Ask HN: Do you know a less distracting Slack alternative?

3 points·bithavoc··9 comments

I’ve managed to control the impulse of checking my email every 5 minutes but slack is still interrupts me one way or the other, I kinda want to switch the team to a less distracting alternative. Suggestions?

View on HN

It sounds to me less like a problem with the technology but more with your habits and self discipline.

If Slack is interrupting you then why not just close it? And don't open it until you actually need it.

Another alternative will only distract you in the same way, surely.

I really like Zulip (https://zulipchat.com/) because it enforces threading of conversations which makes them so much easier to sort, mute, follow up with after the fact.

We moved to Twist (https://twistapp.com) a few months ago after having similar issues with Slack. Twist is more forum-like, so you avoid the "I have to jump in now" feeling that a continuous chat stream gives you.

I think Telegram (https://telegram.org/) is quite convenient for communication within a team, however, it is not such the workflow-oriented software as Slack is.

You can play with settings and see what works best for you. I don't get notifications and only read messages when I'm done doing my stuff or when I'm about to message a coworker.

Once I figured out how to mute @here and @channel, I regained sanity.

Have you tried disabling alerts, setting your status to "away" and managing that source of distraction?

Can you turn off your Slack notifications? Gitter and Discord exist, but they're not any less distracting.

Have a look at Stride by Atlassian

Reply on news.ycombinator.com