<aside> <img src="/icons/info-alternate_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/info-alternate_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> This page is part of The Toolbox by Danny Smith.

</aside>

As with all written communication, you should consider the reader when writing slack messages. The better your message, the more effective your communication will be and the easier it will be for others to interact with.

The Basics

To use slack considerately and effectively, stick to these guidelines:

• Send whole messages. Sending a single thought as many separate messages makes it hard to use threads and emoji reactions, and hard to share or refer to the message later. So write your whole message before pressing enter. (If you need line breaks, use Alt + Enter)
• Use formatting to aid communication. Slack supports italics, bold, strikethrough and code formatting. Learn how this works and use it - it'll help others understand your message quicker.

• Use Links not URLs. If you select a word in slack and paste a URL over it, the text will become a link. This is much better than just pasting long, ugly URLs everywhere.
• Edit, don't asterisk. If you have a typo, don't send another message as a correction* - edit the original message.
• Use emoji for simple signals. If you’re asking people to do something, ask them in the message to put a ✅ on it. If you need people to vote, put 👍👎 reactions on and ask them to click one. Make their job easy.
• Tag people. If you mention someone by name, tag them in with an @mention so they can join the conversation.

Writing a great message

Try to make life easy for both you and the folks reading your message. Look at this message…

What’s going on here?