If Slack has become a staple within your work culture, you know how valuable this team communication platform can be for organizing productive discussions from basically any work setting or scenario. While Slack is steadily growing in adoption over common communication channels like email, there's an even larger world of productivity on deck at Slack ready to take you and your team into the future of work.
The Slack app directory is a mega-database of hundreds of integrations available to enhance collaboration and productivity for small teams up to entire enterprise organizations. These apps allow you to work simultaneously across tools to push and pull information, enhance each tool's functionality, increase adoption, and streamline communication asynchronously right from where you're already working and collaborating.
In this article, check out the top 15 Slack apps productive teams are using today to build and support the future of work at their organization across calendar management, project management, status updates, HR and team building.
Calendar Management
1. Reclaim.ai
Reclaim is a smart calendar tool for Google Calendar that helps you automatically block time for your tasks and routines across all of your work and personal calendars. Designed for anyone with a busy schedule, Reclaim helps align your priorities with your calendar, understand where your time is going every week, and find the best time for your important solo work sessions through smart time blocking.\
Reclaim Slack app lets you automatically sync your Slack status with both Google Calendar events and Zoom calls (even when they're not on your calendar) and set Do Not Disturb so you can minimize distractions during important meetings and solo work sessions. You can also customize your Slack status rules to communicate more or less information, view your daily agenda via Reclaim, manage your Tasks and Habits, and create new Tasks to add to your calendar via Slack messages and commands. Use "/reclaim agenda" to display your schedule for the day or "/reclaim task" to create a task. You set the rules for your schedule, and Reclaim takes care of the rest.
Reclaim pricing: Free, $9 - $20/month for premium plans (100% free through 2021)
2. Calendly
Calendly is a scheduling platform that makes it easy to find mutually available times to meet across multiple people's calendars, without the back and forth emails. Simply share your Calendly link that contains all of your available openings across your calendars, and the other person can easily pick a time that works for everyone. Calendly also offers a lot of customization options for rules, follow-ups and reminders to help you be a rockstar in your scheduling.\
The Calendly Slack app brings that same ease of use in your scheduling right into Slack. Quickly access and share scheduling links with your team directly via Slack without ever having to switch apps. Just use the "/calendly'' shortcut within messages to generate a rich preview so incoming schedulers can not only see the times that you're available right in Slack, but also the details for the potential meeting.
Calendly pricing: Free, $8 - $12/month for premium plans
3. Eventbot
Eventbot is a calendar tool specifically built for Slack that allows you to see your calendar and collect RSVPs for team events within messages and channels. This enables your team to use Slack as a central place for tracking who's in and who's out for team events. You can also create shared calendars for your Slack channels so everyone can see each other's availability and events. What's great about Eventbot is they allow you to import and export events from all popular calendar apps, like Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple, and more, for a centralized view, even if you're working across multiple calendar platforms.\
With the Eventbot Slack app, you can create and edit recurring and non-recurring meetings, set reminders, and track holidays and sick days all from within Slack. Eventbot has three main shortcuts: "/events create", "/events import", and "/events calendar". "/Events create" allows you to create events in any message or channel, "/events import" to import an event from any of their supported calendar platforms, and lastly, "/events calendar" lets you see events from any calendar you have synced.
Eventbot pricing: Free, $29 - $99/month for premium plans
Project Management
1. Monday
Monday.com is an all-in-one work management platform for all types of teams and departments, including sales, marketing, software development, HR and IT. The platform allows you to plan, manage and track all of your tasks and campaigns across deadlines, set up automations for repetitive work, and visualize your work using various view options.\
The Monday.com Slack app gives you and your team an easy way to create and respond to tasks and projects directly in Slack and leave updates on your open items in Monday.com. You can also get notifications on your projects via Slack messages so you're always up to speed without having to bounce between workspaces. Use the shortcut "/monday-pulse [pulse name]" to create a pulse right in a private message or channel.
Monday.com Pricing: Free, $8 - $16/seat for premium plans
2. Trello
Trello is another popular project management tool you can use to organize projects, people and content through both list and board formats. Trello uses a kanban style for creating and organizing lists which makes it easy to visualize work at various stages. The Trello app is especially popular throughout small teams as it offers an easy way to see what's moving, who's moving it, and what's in the queue while collaborating with your team.
The Trello Slack app makes it easy to create, add, and invite others to collaborate all in one place. Within Slack, you're able to add new cards to boards by using the shortcut "/trello" to prompt Slack to update cards, create tasks, or assign to members within your team. You can also join Trello cards (and boards), change due dates and attach conversations for easy reference later.
Trello Pricing: Free, $10 - $17/month for premium plans
3. Todoist
Todoist is a simple task manager that allows you to create and manage both tasks and small projects from anywhere. You can easily create quick lists and see an overview of what's to come without the overwhelming noise of being confronted with a long list of unorganized tasks.
The Todoist Slack app allows you to create new tasks right in Slack using the "/todoist" command, which you can also use to add details around your due date, label and project. You can also add Slack messages as tasks directly into Todoist, complete tasks, and update delegated tasks for team projects.
Todoist pricing: Free or $3 - $5/month for premium plans
4. Asana
Asana is a project management tool that lets you create and manage projects and tasks across teams, and set automations for approvals and status updates. Asana offers multiple view layouts to fit your preferences: kanban style, timeline, calendar, and list. This variety is helpful for people who like to digest their workflow in different formats, and is also useful for teams who like to have an added layer of customization available for viewing for projects, sprints, and everyday tasks.
The Asana Slack app provides a way for you to create, view and complete tasks, change the assignee, update the due date, or add it to a project --all within Slack. When you integrate Asana with Slack, your team can directly refer to channels where you've linked your tasks and Asana will send notifications directly to your Slack to let you know of any new assignments or task updates. By using the shortcut "/asana create", you can quickly create, update, and manage your tasks.
Asana Pricing: Free, $10.99 - $24.99/user/month
Status Updates
1. Loom
Loom is a video messaging platform for work that allows you to record and share video messages and screen recordings to provide updates on the status of your projects. Ideal for both in-office and remote teams, Loom offers a quick way to share updates when you're not able to connect for a meeting or have time to write up a lengthy explanation via email. The recording tool also offers easy editing to trim the length or add a call-to-action button, and control access with privacy and password settings.
The Loom Slack app brings its video recording and sharing functionality into the Slack app. You can capture your screen, record through your camera, narrate audio, and immediately share with your team across messages and channels to share quick status updates and collect feedback on your work. All you have to do is paste your Loom link into a Slack channel or DM, and it will expand in-line so your team can watch it without having to leave Slack.
Loom Pricing: Free, $8/user/month for premium plan
2. Standup.ly
Standuply is a project management assistant that automates management processes and internal Q&A for teams. The app allows you to run asynchronous standup meetings, retro meetings, backlog grooming, planning meetings, team mood check-ins and more via text, voice and video. Additionally, Standuply's internal Q&A system provides a shared knowledge space to find answers to common team questions, or funnel new questions to the relevant internal or external subject matter expert.
The Standuply Slack app automates daily huddles, retrospectives, 360 feedback reviews, and other team workflows via Slack. Instead of blocking time for 1:1 meetings, you can check in with your coworkers on quick status updates or questions asynchronously. Use "/voice" or "/video" commands to record and send messages to any Slack user or channel, "/request [name or shortcut]" to request data from Standuply, or "/poll-standuply" to start a new poll.
Standuply Pricing: Free, $5 - $17/month for premium plans
3. Range
Range is an asynchronous standup app created for hybrid and remote teams. Check in with your team through structured updates so you can stay on top of your projects and reduce meetings without interrupting the flow of work. Range supports both real-time and asynchronous updates to connect on goals, check-ins and meetings through simple templates to support your projects.
The Range Slack app integration lets you run your check-ins with Slack, and send reminders, polls, and mood shares with your team. Collect standup status updates across your team, use hashtags to track streams of work, and send flags when you're stuck and need help from another team member. Use the "/checkin" command to share a quick check in via the simple Slack app.
Range Pricing: Free up to 20 users, $8/user/month for additional users
HR & Team Building
1. Vacation Tracker
Vacation Tracker is a leave tracking tool for managing leaves of absences for teams. The app allows you to track PTO, conference time, sick leave, work from home time, and any other type of leave you might need to measure. Vacation Tracker simplifies the approval process through easy requests, custom notifications, and filters across multiple teams and locations to reduce the burden on administrators and streamline the process for team members.
The Vacation Tracker Slack app lets your team request PTO, edit future time off requests, view your leave history, and check the team holiday time off schedule all from within Slack. Administrators are able to manage locations, departments, leave types, and quotas as well via Slack, and send organization or team-wide notifications on updates to company policies. Use "/vacation [help][command]" to prompt the integration to open a new leave request or approval.
Vacation Tracker Pricing: $1/user/month ($25 minimum)
2. Bonusly
Bonusly is an employee recognition and rewards platform that allows you to show appreciation to your team through redeemable points and digital gift cards across hundreds of brands. Recognize new hires, birthdays, team milestones, work anniversaries, and any other celebration in your company culture through one easy-to-manage system, and automate insights on your rewards and recognition trends across the team.
The Bonusly Slack app lets you publicly share appreciation across your team to celebrate and encourage employee success. The integration makes it easy to add GIFs to your recognition posts, automate notifications on achievements, and easily navigate to redeem your rewards through Bonusly. Use "/give" to prompt Slack to bring up Bonusly, and "/bonusly" to start recognising coworkers in your Slack workspace.
Bonusly Pricing: $32.40 - $54/user/year
3. Meme Bot
Meme Bot is a free app designed specifically for Slack that allows you to automatically generate instant memes in your Slack messages and channels. This tool makes it easy to visually enhance your messages and communications with fun or encouraging images to boost employee engagement, team banter, and general icebreakers to kick off a new day.
The Meme Bot Slack app lets you create memes directly through Slack via commands without having to switch to a search engine or design editor to create. Use "/meme-list" to pull up existing memes within your Slack workspace, or use "/meme [template] [header text] ; [footer text]" to create a new meme based on an image or ready to use template.
Meme Bot Pricing: Free
4. Donut
Donut is a team socialization tool designed for Slack to help team members connect for virtual coffee, peer learning, DEI discussions, or any other shared interest across your company. You can create your own unique connection templates, or use one of Donut's prebuilt programs leveraging the best of remote organizations. Donut helps you to boost employee-to-employee engagement, intro to team members, and promote collaboration within your workspace.
The Donut Slack app offers a simple way to introduce teammates and strengthen connections across the organization. You can use the Slack app to create social opportunities around daily topics, virtual coffee meetups or lunch roulette, and facilitate insightful conversations around DEI, ERG or mentorship programs. Within the Slack integration, you can customize group sizes, set meeting frequency, prompt discussion in channels with Watercooler topics, and get detailed reporting on the connections happening within your team. Just visit the shortcuts menu to start or join a Donut channel, as well as snooze or view your Donut intros.
Donut Pricing: Free, $49 -$799/month
5. Cloverpop
Cloverpop is a decision tracking app specifically designed for Slack and Microsoft Teams that allows you to monitor decisions across your organization. Cloverpop helps you to keep track of when, where, and why decisions are made via polls and announcements to increase accountability and transparency into your decision making process.
The Cloverpop Slack app makes it easy to keep track of decisions right in Slack so they're readily available and viewable by your team. Get fast input, quick sign-offs, and keep everyone in the loop without having to rehash old decisions down the road. Use "/cp poll, announce, approve, track, or help" to view decisions that are being made in your workspace.
Cloverpop Pricing: Free, $1/user/year
These are just a few of the awesome Slack tools available through the app directory to help you break into the future of work. There are quite literally hundreds of Slack apps available, each with their own advantages for boosting your workspace productivity, so do some exploring to see what's best for your unique work scenario. If you come across something cool, shoot us a tweet @reclaimai!
Top comments (1)
Amazing post! I love that you mentioned Todoist as one of Slack best pair apps for project management software. Another great tool is Quire and Notion!