Review of Tool: Slack

This week, we only had a few tools to explore but one immediately caught my attention as just a few weeks ago, one of the teams I am on decided to use this as our main communication platform moving forward. Slack is a business communication tool that was founded in 2013. See below for my review with some pros and cons of my initial use of the platform:

Pros:
  • Really easy to set up! I went to get into our class page by clicking our link, entered my work email, it sent me a verification email and I was immediately able to start on the platform.
  • It lands you on the page with a neat to do list (see image below) of best practices to get started with the platform, including adding a profile picture, setting up notifications, checking the channels, and more.
  • It allows for many modes of communications and messages with different people to all be streamlined on this platform. It is very easy to add channels and navigate between channels on the left bar. Some of our class channels I found interesting were #quarantine and #cooking.
  • Under channels which can be themed, you can also manage direct messages. I like that they list all the direct messages very easily and organized. The left bar (used for most of the navigation) seems to make it very easy to navigate between people, apps, files, messages, channels, and more!
  • Overall, these seems like a great tool as many of us continue to stay virtual.

Cons:
  • There are not many cons on this platform that I immediately notice.
  • I do notice they keep trying to get me to upgrade my Slack account, which is always a bothersome feature.
  • Also, it seems like the files all just get pulled into one tab from the channels and lack organizational structure.
  • As I continue to use this platform more functionally, I will come back and add to both lists as needed.  

Future uses:
  • I think Slack is a great alternative to Groupme. In my experience, many have gotten tired of using Groupme (especially in large groups) because of the notifications. Yet if they silence notifications, they miss important updates. Slack seems like a great alternative to check in as needed. It also seems significantly more organized. 
  • I plan to do a little more digging on the differences of Slack and Microsoft Teams. I am now newly in both platforms and at first glance, they seem to have a lot of similarities. I will need to learn more to be certain though. 

Comments

  1. LeeJuly 16, 2020 at 11:31 AM

    I used Slack for a few projects. I found it handy for keeping group conversations in one place and sharing links to files. But I agree there's a lack of organizational structure to help keep all the info organized.

    ReplyDelete

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