Update: Shortly after this story was published, Slack announced changes to Slack Connect Direct Messages. Jonathan Prince, Slack’s vice president of communications and policy told The Verge: “After rolling out Slack Connect DMs this morning, we received valuable feedback from our users about how email invitations to use the feature could potentially be used to send abusive or harassing messages. We are taking immediate steps to prevent this kind of abuse, beginning today with the removal of the ability to customize a message when a user invites someone to Slack Connect DMs.”
Slack is already the hub of many online workplaces, but it’s looking to expand its reach even further. The popular messaging system has introduced a feature that will allow users to direct message anyone on the platform, even if they work at a different company.
The new service, called Slack Connect Direct Messages, comes with some safeguards to prevent your workday from being inundated by messages from strangers. Users send an invite to anyone they want, assuming they know their work email address. If the recipient accepts, they are added to the invitee’s Slack sidebar.
The offer, right now, is only for Slack’s paying customers, but free users will be folded into the program in the near future. And the interactions are limited to DMs. Users will not be able to view the channels of other companies.
The new feature puts Slack on the same level as tools like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and WhatsApp, which can be used to chat with anyone, rather than just coworkers.
“Designed to replace email outside your company, Slack Connect DMs allows you to work with external organizations with the same speed and security you’ve come to expect with Slack,” the company said in a blog post.
Messaging is already an incredibly popular feature on Slack. This week, for example, more than 12 million messages will be sent using the service.
Later this year, Slack Connect DMs will also allow multiple organizations to link together and create private business networks, a tool the company says will help with collaboration and efficiency through the sharing of apps like scheduling tool Calendly and DocuSign.
Slack has been one of the pandemic’s business success stories, allowing remote teams to work together effectively. The company went public in the fall of 2019, and last December, Salesforce acquired the company for nearly $28 billion.