7 Slack tips and tricks to master the business chat app

seven Slack tips and tricks to master the business chat app

(Epitome credit: Shutterstock; Slack)

If you lot're looking for Slack tips, you're non alone. In the past year and a half, many people have been working from dwelling house and employers relied on Slack, the popular business concern chat app, to carry work conversations.

Slack is an instant messaging system that many businesses set up to coordinate and collaborate on projects in real-time. The Tom'due south Guide team uses information technology daily to talk about story ideas, provide editing feedback and check in on everyone's status. Oh, and we too have fun conversations about the best shows to rampage watch and ship memes to each other.

But you may be new to using Slack, equally your company recently started working from home, or perhaps you're not making the almost of the software. And so we've compiled some great Slack tips that will prove yous how to primary everything from keyboard shortcuts, to notifications, to reminders.

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The best Slack tips for maximum productivity

Slack tip #ane: Learn keyboard shortcuts

Slack keyboard shortcuts can save you a lot of time. You can run into a list of all the shortcuts by typing⌘/ (Mac) andCtrl/ (Windows/Linux).

A few helpful shortcuts include:

Mark a bulletin equally unread: Choice + click a message (Mac and Windows)
Search electric current channel or conversation: ⌘+F (Mac) or Ctrl+F (Windows)
Turn selected text into a bulleted list: ⌘+Shift+8 (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+8 (Windows)

Slack tip #two: Set a reminder

In that location are a couple of different kinds of reminders in Slack.

If you lot read a message only can't address it right away, you tin can click the three dots icon next to information technology and select "Remind me about this" and a fourth dimension menstruum.

Slack tips and tricks: reminders — (Image credit: Slack)

If you want to gear up a reminder for yourself, someone else or a aqueduct, you tin can blazon "/remind" in the message field. It will pop upwards a template for formatting reminders:

/remind [@someone or #channel] [what] [when]

And so, you might remind yourself to do something:

/remind attend coming together at 3pm
or
/remind @henrytcasey please edit my article at 5pm
or

/remind #tomsguideteam please send me streaming ideas at 11am

And so Slack volition ship you, the person or the channel an alarm at the designated fourth dimension.

Slack tip #3: Employ Giphy

Sometimes, words aren't enough — a gif is the all-time way to summarize what you need to say. Slack is integrated with Giphy. To ship a gif, simply blazon /giphy and a search term.

For example, if you lot type /giphy celebrate, information technology will bring up one selection. Note that at this time, the gif hasn't been sent however. If you want another option, click Shuffle until y'all find 1 that yous like. So send (or cancel).

Slack tip #4: Search emojis or brand your own

Slack boasts a deep and varied emoji experience. In the message field, type a colon to search for emoji. For example. blazon :clap and you'll get several clapping emoji options.

Slack tips and tricks: emojis — (Prototype credit: Slack)

Y'all can also click on the smiley face up icon in the message field to find an emoji, or y'all tin can upload your own custom emoji. Foursquare images nether 128KB and with transparent backgrounds work best.

If yous and your co-workers are fond of sending a lot of GIFs and videos, your channel workspace may become overloaded and difficult to read. If that's the case, you can type /collapse and they'll exist subconscious. When yous want them back, type /expand.

Slack tip #half-dozen: Edit your notifications

Heavy Slack users tend to get a lot of notifications on your desktop. To edit these settings, click on your workspace name and get to Preferences > Notifications.

You can edit your Slack notifications to your preferred level: All new messages; straight messages, mentions and keywords; and no notifications (y'all'll nevertheless encounter badges).

You can as well:

Set up Slack to bear witness a badge whenever someone mentions a sure keyword (case: "netflix").
Plow on Practise Not Disturb so that Slack won't notify yous during a certain time period.
Alter your notification sound and appearance settings.
Send notifications to your mobile device when you're non active on desktop.

Slack tip #7: Practice with Slackbot

If y'all want to try out a feature like /giphy or /remind, you lot can practice with Slackbot. But click Slackbot nether Direct Messages and start typing! If you don't run into Slackbot listed because you deleted an earlier thread with information technology, don't fright: Just search for Slackbot like you would one of your colleagues, and begin a direct message chat that manner.

Slack tips and tricks: Slackbot — (Image credit: Slack)

Y'all tin can too customize Slackbot if your workspace has enabled this feature. For example, a workspace might create a custom response when people ask "What is the wifi password?" Slackbot would automatically reply with the answer.

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Kelly is a senior writer roofing streaming media for Tom's Guide, then basically, she watches Television for a living. Previously, she was a freelance amusement writer for Yahoo, Vulture, TV Guide and other outlets. When she's not watching TV and movies for work, she's watching them for fun, seeing alive music, writing songs, knitting and gardening.