With an almost unmatched set of collaboration features, Slack has become an indispensable companion for remote offices around the world. It makes communication with team members simple and efficient, thanks to (in part) a very simple and user-friendly interface on mobile devices and computers.
It also comes with a feature that can hit your productivity goals from the park – Slack bots (also called Slack apps). These bots help integrate other services into the Slack interface, allowing you to do everything from team scheduling to video calls and more. Here are seven of the best Slack bots you can try on your Slack channel.
askSpoke
If you’re tired of answering the same questions over and over again, consider installing askSpoke on your Slack channel. This weak bot is part chatbot, part ticket office. The bot automatically gives clear answers to common questions, keeping more complex questions in a queue that you can answer personally.
First you need to add resources for askSpoke, so you need to tweak a bit. Once saved, these common questions can be answered without human intervention, saving you time and money (while keeping your colleagues happy).
However, askSpoke is not free, starting at $ 4 / month per employee.
Google Calendar Team events
Teams on a tight budget may not be able to afford to pay for a Slack bot, but there are free Slack bots to try. One of the best Slack bots for teams is Google Calendar for Team Events, which, as the name suggests, combines your Google team calendar with your Slack channel to keep track of your team’s schedule.
Summaries of weekly or daily events are sent as a notification within Slack itself, along with customizable alerts for upcoming events. Any changes to your events (like a canceled meeting) will also be pushed to Slack so you don’t miss anything.
This Slack bot is completely free to install and use. Google Calendar – one of the best online calendar services – is free too.
Polly
Remote employees cannot raise their hands during a team meeting. To be able to poll your employees, you will need a polling bot like Polly for your Slack channel. Polly comes with ready-made templates that you can edit to answer simple or difficult questions. You can also create your own to save time over a long period.
Polly is a great option, especially for large businesses. With advanced workflows, you can track new hires with a built-in onboarding system that automates regular checks and questions to help you stay on top of potential issues.
It is also flexible, allowing it to be used to solve any potential IT problem, for example as a mini helpdesk. You can try Polly with a free 14-day trial, starting at $ 29 / month for 20 employees or users.
Simple Poll
If you are a small organization, Polly’s features may seem too complex for your needs. This is where Simple Poll comes in, offering a basic straw poll bot that allows you to quickly ask your employees questions.
The title doesn’t lie as it is fairly easy to use – just type / poll followed by your question and possible choices. For example, / poll “Do you like cheese?” “Yes” “No” will show a simple yes-no question asking your users if they like cheese or not.
Simple Poll is free to use with some restrictions on the number of votes and polls that can be done. The paid version has fewer restrictions, with anonymous replies and reply limits for clearer answers, at $ 49 / month.
BirthdayBot
Remote workers sometimes find it difficult to create the same team atmosphere that automatically evolves in an office environment. You can forget about simple things, like bringing a colleague’s birthday cake. You will never forget to celebrate these important dates again with the BirthdayBot app installed.
BirthdayBot tracks birthdays on your team. Your users can share wishlists with BirthdayBot, making it easier to pick the best gifts, and also allows managers to automatically send employees birthday gift cards.
It’s customizable, which allows you to set hints for upcoming birthdays as well. When a special day arrives, you can set up BirthdayBot to start celebrating on specific channels. BirthdayBot starts at $ 0.75 per month per user, with a 14-day free trial available.
Simple Dead Screen Share
Slack is primarily a text chat platform, but there comes a time when text and emojis just aren’t enough to solve a problem. Dead Simple Screen Sharing is one of the best Slack bots for remote workers who need to share their screens and communicate via voice and video chats.
Dead Simple Screen Sharing requires the Chrome extension to be installed on your computer in order to be able to share your screen, although this is not required for Firefox users. Its functions are simple – it allows you to share streams from your webcam and microphone, as well as your desktop screen to chat with other team members in real time.
A paid plan is available for $ 18 a month, adding higher resolution screen sharing as well as massive video conferencing for up to 150 users.
Zapier
Automation can solve many tedious business tasks. As one of the best IFTTT alternatives on the market, Zapier can be considered an indispensable product for bringing thousands of different services together. With Slack integration, Zapier allows you to manage these services directly from within Slack itself.
Zapier comes with over 2000 different applications that can be combined with Slack. You can edit Trello boards, send emails, schedule calls, post notifications – Zapier’s powerful yet easy-to-use workflow system means you can set triggers and actions for core services without knowing a single line of code.
Zapier lets you automate 100 tasks per month for free, using up to five zap (tasks). If you need additional automation, this will run from $ 19.99 per month to nearly $ 600 per month for the largest organizations.
Create better teams with Slack
Slack is the remote office environment every team needs. By installing some of these best Slack bots, you can turn Slack into your second brain, keeping you organized in one place for you and your team.
Of course, Slack isn’t the only collaboration platform. You might consider Microsoft Teams instead, with a lot of pros and cons to consider in the Microsoft Teams and Slack debate.
What platform does your organization need and what Slack bots you can’t live without? Let us know in the comments below.
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