Why We’re Betting Against Real-Time Team Messaging Apps Like Slack | Hacker News Reader

Why We’re Betting Against Real-Time Team Messaging Apps Like Slack

blog.doist.com

19 pointsweeha6 comments

> Slack recently introduced the concept of threads inside the app as well.

huh? "recently"?

> Twist lets you set up a time off status that mutes all notifications from the app, changes your avatar to a “vacation” avatar, and lets your teammates know when you’ll return.

so does Slack, and has been this way, for a while. And Slack additionally has functionality which mutes notifications outside of work hours -- great for enforcing work-life balance.

When was this written again?

> With Slack, there was no breathing room to take a step back, think about what was being discussed, and follow up on it later.

Async communication does tend to be more thoughtful and considered. I think this has to be more than just about threaded conversations though. A thread isn't a great organizing tool for good ideas, just a structure for a linear conversation.

Async communication can really shine when the most important/engaged with content is the most visible. Reducing the signal to noise ratio is key. I think Aether.app does a good job of this by implementing a familiar forum like voting system[0]. It gives precedence to the important ideas by making it easy to spot the ideas that are getting the most attention/support.

[0] - https://aether.app/docs/features/#voting

...but slack is async. Calls are for realtime. If their company tried to use slack to mean syncronous communication, that seems like the root problem.

Slack is async in the same way phone calls are async. You absolutely don't have to respond immediately on a phone call or on slack, the technology really doesn't care.

They are both used conversationally though and that means they follow the social conventions around conversations.

Slack is distinctly different from phone calls because it has the concept of presence. You can be "online" but "away". There is no such concept for phone calls. The closest thing to that is something like Discord rooms with always-on audio.

My Slack usage is definitely async. The icon is kept on the far left edge of a 43" display. How async varies from person to person, day to day. This likely works because we have more than one person in every group able to field inquiries with appointed people for critical workflows.

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