We’ve written about Electron before, but to summarize, Electron is a platform that combines the rendering engine from Chromium and the Node.js runtime and module system. Separately, when we created the Slack Windows application, we couldn’t use the existing codebase, so we decided to bet on a brand new platform called Electron. Furthermore, WebView was tied to the operating system’s version of Safari, meaning that we didn’t have many options when older versions of macOS had an issue in Safari that affected our app. New features such as HTTP/2 are only coming to Apple’s new WKWebView view, and moving to this would effectively require a complete rewrite of the application. While that served us well for a long time (including the retrofitting of multiple-team support), this architecture was starting to show its age. Originally, the Slack desktop application was written using the MacGap v1 framework, which internally used WebView to host web content inside of a native app frame. Since there isn’t much information out there about how to do this with Electron, we wanted to dive into a bit more detail about how our hybrid application works. Unlike a 100% in-box approach that some other apps take, Slack takes a hybrid approach where we ship some of the assets as part of the app, but most of the assets and code are loaded remotely. There are, of course, different ways to build desktop applications with web technologies. We built it with Electron, and, as a result, it’s faster, sports a frameless look, and has a number of behind-the-scenes improvements to make for a much better Slack experience. Slack makes it almost effortless to collaborate with colleagues, but you pay for its ease of use.Today we’ve just shipped a new version of the Slack Desktop application for macOS. Slack's team-collaboration service offers just about everything you'd want in group messaging, from public and private channels and notifications to voice and video chat. Hipchat from Atlassian, for example, is less than half that cost per user. But for a larger enterprise setting, you are looking at $80 to $150 per person per year to take advantage of everything Slack offers. ConsĪ bit pricey: Slack has a free version designed for small teams. Slackbot: The Slackbot assistant alerts you when you're mentioned in a channel, can help remind you of events, and answer simple questions about how Slack works, such as how to invite people to a channel.īroad availability: Along with its web app, Slack has apps for Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, and Windows Phone platforms. Apps range from those for calendaring and list-keeping to making digital payments and adding GIFs to messages. Searchable: Slack indexes every discussion and document, so you can easily search for discussions for Microsoft Word or Google Docs files, for example.Īdd apps: If Slack doesn't do something you need, you can add third-party apps into your workspace. With a paid account, you can include 15 people on a call. With a free account, you can make one-to-ones. In addition to voice or video chat, you can share your screen from the call. Select a channel or person, and click the "Start a call" phone icon. When text isn't enough: You can make voice and video calls to teammates right in Slack. And finally, you can disable notifications automatically, so you don't get alerts in the middle of the night. You can also format your messages - using basic text and paragraph styles, including code blocks - and add emoji. You can mute a channel, ignore general messages, or have different notification settings for desktop and mobile. Notifications: You can set channel notifications, so you can be alerted to new messages, just those mentioning you, or using a keyword you've designated. You can pin items in a channel, share files, and set a retention policy for messages. ProsĬommunicate with your team: Slack is a shared communication area where you can organize and keep track of conversations, create public and private channels for specific topics or teams, and direct message colleagues. Slack offers a powerful and flexible group-messaging service that lets teams chat, host calls, and share files across platforms.
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