Planet of the apps: Slack is now home to more than 1,000 apps

12 Jul 2017

Image: A Lot Of People/Shutterstock

Slack brings its App Directory onto its main platform.

Workplace messaging platform Slack has reached the important milestone of 1,000 apps and what better way to mark the occasion than to put its App Directory front and centre?

Previously, the App Directory existed separately on another website but now, if you look beneath Channels and Direct Messages, you will see ‘Apps’.

‘More than 1,000 apps are now listed in our App Directory, with over 200 of those being used by thousands of companies’
– BUSTER BENSON

Once you click Apps, you can see active apps or search by name and type, as well as view instructional videos from the developer. Clicking on the app header opens an at-a-glance view of the apps your team is using, too.

Planet of the apps: Slack is home to more than 1,000 apps

The new Slack App Directory. Image: Slack

Slack product platform lead Buster Benson said that there are more than 155,000 developers actively building for the site.

“Messaging alone has never been Slack’s whole mission . Whatever workflow you do daily that sucks away a little time, or distracts you from the real work, can be smoothed out and connected with your conversations. It’s thanks to our our developers and partners that this is a reality with Slack’s platform,” Benson said.

“More than 1,000 apps are now listed in our App Directory, with over 200 of those being used by thousands of companies.”

Benson added that one of the most popular apps on the Slack platform is Google Drive.

“Now, when a Drive file is shared in a channel, the app will check that it is accessible to the group you’ve shared it with. If not, you will be prompted to update your sharing settings right where you shared the file, instead of having to pop into a new window or back into Drive to get the task done.”

7 new apps get support from Slack Fund

In 2015, Slack cemented its position in the productivity world by fostering a new apps ecosystem and creating an $80m Slack developer fund.

The company has revealed that it has selected seven new companies for support, bringing the start-up total so far to 32. The new apps are described below.

  • Polly lets customers build enterprise surveys and polls in Slack.
  • Neva provides AI-driven automation for support, be it IT support within an organisation, or customer support for clients.
  • Drafted, the referral hiring platform, matches people in your team’s network to open roles at your company, and makes intelligent suggestions about who to refer.
  • StdLib is connecting businesses and developers via APIs. It uses ‘server-less’ technology that allows people to ship software products and build an API business without managing infrastructure.
  • Loom is a video collaboration platform that lets team members record and share quick videos throughout an organisation.
  • Pinpoint helps businesses truly understand what they are spending, both in dollars and in human capital, on creating and deploying software.
  • Parabol provides a team project dashboard to help you run projects efficiently.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com