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Slack and Atlassian team up for a chat battle with Microsoft (update)
Atlassian and Slack announced today that they're entering a partnership, one that should be beneficial to both as they continue to face competition from Microsoft. As part of the agreement, Atlassian will sell the IP for its HipChat and Stride communication products to Slack and will also take a stake in the company. Slack will make payments to Atlassian over the next three years, Bloomberg reports, and both Atlassian products will be discontinued.
Microsoft takes on Slack with free version of Teams
Microsoft Teams is getting a major upgrade, but it's not quite what you might expect. The company is taking a cue from Slack by unveiling a free version of Teams, allowing anyone to use the collaboration software without an Office 365 account. Naturally, Microsoft is hoping for free users to eventually become paying customers -- but even if they don't, they'll still steal away some mind share from its popular competitor. Slack has offered a free tier since it launched in 2014, which led to an explosion of private (and often superfluous) channels. That helped the service grow beyond teams of office workers, and it taught plenty of people how to use Slack, making it easier for them to bring it to their workplace.
Slack search filters help you sort through work chat clutter
Searching in Slack can be... difficult. If you're looking for a specific conversation or file, you may end up wading through pages of fluff to find that one chat you're looking for. Mercifully, it's about to become much easier. Slack is rolling out search filters that provide a much, much overdue ability to whittle searches down to narrower criteria. You can limit them by specific people, channels, file types and date ranges. Looking for what a coworker said about a project last week? You can probably track it down quickly.
Slack is down, now get to work (Update: It's back)
Slack has been down since 9:30AM Eastern. At the time of this post, it's been over 90 minutes since the service went offline, leaving millions of professionals scrambling for ways to communicate with their colleagues. But instead of freaking out, I'll just make a simple suggestion: Get to work. You remember, the stuff we used to do before spending all day swapping GIFs and memes on Slack. Catch up on your emails. Get started on that report you've been putting off. Take this reprieve from Slack pings as an excuse to focus, because multitasking is a lie.
Microsoft's Slack rival gets translation and Surface Hub compatibility
Teams just turned one, and for its anniversary, Microsoft has unveiled new professional features for it that go well beyond what rivals like Slack offer. Probably the most important ones for enterprises are compatibility with their existing telephone systems, automatic in-line translation, Surface Hub support, and the ability for participants to dial in with regular telephones.
Google team will bring Smart Replies to more chat apps
If you've wanted to use Google's canned Smart Replies in chat apps, you've been limited to using Allo or (if you're on the right carrier) Android Messages. But what if you're one of the many, many people using something else? Don't fret: Google's experimental Area 120 group is working on a Reply project that, as the name implies, will bring Smart Replies to many messaging clients (currently just for Android). Hangouts is logically on the list, but so are third-party apps like Facebook Messenger, Skype, WhatsApp and even Twitter's direct messages. You'd only have to tap a button in your notifications to confirm that you're on your way or say you're doing well.
Slack is the latest app to ditch the Apple Watch
Like Twitter, Amazon, and Google Maps before it, Slack is ditching its Apple Watch app. The team chat and collaboration platform for businesses quietly announced the news via an update to its iOS app. But, that doesn't mean Slack will disappear entirely from your wrist.
Slack screen sharing will let your coworkers control your computer
Virtual-office app Slack is adding one of its most requested features: screen sharing. And more than just simply letting a coworker look at what's on your display, you can grant control so that they can add a few lines of code, or values to a cell in a spread sheet. Everyone will have their own cursor for typing and clicking around, which almost makes it sound like Slack is turning your screen into a Google Doc. All thanks to the magic of the internet. Not into relinquishing full control of your machine? Your call participants can still interact, but they'll be limited to drawing on things. Still, that's pretty cool.
New Patreon tools help creators connect with backers
Running a Patreon page doesn't only entail creating for your audience: if you amass a lot of patrons, you'll also have to deal potentially time-consuming admin tasks. To make it easier to run a membership business, Patreon has introduced new tools called App Directory and Developer Portal. App Directory makes it easy to connect a variety of useful services to your Patreon page. For instance, if you have a WordPress-powered website, you can tie it up with your Patreon account in order to create patron-only posts.
Facebook's Workplace chat app brings screen sharing to the desktop
It seems like everyone wants to take on Slack these days when it comes to virtual office systems. The latest is Facebook, which, according to TechCrunch has quietly added screen sharing and released a desktop client to its Workplace chat app. The program is available for both Mac and PC, and this could signal that similar moves are en route to consumers. That could take a bit, though. As of now, the desktop client is in beta. The screen sharing feature allows for sharing your entire desktop, or just one specific app. Because, seriously, do you really want anyone at work to know you're playing with Facebook's Gameroom desktop app on the clock?
Slack's shared channels make it easier to ditch guest accounts
Slack competitors seem to be popping up at regular intervals these days. There's Facebook at Work, Google Hangouts Chat, and a bunch of rival apps from scrappy startups. Unfazed by the clones, Slack's star is still rising. The company announced today that its group chat platform has amassed more than 9 million weekly users. To celebrate, it's launching two new features. Chief among the updates are "shared channels," which essentially allow for cross-organization work in Slack.
The makers of HipChat are launching their Slack competitor, Stride
The Slack competitor space is a little crowded these days. There's Facebook's Workplace, Microsoft's Teams, Google Hangouts and Doist's Twist. Now, Atlassian, the maker of HipChat, is introducing another option -- Stride.
Transfer PayPal funds mid-chat with Skype’s ‘Send Money’ feature
Skype and PayPal have teamed up to make it easier for you to transfer money to someone mid-conversation. If you're talking to a pal through the Skype mobile app and remember you need to reimburse them for those drinks they bought the other night, just swipe right and tap the new "Send Money" feature. PayPal will take it from there.
Slack predictably rejects a bot made for flirting at work
Dating app Feeld released a Slack plug-in enabling coworkers to express mutual affection for each other, and a few days later, Slack has revealed it doesn't make the cut. Feeld founder Dimo Trifonov told The Atlantic he's been informed the app will not be listed in Slack's directory because of its developer policy, which says "We will remove Apps that we consider to be inappropriate for use in the workplace or that negatively impact the user experience on Slack. We reserve the right to remove or refuse any app that contains content that we believe violates the letter or spirit of these guidelines."
There's a slackbot for people who like to shit where they eat
Online dating and work chat apps have been separate entities for entirely logical, productive and HR-compliant reasons. But a dating app-maker has decided that the line dividing office life and love life should be blurred with the help of a chatbot for the reigning king of productivity services, Slack. If you think company-sanctioned flirting through work messaging is a good idea, you should probably talk to your human resources department. Because this is playing with fire in a way that gets people fired.
Facebook takes on Slack with a free version of Workplace
Facebook's not-so-subtle bid to take on Slack and Microsoft Teams just got particularly serious. The social network has announced a free version of Workplace that will let virtually any group chat and collaborate online when it arrives later in 2017. You won't get administrative tools or integrations with other services (such as Google's G Suite or Box's cloud storage), but you won't have to pay a cent if you just need the basics. And if you do need those features, Facebook is promising to undercut at least Slack's prices.
Slack adds status messages, a feature it should have had on day one
After its meteoric rise to popularity, Slack has been slowly adding useful features to help keep fast-moving chatrooms from getting bogged down. Earlier this year, the company introduced much-needed threaded conversations and now Slack users can finally set an away message or status update so friends and coworkers no longer have to sit and wonder why it's taking so long to reply.
Google is ready to take over your office chat with Hangouts
Google's work of transitioning Hangouts from being its default chat app to a more business focus is nearly complete. First up is the formally announced Hangouts Meet. Sound familiar? That's because it semi-officially arrived at the first of the month. Now Google is ready to take it wide. At its core, Meet is all about making video conferencing faster and easier. That comes down to not needing any special software or logins for video chat -- just a shared link. No WiFi? No problem because people can dial in with a dedicated phone number too. So long as their organization is a G Suite Enterprise customer, of course. Meet will support video calls with up to 30 people.
Apple, other tech giants will support transgender student's case
Several tech titans plan to sign an amicus (friend of the court) brief in support of a 17-year-old transgender student's fight in court, according to Axios. Apple, Microsoft, IBM, PayPal, eBay, Airbnb, Box, Yelp, GitHub, Salesforce, Slack and Tumblr are expected to back Gavin Grimm's legal battle against his school board for the right to use the bathroom that matches his gender identity. The amicus brief, created by LGBT organization Human Rights Campaign, will be filed in favor of Grimm for the Supreme Court hearing scheduled to take place on March 28th.
PayPal's Slack bot makes recouping the office bar tab easy
Slack is a popular way for teams to communicate in the office and bots make the app a lot more helpful with a number of tasks. Thanks to PayPal, there's a simple way for you to send money to a colleague or friend if they grab your coffee or pick up a bar tab after work. With the PayPal Slack bot, all you have to do is type "/PayPal send $5 to (insert username here)" and the funds will be on their way.
