Slack is one of the most useful tools for companies and teams alike. That being said, however, you shouldn’t just settle with the basic app or website; you can also make use of some of the incredible apps available out there to improve your overall Slack experience.
For more information, read on to learn all about our favorite 24 Slack apps.
You Probably Already Know, But… How to Install a Slack App
While you might already have some expertise in installing Slack apps, it’s worth quickly going over the process here.
Step 1: Click on your team name
Once you’ve logged in, you’ll need to click on your team name in the upper lefthand corner of the screen.
Step 2: Apps & Integrations
After you click on the team name, you’ll notice a drop-down window, with a section titled “Apps & Integrations”. You’ll want to click on this.
Step 3: The Slack App Directory
Here, you’ll find several apps and add-ons which you can integrate with your Slack account. Once you’ve discovered one that your team will use, you can simply click on the “Install” button to add it to your Slack account.
Please note that, if you’re not the one managing your team, you’ll have to request to add Slack apps to your team channel. While some applications will be immediately applied to all of your channels, others may require you to select which ones you want to integrate the app with.
The Best 24 Slack Apps to Use
Now that you know more about Slack apps and how to install them, let’s begin to discuss the various Slack applications you can use to improve your Slack interactions!
Building Your Team Culture
Team Culture has been making headlines for being the foundation of all great businesses. Here are some Slack apps that can help to boost your team culture.\
Karl
Karl makes it much easier for employees and leadership to show appreciation and acknowledgement for a job well-done.
Common slack tools involve incorporating GIFs into messages, and tagging employees who have done exceedingly well in certain projects. Karl even gives employers the unique opportunity to provide “kudos” for smaller accomplishments, as well.
The /kudos command allows you to send “kudos” directly to someone on the channel.
Another one of the great things about this Slack app is that you can use it for free for 60 days. Afterwards, you’ll only need to make a paid account and pay $0.99 per employee per month.
Donut
Donut is a Slack app that is known for improving workplace culture through the fostering of new relationships - while also improving old ones - by pairing employees together, welcoming new employees to the team, and more.
Donut helps to maintain and create workplace relationships by pairing people with other employees that they haven’t communicated with before. And by being paired with other mentors from within the organization who may have a specific skillset, your employees can even pick up and learn some new skills!
In order to use this Slack app, all you have to do is create a new channel, either for new hires or for pairing employees. One of the most popular commands to use with Donut are classic slack commands such as /remind - which allows you to remind your employees to shadow new members. You can also use /invite @donut to invite Donut to one of your channels.
There is a free trial and package available for this app; however, you may also want to sign up for one of the paid packages.
Improving Your Team’s Health
Health isn’t all about eating avocados and taking bubble baths! Below, you can read all about how you can incorporate health into the workplace through the use of these Slack apps.
ThinkLadder
ThinkLadder aims to improve engagement and overall happiness in the workplace, in an effort to positively change workplace culture.
ThinkLadder is all based on cognitive behavioural therapy, and it sends out daily insights to help change the way that you and your employees think.
Common Slack commands are /insights and /thinkladder-help. You can also send insights to your channel at any moment, simply by typing @ThinkLadder into your chat!
As of this writing, you can actually get ThinkLadder for free!
Employee Well-being (Health Hero)
Health Hero aims to help customers and clients to make healthier decisions by tracking health goals - and this feature can easily be extended to staff and employees.
This Slack app will send you reminders and messages, to make sure that you’re staying up-to-date with your meal and fitness tracking. You can upload pictures, and are even encouraged to connect with other employees and motivate each other.
Should you like to see a list of commands in Health Hero, you can enter /healthhero into your command bar, where you will now be able to see commands such as registering, adding health apps, and more.
This app is free to try, and afterwards, you’ll need to pay for your account subscription.
Taking Productivity to the Next Level
While you can’t be expected to just sit down and work like a machine to obtain results, there are still some tools that you can use to increase your productivity.
Google Drive
Google Drive is known for allowing users to store their data in a single convenient space. Once you’ve connected it to Slack, however, you will be able to view, use, and comment on your files from within the Slack app itself!
Google Drive offers a generous free plan (30 GB free space). You only have to set up a Google account.
Google Calendar
When you connect Google Calendar to Slack, you can now stay connected to anything - ranging from events you want to attend, to your work schedule for the week. Google Calendar can also be used as a Slack app for teams.
Google Calendar allows you to stay up-to-date by sending you reminders before meetings, and allows you to review any of the events you’ve added to your calendar. The app also allows you to seamlessly tell your colleagues where you are - so that you can always update your status when you’re in a meeting, or otherwise.
Popular Slack commands for Google Calendar are /gcal today and /gcal tomorrow slash commands. These will give you information about your calendar both today and tomorrow, respectively.
Google Calendar is part of Google’s suite of tools, and is completely free to use. All you have to do is set up a Google account upfront (if you haven’t already).
Airtable
Airtable provides users with new and efficient ways to keep projects organized and keep teams on track.
This is accomplished by organizing project data into columns, updating calendars, and helping you to manage spreadsheets - allowing you and your employees to always stay up-to-date with projects, and in real time.
With Airtable, you can set up automated notifications, share surveys, manage form entries, etc. And when you’ve combined it with Slack, this app will now send your channel notifications, whenever changes are made to your databases. Not only that, but you’ll also be sent a link which brings you directly to the content that has been changed.
Airtable has a completely free version - however, you can also use paid subscription options to increase records per base, attachment space per base, and revision snapshot history.
Mastering Internal Communication
No relationship succeeds without communication - and the same can be said about communication between staff members.
Zoom
Zoom is a video conferencing solution that allows employers and employees to work remotely, or join group conferences.
When integrated with Slack, you can now add everyone to your video conference from the same chat. To do this, you can either send a Zoom link to your Slack channel, or use the command listed below.
To use Zoom, you just have to type /zoom into your command box. Those who are in your channel will receive a message, and can easily press “Join” from there!
Zoom starts at about $15 per month for Zoom Pro.
Standup Alice
StandUp Alice ensures that everyone always knows what’s going on during projects. Standup meetings are (mostly daily) meetings that teams are able to use to share progress updates with each other.
Standup Alice reminds teams to send their standups at scheduled times, and allows for the management of multiple work teams. You have to provide the bot with details about your standup - once you’ve done that, StandUp Alice will then follow through daily.
If you’re interested in StandupAlice, you can contact the company for pricing details.
Lunch Train
Lunch Train will help you and your team make plans for lunch! The goal for this is to improve workplace relations, as well as overall communication.
Lunch Train is quite simple to use, and sends out an invite to team members asking them if they want to join for lunch.
To use this tool, use the command /lunchtrain. The app will then send an interactive message out to those who are part of the channel/group. You can specify it by following this format: /lunchtrain to [channel] @ {time}.
Lunch Train is a free application that can be installed at any time.
Boosting External Communication
Let’s be honest: you’re not going to go far, unless you can connect and efficiently speak to external sources.
Intercom
Intercom aims to make it easier than ever before to respond to messages or leads, and is a messenger service that is completely scalable.
Intercom provides automated messaging, and allows for customers to view information like their order status and “help” guides from within the Intercom chat.
Intercom also allows you to evaluate your leads’ qualification data by typing /qualify into the command window. By using this Slack app, you can reply to conversations directly inside the Slack app.
Intercom starts at $39 per month for the basic package. From there, you can also get packages at $99, $499, and $999.
Slack for Gmail
Gmail for Slack functions similarly to the way it does on its original platform; the main difference between the two is that, when incorporated into Slack, you can now also send your Gmail messages directly to Slack.
When you install the application, you can go into individual emails and then share them to your Slack channels. When you send your messages, you’ll be able to attach your own files and messages to the emails, as well.
Gmail for Slack is free for companies to use. All you need is a Gmail account!
Slaask
Slaask is completely Slack-based, and focuses on making communication easier with its live chat system.
You can communicate with anyone who is browsing your website right from within the Slack app. Furthermore, Slaask allows users to use video chats, screen sharing, and more with their customers.
The base package for Slaask starts at $29 per month, and increases to $49, $99, or $199, depending on which package you decide to go subscribe to. If you’re unsure about which package is right for you, though, you can register for a free trial.
Managing Projects Like a Boss
Managing projects doesn’t have to be all about organizing dates and events. Now you can take advantage of these Slack apps to make project management easier than ever before.
Trello
With this integration, you can now add your Trello cards directly to Slack. The aim here is to aid managers and team leaders with the overall management of their teams.
In order to send insights to Slack, all you have to do is copy and paste a Trello link into your Slack chatbox, which will then give members of the chat access to information about comments, descriptions, other members, and more. Trello is also able to help you organize your projects to maximize production and efficiency.
To invite Trello to your channels, you just need to type the command /trello. To add people to a card, type /trello add [teammates] [card name]. You can also search within Trello by using /trello search [term].
You can use Trello for free, or you can upgrade your membership and pay $10 or $20 for more features.
monday.com
monday.com ensures that everyone in your team or channel is on the same page and aims to keep your employees informed about your projects.
Your Slack channel is updated whenever you change a status, create tasks, or complete your projects. This integration with Slack allows you to create new tasks and to manage changes made to your account from within Slack.
To create tasks from Slack to monday.com, type the command /monday-pulse into the message box.
This integration requires a paid subcription.
Todoist
Todoist allows employers and employees alike to finalize and follow through with their to-do lists. To date, this app has helped to complete more than 150 million projects.
Todoist works by intuitively asking you to add all of your tasks to your to-do list; your employees will do the same, and as they work their way through their respective lists, your Slack channel will be kept up-to-date and informed of each development in the process.
When you want to update your Slack channel about your to-do list, you just need to type the command /todoist. This will create a new task on your Slack channel - where, for example, you can create meetings!
You can use Todoist right now for free, or you can also buy bigger packages for $4 or $6 per month.
Working Hard, Playing Hard
You can’t be expected to work without having any play! That’s why below, we’re going to highlight some ways in which you can make your workplace more fun.
Birthday Bot
This application ensures that no birthday slips by unnoticed. This small gesture is able to create a more positive work environment overall, as well as work to improve your team culture.
BirthdayBot works by sending messages to your team channel whenever it is someone’s birthday. You will also be given a notice in advance, so that you can have a chance to make plans for employees’ birthdays.
To get information about the birthdays, you just have to type in “share feedback”, “show bdays”, or “show next bdays” in your BirthdayBot chat. To remove a birthday from Slack, you can type “forget my bday” to your Slackbot, or “forget @(name) birthday”.
The standard price for using BirthdayBot is $0.75 per month, with the Pro version coming in at $2 per month.
Spotify
Spotify is an application which allows users to find and listen to their favorite music. It’s a fantastic music player, but the app also collects your listening data so that it can suggest new songs to you each week. And /spotify, the Slack app, naturally integrates this platform into your Slack account.
Spotify my Slack is an addition to the usual Spotify app, in which you can effortlessly send song and music suggestions to other team members, as well as quickly retrieve information about the music you’re listening to.
To use Spotify my Slack, you just have to type /spotify into your command bar.
For some features, you’ll want to get a Spotify Premium account, which costs $10 per month.
Automating Your Business
Are you looking for the best way to make your daily work life easier? That’s where these apps come in - all of which will greatly improve your business’s automation!
IFTTT
By installing this nifty application, you can connect multiple apps together to increase productivity. The company's name stands for “If This, Then That”, and its motto is “Everything works better together”... and their app has certainly proven that this is true!
IFTTT works by allowing users to connect their Slack account to different web apps; for example, you could choose to turn on the lights for food or grocery deliveries when IFTTT tells you that the delivery person is close. You could also use IFTTT to connect your Google Calendar to Mailchimp, which will create events as you develop campaigns. The combinations are nearly endless.
IFTTT is the free alternative to some of the other applications that we have on this list.
Zapier
Zapier lets you connect all of your business tools (by using their API, and without any coding required).
Zapier provides easy automation by sharing information between your various applications. When connected to Slack, Zapier is able to provide you with - for example - the ability to send messages to your Slack channels from other apps. You could also send emails to your Slack channels from Gmail, if you so chose.
This app has a base package which comes at no cost. More extensive packages, on the other hand, will range from $20-$600, depending on your needs.
Automate.io
Much like the other automation apps on this list, Automate.Io shares information between multiple applications, and as such, can effectively create streams of data within mere minutes.
Once connected to Slack, this app can connect your Slack app to any other Cloud-based application on your phone or browser, from which you can send customized notifications, create workflows, and more. You can easily connect Automate.Io to some of the following Slack apps: Trello, Salesforce, Google, Zendesk, etc.
There is a free version of Automated.Io available; however, it provides you with a limited number of bots and actions. For this reason, you may want to choose one of the more expensive packages, which range from $20 to $100 per month.
Conclusion
If you’re really brainstorming and trying to improve your virtual workspace, then one of the things you may currently be considering is how to improve your Slack game. Improving it will allow you to foster more meaningful relationships, increase productivity, and so much more.
That’s why we’ve gathered the best 24 Slack apps to improve your Slack game and listed them out here. Are you using any other Slack apps that also make your life easier? We would love to hear about them in the comments below!
