My team works mostly remote and we use Slack on a daily basis to communicate with each other and receive notifications for updates and events related to the websites we're developing. It makes it easy to share information, ask a question, or request assistance from each other. Slack has replaced email as our main form of team communication because it can be used real time or asynchronously as needed.
Pros
Communication with your team or organization
APIs for receiving notifications from other apps
Central hub for communication, updates, and notifications
Cons
I honestly can't think of any complaints at the moment
Likelihood to Recommend
I think Slack would be useful in just about any and every situation where two or more people are working together or need to communicate with each other. It can replace email, chat, and video conferencing.
available desktop and mobile for anywhere and customizable notifications
Pros
available in all formats
notification settings are pretty detailed
allows threads
Cons
issues on chrome, phone, especially older hardware
harder to find people of messages you've sent before. need to have another option with recent contacts that aren't starred. and channels
separate group messages from direct messages in starred
Likelihood to Recommend
well suited: clé en main solution - professional presentation and software from what i can see people are controlled by someone in the workspace
less appropriate: people use it to gossip harder to use with outsiders, since every user has to be paid, and it would be good to be integrated with emails
Slack is used by Open Progress for organizers to communicate with volunteer voter engagers in real-time. Slack allows for volunteers to know the current assignments as they change rapidly given the political environment. Slack allows instant help to voter engager specialists with unique situations. Slack allows for private feedback to be given to the voter engages to improve their ability to connect with voters.
Pros
Update all team members.
Allow for collaboration among many constituents.
Offer real-time support for volunteers to ultimately improve upon voter engagement and persuasion.
Cons
Clunky log-in.
More personalization of profiles.
More streamlined notifications.
Likelihood to Recommend
Slack is great for any organization that has many workers working either remotely or across different locations. Without having to rely on disjointed emails and text messages there is real-time communication so the company can ensure all stakeholders are on the same page in terms of goals. The conversations can be searched readily minimizing the need for support tickets.
Collaborating with people from other organizations in a way that will organize your conversations. I like the organization of the channels by topics of discussion. I work in public policy, and it's great for working with colleagues outside your office when conducting research. It also supports Google Documents and other uploads very well.
Pros
Upload using Microsoft Word
Upload Google documents
Organize topics into channels
Allow for private discussions.
Cons
Although I did just say it was a key feature, uploading and sharing documents and including comments is a bit of a pain.
It doesn't give great previews of URLS
The directory could be improved.
Likelihood to Recommend
It is definitely well-suited for organizing research topics for easy accessibility. It is also suitable for dividing up projects within an organization (such as research and development). I would say that it is far more customizable than most project management software such as Asana or Trello. The integrations could use work, but overall it is great.
VU
Verified User
Manager in Research & Development (Public Policy company, 11-50 employees)
Slack is used by our whole organization. Before Slack, we used email heavily, as well as Google chat and Skype. After switching to Slack, our organization has completely replaced Google chat and has mostly eliminated the need for internal emails. It has combined all internal communication to one easy-to-use location, while increasing transparency.
Pros
Slack divides communication into "Channels", which can be either public or private. This is great way to discuss matters related to a department or a specific project. For example, we have a channel for "Technology", where we discuss our latest website updates. This allows the whole organization to see what's changing and being discussed. Anyone that's interested can join the channel and decide to enable or disable notifications (this is done on a by-channel basis).
Slack also offer Direct Messages, which work the same as an instant messaging service. These messages are private.
Slack can integrate with many different services and you can create integration-specific channels. For example, you can set up a Twitter integration and set up a channel that shows all recent tweets. The same goes for other integrations, such email marketing services (MailChimp), task management software (JIRA), etc.
Slack allows the user to upload photos, documents, and screenshots to a channel or direct message with the click of a button. This is a useful way to share information without having to send an email.
Cons
The video conferencing feature is lacking and not nearly as good as Skype. If your organization relies on video calls, Slack is not the best option.
If you're not careful, you can be bombarded with Slack notifications (either on your computer or phone), so be sure to set your notification preferences on each channel you join.
There is not a way to chat with Slack users from other organizations without inviting them to your team.
Likelihood to Recommend
Slack is well-suited for organizations that are looking to improve communication and transparency between departments. When users want to see what is going on in a department, they simply look through that department's channel history. Slack is also great for users that are frustrated with the amount of emails they receive. When we switched to Slack, the amount of emails I received reduced 75%.
