Promised for some time, it arrived now: a new messaging feature on Slack Connect. But the new feature at Slack also has extreme annoyance potential.
Slack had already announced it in October 2020. Now it’s here: the brand-new messaging feature on Slack Connect.
Starting today, Wednesday, basically everyone can send personal messages to all users on Slack Connect via the feature.
Slack Connect: How the new messaging function works
What’s special about the new function is that users can send messages to each other on Slack Connect regardless of channel, workspace or company and thus network individually.
The prerequisite for this is that one sends an invitation to another person for this purpose and that this person then accepts the invitation. You are already connected and can send messages to each other.
These arrive as private messages.
The offer is somewhat reminiscent of Facebook Messenger, where you also have to send a friend invitation before you can send private messages to each other in the main inbox.
Initially only for paid customers
So far, the feature, like Slack Connect, is only available to paying users and users. Connect had also been launched for pay accounts in the summer of 2020. Under it, up to 20 different companies can network with each other in one channel.
However, the messaging function by invitation is to be rolled out to everyone in the near future, Slack promises.
But that’s exactly when the function could also develop great potential for annoyance. Because if everyone can suddenly network with each other, Slack will take on a stronger social media character, just like the professional networks LinkedIn or Xing.
But because you work with your own team on Slack, you can’t simply close the program during working hours. As a result, you can see every single new message at any time.
Slack emphasizes that this is important in order to be able to respond quickly and directly to requests on the job. At the same time, however, this also means that you are exposed to many more distractions at work.
