These are the instructions to setup and install slack and configure it for better usage.

What is slack?

Slack is a team communication system that allows conversation in:

• Public channels
• Private channels
• Direct messages (we will call it DM)

How is it different from skype and others?

There are various reasons why we’ve choose slack over skype and other communication methods. Although we will still be using skype for calls and various purposes, but slack will be our main mode of communication.

Main reasons include:

• Offline messages better than skype
• Notifications can be customized and only relevant ones will disturb you
• Both members don’t need to be online to transfer the files
• Images are transferred in a better way, with a preview, so you don’t need to download and all to view them
• Many integrations are possible in slack, allowing it to compile and sum up a lot of things going around us, including:
  • project updates from visual studio and others
  • email updates (not configured in our setup yet, will be done soon)
  • custom integrations through json

Setting up and configuring Slack

Follow each step in sequence, don’t jump please.

1. You’ll receive the invitation email from the admins, use that to sign up to the slack. Save the url being used for slack.
2. Download desktop client for slack from https://slack.com/downloads
3. Download and install mobile app for slack for your mobile
4. Once sign up is complete and you are logged in successfully:
   1. Edit your slack profile and update it with your name, image, number, etc.
   2. Add your office skype id to your profile info in slack, this step is important
   3. Edit the preferences for slack
   4. Edit the preferences as per your requirements, however the ones I use are(details under image):
      1. Change desktop notifications to: “only for highlight words and direct messages”
         • this helps in reducing unnecessary messages in various channels that might not be of your concern
         • if someone direct messages you or mentions you or any important word in channel, you will get a voice notification
         • you can add custom words separated by commas that are important to you and you will get notified when someone mentions them
      2. Enable: display message text in desktop notifications to get the preview of messages, so that you can decide if they’re worth opening
      3. Change the notification sound to your choice
   5. You can make changes to various other things, including that I prefer compact look, you can chose the one you like, etc.
   6. Let me know if you have any query

When using slack, when you type in the input box, you can add various types of text and change its formatting. Various ways to do that are mentioned just under the input box and appears when you start typing, like this:

They appear after the third character is typed.