[smclaughlin]

If you don’t understand why people love Slack, then you don’t understand what usable enterprise software means or why people love it.

Imagine how many people never used a chat app in a business context before. Maybe this is hard, as you can’t imagine who they could be — or you don’t remember a time _before_ the ubiquity of chat apps in the workplace. But trust me those people are a majority of the workforce.

Now imagine you are an enterprise user who has no control over how they work, and they’re told to use “something new to increase productivity”. They sigh because it is probably bullshit and they’re being forced to use it by the “decision maker”.

But lo and behold, Slack is actually useful and usable! Because in large part the value of any chat app is how well it is adopted by one’s (relatively non techy) teammates!

Slack is a masterclass in commercializing enterprise software through ease of adoption and use. The core tech is completely undifferentiated, but the understanding of enterprise environments and workplace psychology is second to maybe only Microsoft.

[pjmlp]

Slack doesn't bring me anything new that the other enterprise communication tools did not provide all the way back to Netmeeting, other that wasting my CPU resources.

[lol636363]

Pretty much every developer I know hates slack. They use it because it is required of them.

It is a great tool for non-doers to slack off with though. You can pretend like you are working by posting funny pics, random thoughts, etc.

[buboard]

Slack didnt invent messaging. Skype was and is ubiquitous. Apparently slack is an incremental improvement

[ThePowerOfFuet]

Skype was revolutionary, but has since devolved into a hot mess.