What is Slack App: Advantages and Disadvantages

Some office workers may already be familiar with the Slack application. Slack is one of the most downloaded applications because it plays a role in team communication.

The Slack application makes it easier for us as workers to communicate about various things, especially work issues.

Not surprisingly, many companies use this application as a means of team communication. With Slack, you can make a work department into a group, making it very easy.

So what exactly is the Slack app? Here we will explain everything about the Slack application.

Intro to Slack: A Closer Look

As explained above, the Slack application has an important role in communicating within the team if there are problems or other things that you want to discuss.

Slack is an application used as a communication tool at work, where you can send messages, files, and more in one place. This means that Slack is a very useful instant messaging application for workers, especially office workers.

In Slack there are two chat methods that you can use:

  • channel (group chat)
  • direct message
  • The appearance of the Slack application itself is quite pleasing to the eye so that users are easy to use.
  • There are four main things to look out for in Slack:
  • Slack instance name
  • a list of channels where you are a member
  • a list of people you DMed
  • chat window

When you want to use Slack for your agency, your agency name will be included in the URL of Slack itself. For example, the name of your agency is Good News, then the URL in the Slack application will be goodnews.slack.com

Through this URL, later you can invite your members to enter the Slack that you have created. Slack is indeed public. Each member can join into one big channel. However, you can also create another channel for your own department.

For example, you are part of the creative department, so you can create a creative department channel and invite your members.

Is Slack App Free?

Slack has varying levels of providing features to its users. Some are free, and some are paid.

Reporting from Business Insider, for the free version of Slack, you can accommodate up to 10,000 recent messages and add several people to the Slack channel.

However, there is also Slack with a paid plan, so you can enjoy other advanced features of Slack.

Reporting from Slack, they provide three paid packages, namely the standard, plus, and enterprise grid packages.

You have to pay IDR 99,000 per active user and month for the standard package.

In this package, the features of the Slack application you get are complete message archives, group calls with screen sharing, shared channels, and so on.

As for the plus package, you have to pay IDR 186,000 per active user and month. This package gives you 20 GB of storage per member, access to the entire message history, and more.

Then, specifically for the enterprise grid package, you must contact the Slack sales team to buy the box. Seeing the various packages, you can choose a Slack package that suits your company’s needs.

Advantages of Using Slack

There will be a lot of benefits that you will get if you use Slack as a communication tool within your company. One of the advantages of the Slack app is that it is accessible to many people.

Reporting from The Balance SMB, here are the benefits that you will get:

1. Instant communication

It is undeniable that using Slack allows instant communication with your colleagues in the office.The reason is that Slack can be connected to all devices, laptops/computers or cellphones. That way, everyone is certainly easy to reach.

You can download Slack via desktop or the Google Play Store and App Store if you want to use Slack via mobile.

2. Can share files

You can share various files on Slack, such as spreadsheet files, presentations, or other files through Slack. That way, you don’t have to bother sharing files with the email addresses of each of your members.

Through Slack, later members in the channel can also comment on the file.

3. There is a notification notification

No need to worry if you don’t know updates regarding your company or department information. Slack provides notification alerts for its users, so they know when a message arrives.

Slack App Disadvantages

Although it has advantages, the Slack application also has disadvantages, including:

1. It is addictive

Slack is equipped with social media features such as emoticons and notification notifications. This can be so addictive for users that they sometimes open Slack more often than they get work done.

2. Messages get buried quickly

When you have a project within a company, there will be intense conversations in Slack.

Under these circumstances, important messages will be quickly buried and difficult to find. You can use the search feature to look for it, but it takes work to find important notes.

How to Join an Existing Workspace

To join an existing Slack workspace, you must obtain permission from whoever manages that workspace. Usually, they’ll send you an email invite that you can use to join, or you’ll get an invite link to join.

Some workplaces allow anyone with an email address from a certain domain to join.

Suppose you have received an email invitation to join or join Slack. In that case, you can immediately click “Join Now” in the email invitation.

However, suppose the company or manager of the workspace has automatically allowed your email address to enter the workspace. In that case, you only need to enter by typing that email address.

How to Join a Workspace Without an Invitation

Go to slack.com/get-started

Type in the email address and click “Continue.”

Please open the email Slack sent you for a confirmation code and enter it in the appropriate space.

Slack will open a page allowing you to create a new workspace and show you where you were invited. While most Slack workspaces are restricted to people who have been asked to use them, there are some public workspaces in the vicinity.