Slack has tons of features out of which few are barely touched by an average user. In this guide, we'll take a look at some of the Slack features that are less commonly used by both general users as well as by admins. These features will increase your productivity and will enable you to effectively communicate and manage a large team. Some of these features are related to direct communication with team members, while others are focused on admin tasks. Using these features will make you a Slack power user who knows how to work smartly with it. Let's try out these useful Slack features.
Interestingly, some of the features mentioned here are applicable to other similar type of apps too. But, here we are focusing solely on Slack, so we'll only see how these features work in it.
Almost all of the features mentioned below work on a free plan. Some of the features not mentioned in this tutorial are only available in the paid version. We'll learn about them in a separate post.
1. Set Reminders (for Yourself or Others)
This is one of the most powerful features generally used by admins. Through it, you can set reminders for individual users as well as channels.
Here's how to use this feature.
/remind [@person/channel] [what] [when]
/remind #socialmedia Submit your project by Thursday 10 AMIn the example given above, we're setting a reminder for the entire #socialmedia channel to submit the projects by this coming Thursday at 10 AM.
Recurring reminders can also be set like this:
/remind #socialmedia Submit your project every Friday at 1 PMAnd, if you want to see the list of active reminders, use the /remind list command.
2. Save Messages for Later
It's like a bookmarking feature present in every web browser. It enables you to easily save Slack messages to view them later, at your convenience. Here's how it works.
To save a message, hover the mouse cursor over it and click the bookmark icon as shown in the image. If you want to see all of your saved messages, simply use the /saved command.
You can use this feature to bookmark important messages, notes, or an asset link.
3. Quick-Switch Between Channels
This feature is best for Slack workspaces having a large number of channels and users. Switching between these channels and users can be cumbersome. Here's an effective way to speed up this process.
On a desktop web interface, use the Ctrl/Cmd + K shortcut to activate a quick search for channels and users. On a mobile device, swipe right to open the quick-switch bar.
You can also use the Ctrl/Cmd + T shortcut to access recent conversations.
4. Collapse Long Threads
If your Slack workspace consists of long conversation threads, it can make the entire experience, a bit cluttered. But, you can declutter it easily through the following method.
First, switch to the thread and use the /collapse command to hide it. Similarly, use the /expand command to expand it back to its original state.
You can use this feature to both declutter and enter in a focus mode to remove unimportant conversations from the interface.
5. Create Custom Statuses with Emojis
Admins can use this feature to convey their availability or the current context to the team in a customized way. It's a simple method and requires a few steps.
Start by clicking your profile picture and selecting the Update your status option from the menu.
Now type in your custom status message and pick a custom emoji by clicking on the left-side emoji icon. For example, I've picked search lens as an emoji because the status update shows an audit process is going on.
You can also select the time duration after which the status will be removed automatically. Lastly, to switch off Slack notifications during this period, you can use the Do not pause dropdown menu.
And this is how it looks. You can see both the custom status message as well as the custom emoji. It also showing till when this custom status will be in effect.
Administrators, managers, and team leaders can integrate and sync Google Calendar to automatically update their Slack status whenever they are in a meeting.
6. Search Like a Pro
Slack has powerful search features to find almost anything. But, you need to be aware of its usage. Here are few examples to showcase the search options supported by Slack.
Modifiers in Slack can be used as follows:
- Search all the messages and updates from a specific user by using the
from:@usernamemodifier. - Search for text in a channel by using the
in:#channel-name "text you want to search"modifier. - Use
has:linkandhas:imagemodifiers to search for messages and updates having a URL or an image. - For searching messages and updates before a certain date, use the
before:2024-08-05modifier. In this example, all the messages and updates before 5th August 2024 will be shown. - If you want to search all the updates occurring in February of the current year, you can use the
during:Februarymodifier.
There are many more modifiers not included here. I've picked the most useful ones you may use daily.
7. Send Direct Messages Without Leaving the Channel
Although there is a dedicated direct messages tab in the Slack interface, you can directly send DMs to team members without even leaving your current channel. It's dead simple.
To directly send a DM, use the /dm @username Direct message text command. It'll directly send the message to the DM tab of that user.
8. Get Notifications for Specific Keywords
If you are into something important (focus mode) and want to minimize distractions, muting Slack notifications for every message except select keywords can help. You can enable notifications for selective keywords. Just follow these steps.
Go to the Profile picture → Preferences → Notifications → option.
In the Notify me about... section, choose the second option that gives you the ability to specify keywords for which you want to receive notifications.
Then, in the My keywords section, type in the list of comma-separated keywords for which you want to get the notifications.
9. Pin Messages to Channels
The pinning feature enables you to highlight important messages in a channel. It's generally used by admins and workspace owners.
To pin a message, right-click on the message and select the More message actions → Pin to channel option from the context menu.
There's a dedicated Pins tab where you can easily browse all the pinned messages.
10. Automate Tasks Through Workflow Builder
This is a premium feature and is only available in paid plans. It enables you to configure advanced task automation. Let's see an example of its usage to give you an idea how it works.
To access Workflow Builder, click the plus icon above your profile photo and choose the Workflow option from the menu.
In a new tab, you'll get the option to choose an event upon which you'll build the entire task. It's like choosing a trigger event for the task to start executing. To keep things simple, we're choosing an event for any member joining a channel.
In the next step, select the channels where a user joining event generates a trigger for executing this task. After selecting the channels, press the Continue button. Now that the triggering event has been configured, click the Add steps option to specify the tasks to be executed after the event happens.
And now, we'll select the action to be executed if a person joins a channel. In this example, we're going to send a message as soon as he or she joins the channel.
Finally, it's time to configure the entire action. Start with selecting the member. In this case, the person who has joined the channel has been selected.
Thereafter, we've written the custom text message which includes a variable denoting the channel the person has joined. Finally, we need to click the Save button to complete the setup.
Conclusion
Working with Slack requires knowledge of all the tricks to speed up your workflow. Whether you want to send messages fast or want to execute an action automatically as soon as an event happens, Slack has all the power to give you enough ways to make things easier for you as an admin or team leader.