Slack review

What is Slack?
Slack is a productivity application that provides businesses with a centralized place to discuss, debate and collaborate. It offers a long list of integrations with many of the business applications you may already be using, which further enhances its functionality.Slack offers a variety of communication options that make it easy to make calls, video conferences, one-on-one chats, or group discussions.

In addition, Slack’s interface is intuitive and easy to understand from the start. Simply create topic- or project-based channels and invite relevant users to join them to participate. It’s easy to share files on these channels or through direct messaging. You can customize everything from emoticons to notifications.

What’s unique about Slack
The great thing about Slack is that it can (somewhat) keep all communication permanent, whether it’s one-on-one conversations, group discussions, or even huddled chats (Slack’s quick video and audio calling options). In areas where Slack doesn’t offer functionality, it may offer app integration.

In addition to the communication and collaboration tools Slack provides for your teammates, it also offers solutions for external contributors. You can set up partner-specific Slack bases so that you can keep all communications with each customer separate from your business (and still include all stakeholders). There are multiple security levels, including HIPAA compliance for top plan users.

Slack is a popular communication choice among organizations, and in the interest of full disclosure, we at Forbes Advisor use it ourselves. It’s a valuable tool for keeping everyone in sync. While it’s not an all-in-one productivity solution (we connect many other apps to Slack), it’s one of the best collaboration apps out there and easily ranks in our top 10.

Pros.
As a business messaging app, Slack excels at making communication between coworkers, teams, and external customers or vendors easier than ever. You can use a number of different contact methods and are sure to find the one that works best for you. Channels work a bit like chat rooms and help keep topics separate and organized.

Slack offers Canvas, which is like a whiteboard that you can use to collaborate with coworkers or clients, brainstorm ideas, create lists, or share documents and files. Plus, Slack is easy to use and easy to customize. You can join channels that are relevant to you, mute notifications in channels you follow at will, and even create custom emoticons for your workspace.

Cons
Slack gets expensive, especially when compared to similar collaboration software. There is a free plan, but it’s a bit limiting for businesses that need access to more than 90 days of historical messages and documents. Also, conversations tend to be hidden in the left sidebar when you start a new private message with a coworker. The advanced search feature helps to find what you need, but it can be difficult to find conversations later if you forget who you talked to about a particular topic.

Slack Core Features
At its core, Slack is all about communication, whether through messaging, meetings, or project-centric channels. Closely related features include collaboration and integration.Slack acts more as a communications hub, containing connectors to all the tools used to get work done.

Communication
The number one feature of Slack is chat. There are many ways to communicate in Slack, but direct messaging and channel chat are the foundation of Slack. Paid users can access conversations indefinitely; users on the free plan can search the history for up to 90 days before it starts to disappear.

In addition, Slack includes a mini-conferencing feature that lets you connect with anyone in Slack via voice or video. This helps reduce the need for email or other communication applications such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Some users have reported poor quality audio and video, but in our experience, it’s smooth and we haven’t had any issues. It’s worth noting that audio and video conferencing is limited to a maximum of 50 people.

Files
Most Slack users are familiar with how easy it is to share documents and other files via Slack. You can simply drag and drop files from your desktop into a direct message or channel to share with others. Or, you can integrate tools like Google Workspace, which makes it even easier to share files and collaborate on them. That said, there’s no native document collaboration in Slack.

Software Integration
Slack is known for integrating with many types of software, which extends its capabilities. More than 2,600 applications work with Slack, including analytics, marketing, HR, project management, and communications applications. So if you prefer video conferencing with Zoom and want to easily share documents via Google or Dropbox, you can.

Whiteboards
One of Slack’s newest features is Canvas, which works like most whiteboards in that you can collaborate with others to brainstorm ideas. You can create content with others, share images, videos, and documents, add lists, and reorganize as needed. Canvases can work in direct messages, channels, or on their own. They’re shareable, so you can send a link to a canvas to another Slack user, and they can edit and contribute unless you lock out editing.

The only difference between Slack’s Canvas and a standard digital whiteboard is that you can’t draw or add sticky notes. Also, the version history is short: you get 7 days of version history with the Free plan; 30 days with the Pro plan; 90 days of history with the Business+ plan; and unlimited history with the Enterprise Grid plan.

Advanced search features
Searching for old conversations or shared files in Slack is as easy as using any search bar, but Slack lets you get even more granular. You can add multiple keywords and then narrow your search by selecting private messages, usernames, channel names, and dates. There are several ways to exclude channels that are frequently mentioned for the keyword you’re searching for. advanced search in Slack is excellent, but learning how to search efficiently can take time.