It’s hard to imagine a world where Slack doesn’t exist. We can see teams worldwide collaborating through the platform and using it as a single place for messaging, tools, and files. One might even believe that Slack is the reason for the rising popularity of the remote work movement. Being a reason or not, it will definitely go down in history as a groundbreaker of the remote work trend.
Did you know that the name Slack is actually an acronym for “Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge?”
But did you also know that the Slack app has hundreds of different integrations, all designed to enhance employee experience? As if the app wasn't already a powerful platform for collaboration that we need a hundred more smaller independent tools.
From wikis for tech teams and Slack reminders to automatic code review notifications and polling your teammates, there’s more to Slack than meets the eye.
Without any further ado, we’ve hand-selected five of the best Slack integrations that can make your team happier and more productive.
Geekbot
Great for? Running daily stand-ups or check-ins.
Set up time? Under 10 minutes.
Useful for? Project managers and team members.
Working in a remote company comes with its set of challenges. One major issue teams are faced with are the daily standup meetings. As the team’s members are scattered around the globe and live in various timezones, it’s challenging for the entire team to sync up every day at a specific time. Many companies have found that it's sometimes easier to sync up asynchronously.
What if we tell you that there’s a super-useful tool that can put an end to this problem? The best news: it integrates perfectly with Slack! It’s called Geekbot and it can help you run daily standup meetings on Slack.
The entire team will be up-to-date with everyone’s projects. You can even choose the time and the questions that you want each team member to answer.
Here’s what you should do:
- Create a channel (ex: #daily-standup).
- Pick an agreed upon time to run the standups.
- Set a reminder that asks the members of the team to share their updates using a slash command. Every day, at that time, each team member will receive a message on Slack to send their report. The best part is that the time is based on the user’s timezone.
- The bot will ask each person to answer simple questions that you choose. The questions can be something like: “What did you complete yesterday?” What will you complete today?” Do you have any roadblocks?”
- The answered questions are posted to your team's #daily-standup channel.
- Read the replies in your dedicated channel to check what everyone is up to.
Smarty
Great for? Collecting, sharing and accessing knowledge in seconds.
Set up time? Under 5 minutes.
Useful for? Team members.
If only there were a tool that helps teams collect, share, and access knowledge in seconds! Luckily, the development team at Smarty knows what you need. And they have created the perfect tool for it!
The Smarty Slack tool lets you capture knowledge as it’s being exchanged. It has an easy-to-use editor so that every team member can contribute and edit knowledge. Instead of people searching between multiple Google docs and Slack threads to find an answer to their question, they can now ask Smarty and get their answer with a click of a button. Less wasted time and more time to be productive.
Let us walk you through the process:
- Let’s say that a team member asks a question. They ask in a Slack channel: “Company password?”
- Using a simple Slack Action, Smarty can record an answer to that question the first time it’s asked.
- Write an answer (e.g.: 1234)
- Your answer is saved.
- The next time a user asks the same question, Smarty will have the answer.
Pull Reminders
Great for? Shipping code faster.
Set up time? Under 10 minutes.
Useful for? Project managers and developers.
Have you ever asked someone for a code review a hundred times and had gotten tired of reminding them? If you’re looking for a great productivity boost for your engineering team, then you should definitely try out Pull Reminders for Slack!
This amazing tool can help you ship code faster on GitHub. Instead of personally pinging people on Slack that need to take action, Pull Reminders will do it for you automatically! You’ll reduce review turnaround times and streamline your pull request workflow. People will receive notifications and alerts that remind them to stay up-to-date with pull requests and finish code reviews in a short time.
Setting up is quite easy! All you have to do is:
- Set up automated reminders in a Slack channel.
- Everyone receives direct messages about their assignments.
- Run the /pullreminders Slack command if you want to see a list of open pull requests.
- The final step is to take care of your reminder schedule and filters so the team only receives important notifications.
Zapier for Slack
Great for? Connecting Slack with 1,500+ apps to automate your work.
Set up time? Under 10 minutes.
Useful for? The entire team.
Collaborating online is a fantastic experience. It’s so advanced that people don’t have a reason to come to the office anymore. However, it does come with its downsides. In busy days like Mondays, you have hundreds of apps and tools to open. You need to check your Gmail account for new emails. Google Calendar to look at your meetings for this week. Twitter to see if your newest post got any impressions.
What if we tell you that by using the Zapier app, you can connect your workspace to dozen of other apps? Zapier lets you connect your Slack account with over 1,500 apps to give your productivity a boost. You’ll get a new Slack message for things that happen in the other apps you’re using daily.
Here’s a little piece of what you can do with Zapier for Slack:
- Transfer tasks from Slack to a project management tool like Asana.
- Check for newly assigned tasks in a project management app.
- Post info about new orders from your eCommerce store to a Slack channel.
Instaling the tool is easy. Follow these steps to get started:
- Create a Zapier account.
- In the Slack’s App Directory, visit the Zapier page .
- Click “Visit Site to Install.”
- Click the “Log-in” button that’s located in the top right corner.
- Pick the apps you want to install and connect to your Slack account. All you need to do is click “Use this Zap.”
- The next step is to connect Zapier with your Slack account. Go to “Connect a New Account” and choose your Slack workspace.
- After you click “Authorize”, press “Save + Continue.”
- The last step is to click “Create + Continue”, then “Finish.”
Zoom for Slack
Great for? Video calls and conferences no matter where you are.
Set up time? Under 10 minutes.
Useful for? The entire team.
We all love Slack because it allows the entire team to collaborate and coordinate their work no matter where they are. We love Zoom as much because of its amazing audio, video, and screen sharing features. What if we could integrate Slack with Zoom?
As luck would have it, Slack and Zoom announced their partnership in April this year. Now your meetings with your team can be less of a hassle. You’ll be able to connect and collaborate with ease and with one click of a button. Instead of wasting time on planning your meetings, you’ll spend more time on problem-solving and decision-making.
By installing Zoom for Slack, you’ll be able to:
- Launch a Zoom Meeting from Slack by just typing /zoom.
- Call Slack users using cellular, data or WiFi connection.
- Integrate it with the Google Calendar app to join Zoom Meetings in less than a second.
Here’s how you can complete the installation:
- Make sure you have a Zoom account and that you’re a Zoom admin with permission to add apps to Slack.
- Get a Zoom Pro, Business, Education, or API plan.
- Go to Zoom and click “Add to Slack.”
- Sign in to your account.
- From the integrations page, click “Authorize.”
- Select “Authorize for your Slack workspace.”
Conclusion
These are only five of the existing Slack integrations. The Slack App Directory has over 1,500 apps that you can integrate into Slack and streamline your work. All designed to help teams around the world spend less time switching through tabs and more time doing meaningful work.
Hopefully, the apps we’ve outlined in this article will help you simplify everyday tasks. Add them to Slack so you and your team can finally start working toward that next big thing.
