Are you looking for the best Slack features to help turbocharge your team’s performance? If so, you’re in the right place. Since it first emerged in the collaborative landscape in 2014, Slack has evolved from a simple workplace chat solution into a comprehensive productivity platform.
Despite a couple of issues with encryption, Slack has become one of the most popular tools in the modern workplace, with more than 20 million active users. Like competing solutions like Cisco Webex, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams, Slack is brimming with functionality.
It helps teams communicate via chat, video, and voice, supports file-sharing and screen-sharing sessions, and offers access to automation and AI tools.
Today, we’re looking at the top Slack features for companies investing in boosted productivity.
The Best Slack Features for Productivity
While most of the functionality Slack offers as an all-in-one collaboration platform can help enhance your team’s productivity, some features are more powerful than others. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most advanced features of Slack as of 2023.
1. AI-Driven Slack Features
Though Slack’s AI initiative is still in its infancy, the company has promised to transform the world of work with advanced generative AI tools and specialist solutions for sales teams. According to the company, Slack AI will build next-level intelligence into every component of the platform.
Employees can use SlackGPT to summarize highlights from a Slack channel, catch up on threads with a single click, and even create rapid responses to messages. Slack is also offering companies access to an AI-ready platform that they can integrate and automate with their own choice of language model.
You can use custom integrations, ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and more, all within the Slack interface. Plus, Slack will also include access to the Salesforce Einstein GPT app, allowing professionals to surface customer insights from Salesforce Data Cloud and Customer 360.
2. Slack Lists
If you’re looking for Slack features to help you and your team manage your days more effectively, Slack Lists could be the perfect solution.
While Slack already has its own to-do list feature, the company recently announced that it would create a more advanced solution for team productivity. Slack Lists, announced at the same time as Slack AI, will allow users to track projects, assign owners to tasks, update statuses, and collaborate on projects in a single hub. Slack Lists will also include dedicated threats for every project item.
According to Slack, Lists will make it easier to oversee project launches and monitor team progress without jumping outside the Slack app. When team members are mentioned in a list, they’ll automatically be alerted and receive notifications about status updates.
3. Slack Workflow Builder
First introduced in 2019, Slack Workflow Builder helps employees get more done in less time. It’s an all-in-one solution for building workflow automation within the Slack app. You don’t need technical skills to get started, as users can simply drag and drop workflow components into place.
In 2023, Workflow Builder has also been upgraded to allow users to add generative AI prompts as steps in critical workflows. For instance, if you wanted to automate sending notifications to a team member when a new lead is captured on Salesforce, you could add a generative AI prompt allowing the system to summarize profile data in the notification.
Workflow Builder comes with plug-and-play connectors for common business tools. Users can easily send workflows to other team members in messages, embed them in canvases, or bookmark them in Slack channels.
4. Huddles for Quick Communication
Preserving exceptional workplace productivity means ensuring team members can communicate in various ways, depending on their needs. Not every conversation requires a video call or whiteboarding session. Slack Huddles, the quick meeting solution, makes it easier for employees to chat in a flexible, ad-hoc format.
With Huddles, employees can instantly connect via audio or video in a few seconds, sharing screens with anyone available online. Huddles include access to Emoji reactions, colorful backgrounds, effects, and more to allow users to express themselves.
Plus, any documents, links, or messages shared in a huddle are automatically saved by Slack after the conversation ends, so you can jump back and check them for reference.
5. Slack Canvas
One of the top Slack features for creative teams, Slack Canvas (announced in 2022), revolutionizes knowledge sharing in the digital world. Canvasses on Slack offer groups a convenient and flexible online space where they can organize and share information. It’s similar to using a shared document or virtual whiteboard but with broader functionality.
You can fill a canvas with all kinds of information, including files, texts, applications, rich media, and even data from Salesforce. Plus, all users of Canvas can work on content together, leave comments, and connect via threads without leaving Slack.
Canvas even supports automation options through Slack’s Workflow Builder. You can request support, submit approval requests, and report issues with a single click, with no coding required.
6. Slack Features for Collaboration: Connect
Ideal for companies working alongside external contractors, companies, and freelancers, Slack Connect allows users to message people outside of their organization. This functionality will enable businesses to move communications with partners from inboxes into streamlined channels.
Slack Connect can even be used for customer service, allowing companies to provide top-tier enterprise support via chat. Connect features Slack’s enterprise-grade security, so you can rest assured your information will stay safe.
Plus, you can link connected channels to the tools and apps you already use. Slack Connect works with the Slack Workflow Builder and countless applications on the Slack marketplace.
7. Slack Clips
One of our favorite Slack features for field workers and diverse teams, Clips is a convenient way to communicate with colleagues quickly and easily without hosting a full meeting. With Slack Clips, users can record and send audio or video files to their colleagues and contacts in seconds.
All you need to do is press the record bar on the bottom of the message input field, and you can instantly capture audio, screen recordings, and videos. Additionally, users who receive Clips can review them in various ways.
You can access instant transcripts of recordings, speed up or slow down audio, and even follow along with captions if you’re reviewing a clip with your device on mute.
8. Advanced Search
While search might not seem like the most exciting item on our list of the best Slack features, it’s an excellent tool for improving collaboration and productivity. Slack’s advanced search features make it easy to find data instantly, with various filter options.
You can look for information in a specific time frame, search for keywords, track the most recent examples of words used in your channels, and more. You can filter your search by key people, media, or direct messages.
Slack even allows users to search for “broad match” terms by adding an asterisk after a word. This will show any instances of a word fragment throughout your channels and files.
9. Slack Atlas
Another powerful tool for improving collaboration and productivity, Slack Atlas allows companies to create rich user profiles packed with contextual information about each contact. Slack Atlas helps team members learn more about the people they interact with.
It can show user affiliations and skills on each profile, and employees can even access a comprehensive interactive organization chart at the click of a button. Administrators can also allow employees to edit and customize their profiles.
The solution can also sync data from other HR tools to ensure profiles stay current, giving users a single source of truth for all their contextual needs.
10. Custom Work Schedules
Productivity can often suffer when employees are distracted by the notifications that pop up on their screens from Slack. Fortunately, the platform makes it easy to customize your alerts and set up specific “do not disturb” schedules for deep work.
Within the “Workplace Settings” section of Slack, users can choose default hours when they don’t want to receive notifications from other employees. You can adapt your quiet hours to suit your needs and even mute notifications whenever you like.
Plus, you can adjust which notifications you receive within the “Preferences” menu on Slack. Just scroll down to the “Notifications” tab.
11. Personalized Sidebars
Different employees will use different parts of Slack more often than others. That’s why it’s so valuable to allow staff members to customize their collaboration apps. Fortunately, Slack users on paid plans can organize channels, direct messages, and apps however they like.
Users can create “custom sections” on their sidebars that are only visible to them. This makes it easier for employees to rapidly access the conversations, threads, and tools they need. The customizations apply to both the mobile and desktop versions of Slack.
Moreover, you can even adapt the app’s color scheme to suit your tastes. Simply visit the “Preferences” section of the app and click “Sidebar” to choose a theme.
12. Simple Slack Features: Slackbot
Slackbot might not be as advanced as SlackGPT or similar solutions like Copilot, but it’s still one of the top Slack features worth using for productivity. The handy helper, built into the Slack platform, can instantly notify someone when you message them in a channel or let members know when they’re in a channel that an admin has archived.
Slackbot can help to remind you about upcoming tasks and deadlines when you use the /remind command. Companies can even infuse Slackbot with custom responses to words and phrases. For instance, an admin could configure Slackbot to respond to a question about a technical issue with a link to a knowledgebase article or FAQ page.
13. Slack Integrations
Finally, it’s worth mentioning all of the incredible apps and integrations available through Slack that can help boost team productivity. More than 2,000 integrations are available for Slack, ensuring team members can bring their crucial tools together in one space.
You can connect Google Drive with Slack or integrate the tools you use for customer service. Slack’s deep partnership with Salesforce makes it the perfect hub for sales professionals who want to collaborate on sales and service strategies.
Once you’ve added your apps to Slack, you can access them instantly through the Slack sidebar with just one click. Plus, you can add apps to automated workflows created with the Slack Workflow Builder.
The Top Slack Features for Productivity
All of the Slack features mentioned above will have a resounding impact on your team’s productivity and performance. Slack has proven to be one of the most valuable collaboration tools in the modern world, and the ecosystem is evolving at an incredible rate.
With more AI, automation, and advanced features on the horizon, Slack offers businesses of all sizes an excellent way to empower and synergize their employees.
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