Slack

Best thing that happened to our company. Our productivity has increased since and our "reachability" as well. We feel very close now, even for our team which is 100% remote.

Vorteile

They really put the work into making a chat software that is very usable. intuitive, agile and overall, very enjoyable. We use many of the bots the marketplace has, especially the Google Calendar, Zoom, Giphy and Slackbot integrations that comes with it.

Nachteile

I cannot think of much of what I dislike about Slack, because I like everything about it. I used to have an issue that Slack didn't load properly, but an update and empty cache button swiftly solved it. Sometimes the calls ring on the phone first before doing it in the computer.

Slack effectively solves our need for real-time communication. We use the chat, voice and video calling options. It's a great tool and better than most other chat alternatives, but don't be tempted to use it to manage projects, store documentation, or give structure to files. You'll soon be overwhelmed by the lack of structure.

Vorteile

I love Slack's ease of use and simplicity. New users can get up to speed quickly and begin using fun features like @mentionds, /gifs and :emojis: The file attachments and search speed are well done.
Slack's real power is in all the integrations, so I love being able to hook up a dozen or so apps and collect all my notifications in one place. Also, the freelancer community has embraced Slack because of their free/cheap plans, so it's very convenient to keep in touch with a variety of contractors by just inviting them (since most already have their own Slack plans).

Nachteile

Slack isn't great at providing structure to your work-life. The #channel structure does aid in some structure, but Slack's support for threads is awful--they don't make any sense, and most people can't figure out how to use them. These deficits are offset somewhat by searchability, but for the most part you'll just be scrolling through endless conversations if you want to find a particular piece of info.

Slack has been wonderful to use both professionally and personally. I have managed multiple cross functional projects utilizing this tool to gather the most recent information needed for status reports, metrics, check-ins etc. Personally I use it to collaborate with my Agile Coach friends across the globe to share tools, tips and tricks we use while supporting our teams at work. We also use it monthly during our zoom meetups to chat amongst ourselves and share info during the call etc. I highly recoomend this collaborative tool.

Vorteile

I LOVE that you can create your own channels to keep conversations and shared documents organized and easily accessible for different groups you are collaborating with.
I also LOVE that these channels don't expire and can be accessed by anyone across the globe that you are collaborating with. This has changed the way collaboration can happen virtually in real time!

Nachteile

The # hashtags can cause me issues when I am searching for things but I am starting to get better at using them.

I started using Slack because my client required it. I find that it cuts down on my email dependence but I'm often frustrated when attempting to compose a message without standard elements such as tables, inline images, etcetrera.

Vorteile

I like the ability to stay in touch with our users via whatever device I'm currently using. For example, I can respond from my home computer, tablet, work computer or via my phone.

I especially like the ability to be notified of a new message via my phone where I can read the message on the phone but can step over to my laptop to reply.

I also appreciate the ability to add an email thread to a Slack Channel by simply adding a slack email address (each channel has a unique email address) to the CC field when I reply.

Nachteile

The biggest con for me is the extremely limited amount of formatting available to Slack messages. I can make a font bold and add links to files/images but I really miss the rich text features many similar apps provide.

It's also frustrating to need to keep typing adding the user name(s) when I'm responding to a message. I'm assuming that this is by design but it would really be nice to be able to "Reply All" to a conversation thread.

The desktop Slack application (running on Windows 10 Pro) has a "clunky" feel to it. It's written with a framework that allows the Slack developers to write HTML and JavaScript code that is essentially compiled into a Windows application and it definitely shows. Something as simple as selecting text is counter-intuitive (until you realize that it's essentially a web page mascaraing as a Windows application.

Push notifications and alerts have been helpful. We are able to get important information out to our team very quickly, and we are able to "thread" the information so that only certain groups or certain topics are discussed in certain "channels" or "threads."

Vorteile

Slack is made free for basic functions for charitable organizations. For this reason it can be a great option for charitable organization. It has powerful features, including video conferencing, file sharing, phone and web app integration, and file sharing. It also has cross-platform integration allowing connectivity between multiple different products, including Google and Microsoft products and IFFFT.

Nachteile

It is not cheap at all for even a small organization (unless your organization qualifies for a free subscription). There are limits to the number of users in a video conference.