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 like a digital office space where people can chat, share files, and organize their projects. Slack was created by a company called Slack Technologies. Since 2020, it has been part of Salesforce, a big technology company.
Slack uses a "freemium" model. This means you can use a basic version for free. If you need more features, you can pay for a subscription. Slack is mostly used by businesses and groups to help their teams communicate and manage tasks.
Contents
The Story of Slack
How Slack Started
Slack began as an internal chat tool. It was used by 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 and share files.
By October 2012, the game Glitch wasn't doing very well. So, the company's founder, Stewart Butterfield, decided to try something new. He realized their internal communication tools were very useful. He decided to turn them into a new product.
In 2012, Butterfield chose the name "Slack." He said it stood for "Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge."
Slack's Launch and Growth
Slack officially launched to the public in August 2013. It was designed to work with older chat systems like IRC and XMPP. However, in May 2018, Slack stopped supporting these older systems. This was because they had some limitations.
On July 26, 2018, Slack bought two other chat services, HipChat and Stride, from a company called Atlassian. Slack then helped users from those services move over to Slack.
In June 2019, Slack became a public company. This means its shares could be bought and sold on the stock market. Its value reached about $19.5 billion.
New Features and Ownership
In July 2020, Slack bought a company called Rimeto. Rimeto specialized in creating employee directories. This feature was later added to Slack in June 2021, called "Slack Atlas."
On December 1, 2020, Salesforce announced it would buy Slack. This was a huge deal, worth about $27.7 billion. The purchase was completed on July 21, 2021.
After the acquisition, there were some changes in leadership. In December 2022, Stewart Butterfield left Slack. Lidiane Jones took over as the new head. Then, in November 2023, Denise Dresser became the new leader of Slack.
In August 2024, Box and Slack announced a partnership. They planned to add secure AI features to help manage content for businesses.
Outages and Security Incidents
Sometimes, online services can have problems. Slack has experienced a few outages and security issues.
In March 2015, Slack announced that hackers had gotten into their system in February 2015. Some user information, like email addresses and usernames, was affected. To make things safer, Slack added two-factor authentication. This is an extra security step to protect accounts.
On January 4, 2021, Slack had a big outage. Users couldn't log in or send messages for several hours. Most features were back online later that day.
In 2022, Slack had more widely reported outages on February 22, March 9, and July 26. On December 31, 2022, Slack also shared that some of its private code had been accessed by hackers.
In February 2025, Slack experienced another widely reported outage.
What Slack Can Do
Slack offers many features to help teams communicate.
Channels and Messages
- Channels: These are like chat rooms organized by topic. For example, a team might have a channel for "project updates" and another for "general chat." Channels can be public or private. Public channels are open to everyone in the workspace. Private channels are only for invited members.
- Direct Messages: You can send private messages to one person or a small group (up to nine people). Group direct messages can even be turned into private channels.
- Search: You can easily search for anything in Slack. This includes old messages, files, and even people.
- Emojis: Users can react to messages using emojis.
On the free plan, you can only see messages from the last 90 days.
Connecting with Other Apps
Slack works with many other online services. This means you can connect Slack to tools you already use. Some examples include Google Drive, Trello, Dropbox, Box, and GitHub.
In July 2015, Slack added a connection with Google Calendar. Later that year, they launched a directory of over 150 apps that could be added to Slack.
Slack also lets you use "Slackbots." These are like smart assistants that can send reminders or answer questions. Slack also has an application programming interface. This lets people create their own apps and tools that work with Slack. For example, you could set up an app to send alerts or create support tickets.
In March 2018, Slack teamed up with Workday. This allowed employees to check co-worker information, benefits, and time-off requests right within Slack.
Voice and Video Calls
In March 2022, Slack added a voice call feature called "Huddles." In a Huddle, you can talk, share your screen, and even draw on a shared screen. In June 2022, video calls were added to Huddles. Free plans allow two people in a Huddle. Paid plans can have up to 50 people.
AI Integration
In March 2023, Slack partnered with OpenAI. This brought ChatGPT features to Slack. You can use ChatGPT to summarize conversations, answer questions, or help you write replies.
Where You Can Use Slack
Slack has apps for many devices. You can use it on your phone (like iOS and Android), on a web browser, or on your computer (like MacOS, Windows, and Linux). There was even an app for the Apple Watch that let you send messages and see mentions.
How Slack Makes Money
Slack uses a "freemium" business model. This means you can use a basic version of Slack for free. The main things you get by paying are the ability to search all your old messages (not just the last 90 days) and to add as many apps as you want. Paid plans also support an unlimited number of users.
How Slack Grew
Slack has grown very quickly since it launched.
In August 2013, 8,000 customers signed up in just one day. By February 2015, about 10,000 new users were joining every week. Slack had over 135,000 paying customers across 60,000 teams.
By April 2015, these numbers grew to 200,000 paid users and 750,000 daily active users. Later in 2015, Slack passed one million daily active users.
As of May 2018, Slack had over 8 million daily users. Three million of these users had paid accounts. When Slack prepared to become a public company in April 2019, it reported over 10 million daily active users. These users came from more than 600,000 organizations in over 150 countries.
In 2019, it was estimated that employees at large companies sent over 200 Slack messages each week. From 2013 to 2019, the amount of time people spent on work emails went down. Many people think this is because of Slack and other similar tools like Workplace (from Facebook), Microsoft Teams, and Google Hangouts Chat.
See also
In Spanish: Slack (software) para niños
- List of collaborative software
