(Note that the purple and white interface is associated with Slack so much that changing these colors can throw people off.) The clean interface is easily recognizable - it uses dark purple and white/gray colors, although you can customize the appearance. The app avoids the word “chat” and borrows a term from Twitter with “direct messages” instead, which automatically implies privacy. While some team messaging apps don’t know when to use the word “chat” versus “channel,” it is always clear in Slack. Below that, you see direct messaging chats which can be 1-on-1 or in small groups. At the top left of the screen, you see a series of default channels for collaborating in groups.

It is almost effortless in the sense that you intuitively know how to use it. They work on a very similar model, based on cost per member.(Image credit: Slack) Interface and performance I also took a quick look at HipChat and Campfire, two Slack competitors for team chat and sharing. is for channels accessible outside your instance.” “ is access-limited accounts for temporary users (e.g., contractors). Here’s a very short explanation from one of the developers on Twitter : There are some promising features ('Guest access & external channel support”) described as “coming in 2014”. But these are triggered by arbitrary keywords, and there’s no obvious way to mirror everything by default. Some of the “DIY' integrations could be pressed into service to mirror channel activity elsewhere. Note that uses the words “public” and “share” sometimes to describe communicating with the *entire team*, not with the outside world. The public view is pretty bare-bones and, in the case of the text file, pretty awful.Īs far as I can tell, the general content in channels can’t be made visible outside of the team. Here are example public links to a text file and a screenshot.

This doesn’t seem to apply to snippets or other posts. Slack does provide for outside views of to posted files and snippets via its “public link” feature. (Since the basic use case for Slack is a private team space, it has no public view by default.) Following up from today’s team hangout, I went looking for options for making open to wider participation.

Slackcom