Once started, a direct message group can be converted into a private channel. Direct messages can include up to nine people. ĭirect messages allow users to send private messages to specific users rather than a group of people. These private channels can be used to organize large teams. Private channels allow for private conversation between smaller sub-groups. Public channels are open to everyone in the workspace. Public channels allow team members to communicate without the use of email or group SMS (texting). Although Slack was developed for professional and organizational communications, it has been adopted as a community platform, replacing message boards or social media groups. Slack teams allow communities, groups, or teams to join a 'workspace' via a specific URL or invitation sent by a team admin or owner. In March 2020, Slack redesigned its platform to simplify and customize the user experience. Slack's free plan limits users to viewing and searching only the most recent 10,000 messages. Users can add emoji buttons to their messages, on which other users can then click to express their reactions to messages. Content, including files, conversations, and people, is all searchable within Slack. Slack offers many IRC-style features, including persistent chat rooms (channels) organized by topic, private groups, and direct messaging.

After 3 PM, most of the core features became operational, except for push notifications, email, and third-party integrations including Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar. From 10 AM ET until 3 PM ET users could not log-in, send or receive messages, place or answer calls, and use Slack connections. On January 4, 2021, Slack suffered a large outage which lasted several hours. In response to the attacks, Slack added two-factor authentication to its service. In March 2015, Slack announced it had been hacked over four days in February 2015, and that some data associated with user accounts had been compromised, including email addresses, usernames, hashed passwords, phone numbers, and Skype IDs. On January 1, 2021, Slack and Salesforce announced an agreement for Salesforce to acquire Slack for a value of approximately $27.7 billion. In June 2019, Slack went public through a direct public offering to reach a market value of US$19.5 billion. Slack was previously compatible with non-proprietary Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and XMPP messaging protocols, but the company closed the corresponding gateways in May 2018. Īccording to Butterfield, 'Slack' is an acronym standing for 'Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge,' which he chose in 2012 to replace the previous codename, 'linefeed.' Slack launched to the public in August 2013.

Slack began as an internal tool for Stewart Butterfield's company Tiny Speck during the development of Glitch, an online game.

Slack desktop app language