Slack, the popular workplace app, is reportedly soon to boast Clubhouse-style, additional features, according to company CEO, Stuart Butterfield.
Slack to Get Audio and Video Features
According to an announcement made, ironically, via Clubhouse, the prominent work messaging service, Slack, is to receive some Clubhouse-style features.
A report on Protocol.com states Butterfield revealed Slack will introduce a selection of audio and video elements to the application.
This, in the same week that Slack announced the ability to DM anybody via the app, potentially opening the floodgates for unwarranted, unmonitored, and unstoppable abuse, should the feature fall into the wrong hands.
What Are the New Slack Features?
According to the report, Butterfield said that Slack users will soon be able to send audio messages to one-another, similar to a voice message on WhatsApp or Telegram. This feature is currently in beta testing.
Users will also be able to enter "rooms" in much the same way as Clubhouse; without an invite. Like that won't devolve into a hotbed of toxicity within the first ten minutes of its public launch.
There is also talk of a "stories" style video feature. This will allegedly work much like it does on the myriad other apps that have the same options available.
So, it looks like the intention is for Slack to become a more social experience...
Why Is Slack Adding New Features?
Apparently, these new audio and video features for Slack have been in the pipeline since 2021. Currently, we use Slack to communicate internally within companies (although you can set a Slack account up for anything and use it as such, it doesn't necessarily need to be work-related).
The extra features are part of a push by Slack to position itself as a company-to-company messaging service, rather than the internal company variant. Quite how adding stories-style videos to the service will achieve this is another matter. Will they really be of any value?
Slack is a workplace app at the end of the day. By turning it into a social media app for workers, it does raise the question of productivity. Will all these new features simply serve as an unwelcome distraction in the same way Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all do?
What next? Pokes? Come on, Slack.
Do You Use Slack?
If so, what do you make of these new features? Do you think they'll be a positive step in company-to-company relations or will it quickly become a way for Apple and Epic Games to have very public, toddler-like tantrums at each other?
Or worse still, we have to consider the fact that anyone can message anyone in this more open version of Slack, making it open to abuse. We just have to hope that people use the features responsibly. Whether they will is another matter entirely...