Employees will no longer have to temporarily minimize the window in Slack or exit the mobile app when trying to get things done on certain other services.
The popular work messaging platform announced on Tuesday, June 21, the release of a new developer tool that allows third-party services to integrate buttons into chats to enable Slack users to get tasks done directly in the window with a click.
Yep, Slack is making it so users never have to leave.
The new feature called Message Buttons works by letting users click one button to get their work done, such as when having a boss approve a project or booking a flight for a work meeting.
At its launch, 12 companies that are part of the Slack App Directory have Message Buttons including: Trello, Kayak, Qualtrics, Abacus, Greenhouse, Kip, PagerDuty and Talkdesk just to name a few.
And since the App Directory, which launched back in December, now has a total of 500 apps, users can expect more integrations to come.
Message Buttons works by typing in a command like "/kayak flights from X to X on X" to communicate with the travel bot, and the user will be able to see all fights during that time and even find a hotel in the Slack message.
Recruiters can get approving a new job posting with the Greenhouse bot used for hiring, and then make an offer to a candidate they like.
With the use of Slack's Message Buttons, users of the expenses reporting app Abacus can now also upload and submit receipts for expenses, which can then be reviewed and approved by an administrator in the Slack message.
Abacus is also using machine learning to recommend which expenses need to be approved based on the level of priority and which similar ones have been rejected in the past. This means admins will only need to take action on 20 percent of expenses.
"Slack has emerged as the hub of daily business activity for many of our customers. With this new integration, employees and administrators can manage their expenses in the place where they are already spending much of their work day," Omar Qari, co-founder of Abacus said in a press release. "Abacus is proud to be the first and only expense management system to offer this functionality."
Message Buttons will help Slack users — all 3 million a day of them — save time to complete tasks, which will then increase work flow and productivity, all while accomplishing everything on the platform.
Source: Slack
