{"id":7441,"date":"2020-04-01T13:02:58","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T18:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/?p=7743"},"modified":"2020-04-01T17:27:35","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T22:27:35","slug":"create-your-own-chat-group-via-slack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macworks.com\/blog\/create-your-own-chat-group-via-slack\/","title":{"rendered":"Create Your Own Chat Group Via Slack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether you\u2019re working from home or just stuck at home, it can be tough to communicate with colleagues, friends, or family. Sure, there\u2019s email, but that gets hard to manage quickly, and it can be difficult to stay focused with so much news rolling in. For friends and family, Facebook might seem to be the digital town square. However, many people avoid Facebook due to its impressive record of abusing its users\u2019 privacy, failure to protect that user data from hackers, and exploitation by foreign governments. And it\u2019s wildly inappropriate for most business communications.<\/p>\n

For an alternative that doesn\u2019t involve relying on overloaded email inboxes or handing everything about your online life over to a corporate Big Brother, consider the group messaging tool Slack<\/a>, which has become popular with small and large firms, non-profits, academic departments, student project teams, and government agencies. Although it\u2019s aimed at organizations that pay a monthly fee for every active user, Slack offers a free tier with all the features you would need to create your own online community for your workgroup, family, or friends. Everyone can join in since Slack has apps for macOS<\/a>, iOS<\/a>, Windows<\/a>, and Android<\/a>, and it can be used in any desktop Web browser.<\/p>\n

Conceptually, Slack is similar to Apple\u2019s Messages, in that you can communicate with others by typing short messages and sharing graphics and other files. You can even have one-on-one voice calls (group calls, screen sharing, and videoconferencing are limited to the paid plans).<\/p>\n

What sets Slack apart from Messages, WhatsApp, Google Hangouts, and the like is that it lets you segment discussions into \u201cchannels,\u201d which can either be public, such that everyone in the group can see them, or private, so only invitees can participate. Plus, you can have \u201cdirect message\u201d conversations with one or more individuals.<\/p>\n

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The beauty of Slack channels is that they\u2019re easy to create, and they bring together all communications relevant to a particular group, project, client, or topic. Channels help focus discussions, so those who are interested in only certain channels aren\u2019t overwhelmed by irrelevant chatter.<\/p>\n

For an extended family, you might create channels by branch (so your brother can ignore your in-laws\u2019 conversations), parts of the country (so relatives who live elsewhere don\u2019t have to see the local family members\u2019 dinner plans), and events (like Hanukkah or a family reunion). Or, in a design team\u2019s Slack group, you might want channels for each major client or project, along with channels for financial or human resources topics. There\u2019s no one right answer\u2014the goal is merely to keep discussions relevant and focused.<\/p>\n

How do you keep up on discussions? Slack has flexible notifications, letting you choose at the top level to be notified about everything; just direct messages, mentions, and keywords; or nothing\u2014at which point you can check in manually. You can also choose to be notified of replies to threads you\u2019re in. Then you can override those defaults for any channel or conversation, which lets you ensure you\u2019re notified only by people or topics that interest you. Plus, if you leave your Mac, Slack can repoint notifications to your iPhone automatically, with separate settings to make sure you aren\u2019t overly nagged while at your kid\u2019s track meet.<\/p>\n

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Slack provides tons of other features that can prove useful in groups of any size. You can share and comment on files of any type, which is far more effective than sending attachments around in email. You can create \u201cposts\u201d and get others to edit them collaboratively\u2014a boon when trying to craft the perfect bit of text for some purpose. And you can integrate hundreds of Internet services<\/a> into Slack so it can act as a single dashboard for many other apps, including the likes of the videoconferencing tool Zoom.<\/p>\n

Getting started with Slack is fairly easy, and we recommend the following basic steps.<\/p>\n