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Slack released its highly anticipated Connect feature that allows users from different workspaces to communicate with each other. The debut had a downside when users started reporting abusive DM invite messages.
Slack Connect was first announced in October 2020. Connect allows organizations to invite Slack users from other organizations to communicate directly within the tool via direct messages (DM) or on a shared channel. Today, Slack made the feature available to all paid accounts.
Slack Connect’s invite-only system promises to reduce unnecessary email noise and keep all business or project-related conversations in a single search thread. The tools should also improve the security of confidential projects by keeping them within the application rather than sending files and emails.
How Connect works
Within your Slack workspace, choose Slack Connect from the menu on the left. From there, you can choose to connect with a single external collaborator via DM or create a channel where collaborators from up to 20 organizations can communicate. Enter the email addresses of the people you’d like to connect with and they’ll receive an email invitation to join your Slack channel or DM.
Depending on your organization settings, an administrator may need to approve the connection before sending your invitation.
Slack provided important documentation on how to use the functions. They have also provided best practice guidelines including a sample email to set expectations for the channel early on.
Startup message for your new Slack Connect channel:
Welcome to our channel with [NAMES OF COMPANIES IN CHANNEL, e.g., Acme and Beta]. We will use this channel for all communication between our teams in the future. 🎉
💡 Some best practices to keep in mind when working together on Slack Connect:
- 🔴 Response times do not change and will follow our service level agreements, where we normally respond within 24 hours Monday through Friday. We ask that you @mention us to send us a notification.
- 👀 An emoji will be placed in your message to indicate that we saw your request and are working on a response. ✅ The emojis will indicate that it has been approached.
- ⚙️ We will use message threads for follow-up conversations to keep the conversations together and organized.
- 📋 Try putting all relevant messages, files, and context in the channel (rather than individually emailing or messaging someone in Slack). This helps everyone working together have the same context, as well as keeping all relevant information in one place for easy reference.
What Slack missed
This release was not without its flaws, unfortunately. Almost immediately, users exposed the ability to use Connect’s invitation email to intimidate or harass people through email.
Slack responded by disabling the ability to send personalized messages with invitations.
Jonathan Prince, Vice President of Communications and Policy for Slack, issued an apology from the company. Slack also promised to provide more controls for these features in future releases.
After implementing Slack Connect direct messages this morning, we received valuable feedback from our users on how email invitations to use the feature could be used to send abusive or harassing messages. We’re taking immediate steps to prevent this type of abuse, starting with today’s removal of the ability to personalize a message when a user invites someone to Slack Connect direct messages. The security features and robust administrative controls of Slack Connect are a critical part of its value to both individual users and their organizations. We made a mistake in this initial implementation that is inconsistent with our goals for the product and the typical experience of using Slack Connect. As always, we are grateful to everyone who spoke and we are committed to solving this problem.
Lazy apology from Jonathan Prince, Vice President of Communications and Policy via David Pierce
What’s next for Slack Connect?
Slack has several features lined up to increase the security and usability of Connect:
- Anti-Phishing and Scam Alert Tools as of Spring 2021
- More granular administrative controls as of summer 2021
- Administrative controls via API available in summer 2021
- Private Business Networks with Inter-Organization Communication and Channel Discovery Available Winter 2021
Tamara scott
Tamara Scott is a Nashville-based writer and content strategist. With a background in English education, she plans and writes clear and instructive content for marketers and technology users of all skill levels. Follow, continue @t_scottie
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