giphy
- Select find and share a GIF
- Type a word or phrase in the text field, then search it
- You can shuffle to view more options
- Select your choice and share
10. Birthdaybot
This is also another great feature that shows that Slack is intentional about its users and their personal information and celebrations, like birthdays.
Birthdaybot ensures that everyone is informed about upcoming birthdays. The bot works without filling out any forms and can even suggest perfect gifts for the celebrants. This is a great feature if you don’t want to miss out on celebrating your team members.
Conclusion
These are just a few of the things you can do on your Slack workspace. Slack is changing the narrative of workspace communication and collaboration and we’re here to see it.
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