Slack (software) facts for kids
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| Original author(s) | Stewart Butterfield, Eric Costello, Cal Henderson, and Serguei Mourachov |
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| Developer(s) | Slack Technologies (Salesforce) |
| Initial release | August 2013 |
| Written in | Electron (C++, JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Redux, etc.), Hack (backend) |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android |
| Available in | 12 languages |
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List of languages
Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), English (UK), English (US), French (France), German (Germany), Italian (Italy), Japanese (Japan), Korean (South Korea), Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain)
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| Type | Collaborative software |
| License | Proprietary |
Slack is a popular online tool that helps teams talk and work together. It's a cloud-based platform, meaning it runs on the internet, not just on your computer. Slack was created by a company called Slack Technologies. Since 2020, it has been owned by Salesforce, a big technology company.
Slack uses a freemium model. This means you can use a basic version for free, but you pay for extra features. It's mostly used by businesses and organizations to help their employees communicate easily.
Contents
How Slack Started and Grew
Slack began as a communication tool for a company called Tiny Speck. They were working on an online video game called Glitch. The team needed a good way to talk to each other while building the game.
By 2012, the game wasn't doing as well as hoped. So, the company's founder, Stewart Butterfield, decided to use their internal communication tools to create a new product. He named it "Slack," which stands for "Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge."
In August 2013, Slack was launched to the public. It quickly became popular for team communication.
Key Moments in Slack's Journey
Over the years, Slack grew by adding new features and acquiring other companies.
- In July 2018, Slack bought HipChat and Stride. These were other team communication tools. Their users were moved over to Slack.
- In June 2019, Slack became a public company. This means its shares could be bought and sold on the stock market.
- In July 2020, Slack bought Rimeto. This company made tools for employee directories. This feature later became "Slack Atlas."
- On December 1, 2020, Salesforce announced they would buy Slack for about $27.7 billion. This was one of the biggest tech deals at the time. The deal was finished in July 2021.
- After the Salesforce acquisition, some leaders changed. In December 2022, Stewart Butterfield left Slack.
Important Incidents
Sometimes, online services can have problems. Slack has had a few incidents:
- In March 2015, Slack announced that hackers had gotten into some user accounts. Information like email addresses and usernames were affected. After this, Slack added two-factor authentication to make accounts safer. This means you need two ways to prove it's you when you log in.
- On January 4, 2021, Slack had a big outage. For several hours, users couldn't log in or send messages. Most features came back online later that day.
- In 2022, Slack had more outages in February, March, and July.
- On December 31, 2022, Slack found that some of its private code had been accessed by hackers.
How Slack Works: Features and Tools
Slack offers many features to help teams communicate and work together.
Channels and Messages
- Channels: These are like chat rooms for different topics or projects. You can have public channels that everyone in your workspace can see, or private channels for smaller groups.
- Direct Messages: You can send private messages to one person or a small group of up to nine people.
- Search: Everything in Slack, including messages and files, can be searched easily.
- Emojis: Users can react to messages using emojis.
- Message History: On the free plan, you can only see messages from the last 90 days. Paid plans let you see all past messages.
Workspaces and Integrations
- Workspaces: A workspace is like a digital office for your team or organization. You join a workspace using a special link or an invitation.
- App Integrations: Slack connects with many other popular apps and services. This means you can use tools like Google Drive, Trello, Dropbox, and GitHub directly within Slack.
- Chatbots: Slack also lets you use "Slackbots." These are like smart robots that can send reminders, notifications, or answer questions.
- API: Slack has an application programming interface. This lets people create their own custom tools and automations that work with Slack.
- Workday Partnership: In March 2018, Slack teamed up with Workday. This allows employees to check things like their benefits or time-off requests right from Slack.
Calls and AI Tools
- Huddles: In March 2022, Slack added "Huddles." These are quick voice calls where you can also share your screen or draw on it. In June 2022, video calls were added to Huddles. Free plans allow two people, while paid plans allow up to 50.
- ChatGPT Integration: In March 2023, Slack partnered with OpenAI to add ChatGPT features. This can help summarize conversations, answer questions, or draft replies.
Accessing Slack
You can use Slack on many devices:
- Mobile Apps: There are apps for iOS (Apple iPhones/iPads) and Android phones.
- Desktop Apps: You can download Slack for your Mac, Windows, or Linux computer.
- Web Browser: You can also use Slack directly in your internet browser.
- Apple Watch: There's even an app for the Apple Watch to send messages and see notifications.
Slack's Business Model
Slack is a freemium product. This means it offers a free version with basic features and paid versions with more advanced options.
The main reasons people pay for Slack are:
- To search all their old messages, not just the last 90 days.
- To add an unlimited number of apps and integrations.
While Slack says it supports an unlimited number of users, very large free communities might find some limitations.
How Slack Has Grown
Slack has grown very quickly since it launched.
- In August 2013, 8,000 people signed up in just one day.
- By February 2015, about 10,000 new users were joining every day. There were also over 135,000 paying customers.
- By April 2015, there were 750,000 daily active users, with 200,000 paying for the service.
- Late in 2015, Slack passed one million daily active users.
- By May 2018, Slack had over 8 million daily users, and 3 million of them had paid accounts.
- In April 2019, before it went public, Slack reported more than 10 million daily active users from over 600,000 organizations in more than 150 countries.
Slack has changed how many people communicate at work. From 2013 to 2019, the amount of time people spent on work emails went down. This was partly because of Slack and other similar tools like Microsoft Teams and Google Chat.
See also
In Spanish: Slack (software) para niños
- List of collaborative software
