Slack
By Salesforce
Slack is a business communication platform providing channel-based messaging, direct messages, file sharing, voice and video huddles, and deep integrations with thousands of third-party apps and workflow tools.
Definition
Slack is a business communication platform providing channel-based messaging, direct messages, file sharing, voice and video huddles, and deep integrations with thousands of third-party apps and workflow tools.
Overview
Slack launched publicly in 2013, built by Stewart Butterfield's company (originally developed as an internal tool for a game studio project). It popularized the "channel-based" model of workplace chat, replacing much of internal email with organized, searchable conversation threads, and was acquired by Salesforce in 2021. Conversations are organized into public, private, or cross-organization shared channels, threads, and direct messages, alongside huddles for lightweight audio and video calls and screen sharing. Its Bolt framework and Apps directory let teams build bots, slash commands, and workflow automations directly inside channels — for example, posting deploy notifications from GitHub Actions or routing alerts from a tool like Sentry — and Slack AI adds features like thread summarization and search-based answers. Slack is deeply embedded in modern software team workflows, competing with Microsoft Teams broadly and, in self-hosted or compliance-sensitive contexts, with alternatives like Rocket.Chat.
Key Features
- Channel-based messaging spanning public, private, and cross-organization Slack Connect channels
- Threads and searchable message history across the workspace
- Huddles for lightweight audio/video calls and screen sharing
- Bolt framework and Apps directory for bots, slash commands, and integrations
- Workflow Builder for no-code automation of routine tasks
- Slack AI features for thread summarization and semantic search