“When someone unlocks their phone,” Frank said Protocol, “If they connect with their friends, they click on Facebook or WhatsApp. If they are making a connection with someone they work with, no matter where that person works, they should click on Slack. ”(Note the comparison to social media here.)
Slack users and pundits often refer to the application as an email killer, and a feature like Slack Connect seems to be as if it were still the other nails in the email box. Probably not. I say this not because of an email good– I currently have over 23,000 unread emails, which is not a humblebrag, it ‘s a call for help – but because there are still such fundamental differences in Slack and email chairs.
David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of Ruby on Rails, built the Basecamp production software company, and rarely misses the opportunity to reap the benefits of the Basecamp email product, which has eliminated some of these differences to WIRED: “Real-time conversation, staccato thinking. Email is erratic, thought provoking. Email is a protocol. You will not lose your communication book as you change systems. Everyone has an email. ”
The worst thing about something like a Slack cat could be said to be “it’s another platform,” Heinemeier Hansson says. “The last thing the world needs is another lock-in ownership protocol in a social graph to one company. ”
An email structure can support a more meaningful experience (especially in a pandemic). But tiles or texts can also be considered. So perhaps the most important question is whether Slack Connect is good chat, and what is a good chat application in the year 2021. The first and perhaps most obvious feature of a good chat app is a strict approach to privacy and security. Slack does not offer end-to-end encryption; organizations cannot currently be identified as official businesses on the platform, which is even more important now that people from other organizations can send messages; and, well, snafu is first in allowing people to insert potentially harmful message attachments in DM applications. Also, sorry people: Employers can read your Slack DMs, no matter how private they are.
Slack Connect in action.
Video: SlackThe next consideration is what kind of communication the conversation enables. Slack’s ban of real-time updates, its threading features, its programmed bots, even smorgasbord emoji and GIFs, are just as much a part of the app’s application as they are attracting attention. Microsoft Office applications are vegetables; Slack is candy. But, of course, candy is not good for you. Anne Helen Peterson, a former media studies researcher who now writes a Substack newsletter on internet culture, has noticed in the past that Slack has become a way of LARP our jobs – that’s a live action part – and this is one of many work apps that contribute to the “slip” between our work life and our personal lives.