Back in March, Slack started rolling out a new feature in beta for desktop users that allowed them to voice-chat with others. 'Calls' on Slack for the desktop supports one-to-one calls, as well as group calls to members of the user's team.
This means users no longer have to leave the messaging platform to use another video chat service like Skype or have their employees change over to Google Hangouts in order to jump on a quick call.
The feature just has to be enabled by the team admin in the settings, and then users can start a call by clicking on the phone icon at the top of their screen. The call appears in the channel, with up to 15 members able to join in. Users can also make a call in a direct message, but it will not go through if the person they are looking to speak to is in "do not disturb" mode.
It's important to add that this feature only supports voice and not video chats, although Slack says this feature will come in the future.
And now Slack has finally added Calls for its mobile beta users on iOS and Android.
Slack voice calls now available on iOS! Been using it a lot lately and it's working well, despite being in beta. pic.twitter.com/lNJCL1oayZ
— Markus Olausson (@raawmarkus) April 8, 2016
To use this new feature, those lucky mobile users in Slack's beta program have to look no further than their messages. Start by opening a single or group message and click on the drop-down menu that will appear when you click on the light gray arrow that is to the right of that person's username. Scroll down toward the bottom until you see the option for voice call, which will read "Call" and that user's name.
The other user will see a notification about the incoming call, with the ability to answer it through the green phone icon or ignore it by tapping the red phone icon. But since many businesses use Slack for communication between employees, we suggest you always pick up if this is your work team we are talking about.
We can only hope that Calls will be integrated in the public version of Slack for iOS and Android, but expect to see video calls to be tested on the beta version soon.
It appears like the company is taking great strides to continue to roll out updates that increase the overall experience on its desktop or mobile app. And all that hard work is paying off. Slack reported earlier this month that it now has 2.7 million daily active users, and has raised a total of $540 million in funding. It definitely means business.
