Slack Buys and Shuts Down Intelligent Email App Astro (engadget.com) 50
Slack has acquired email app company Astro to incorporate it into Slack channels. As a result, Astro is shutting down its Mac, iOS, Android, Alexa and Slack apps. They're no longer taking new users and existing ones will lose access on October 10th. Engadget reports: The company said that with over 50 million channels created to date, they're increasingly becoming the platform through which teams collaborate. "But we all know that email is still a very important tool in business communication," said Slack. "We've taken some steps to make it possible to integrate email into Slack, but now we're in a position to make that interoperability much simpler and much, much more powerful."
Last year, Astro launched its Astrobot Slack app, which let users manage their emails and check their Office 365 or Google calendars from within Slack. It also allowed them to do one search to pull up results from both Slack and email. "As we explored with Slack how to bring together messaging, email and calendar, it became evident that we would have the biggest impact on workplace communications and realize our original vision by joining Slack," the company said.
Last year, Astro launched its Astrobot Slack app, which let users manage their emails and check their Office 365 or Google calendars from within Slack. It also allowed them to do one search to pull up results from both Slack and email. "As we explored with Slack how to bring together messaging, email and calendar, it became evident that we would have the biggest impact on workplace communications and realize our original vision by joining Slack," the company said.
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And what the hell is Slack and why so many stories about it?
Re:My tag for this story (see comment) (Score:4, Funny)
It's like basecamp for people smart enough to know IRC is superior but not smart enough to realize you could still just use IRC.
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But they didn't "just kill it"
They integrated the functionality in to their own product, then killed it.
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Embrace, extend, extinguish
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Acquire, add, assassinate.
Buy, build, bomb.
Re:I don't use... (Score:5, Funny)
I have been using slack since version 1.2.3 (~1993) and now using slackware 14.2!
I can't find that Astro app that you are talking about in my distro. What is it? What does it do?
Anyway, I just chatted with Patrick Volkerding and he says that he hasn't got a clue either! Strange story.
Please enlight me!
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Slackware was the distribution
Slackware is the distribution, it is still active and used by many people.
Anyway seems odd an IRC Client 'clone' needs email, but I guess that is how companies grow these days
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Correct, it is crazy. A lot of companies try to duplicate a lot of stuff that already exists in one "web app" or just "app", sometimes using the silliest protocols instead of the existing ones.
I had a chat with a marketing person from our company and she said:
"We are in the modern era, people don't want to open a mail client, an IRC client, etc. We need to have a product that just does it all."
So nowadays, some marketing people find it unacceptable and too complicated to ask people to open and learn how to
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Those who are ignorant of IRC are doomed to reinvent it, badly.
—me, upon learning my employer had, after nuking IRC and switching to Jabber, ditched Jabber for the even steamier and more fragrant pile that is Slack.
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That's what happens (Score:2)
Another banner day (Score:2)
for people using cloud services. First Zoho, then Astro.
Impending 365 downtime imminent?
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for people using cloud services.
. . . cloud services using people would be a way more interesting banner . . .
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for people using cloud services.
. . . cloud services using people would be a way more interesting banner . . .
You mean using people like the machines did in "The Matrix" ?
Slack is an interruption machine (Score:4, Interesting)
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Voice: 0 words per minute because the rest of the team isn't necessarily online at the same time. Written word: 80 wpm after spending some quality time with Mavis or Mario.
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Slack scrolls whatever the fuck was said earlier right off the damn screen, and good luck finding it.
Discord has a "scroll to oldest unread message" button. Click it, then start reading down until you're caught up. I can't test this in Slack at the moment, but I'd be very surprised if it did not.
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It's mostly about understanding how to use Slack, like IRC. It's just a room full of people talking, people should not assume you're reading every word if you're not actively engaged (if they do, they're using it wrong). They can @you, which is essentially like coming to get you from the other room to join the discussion.
Personally I use w [github.com]
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In other words, it's an open plan office for those who are lucky enough to not work in open plan offices.
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No one ever complained about this behavior on IRC but for some reason people do on Slack. My guess
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Thank you for taking time out of your busy work day to log into Slashdot, in order to let us know about distraction machines.
Now, back to work.
(Also, Flock is way, way worse in terms of being bombarded with obtrusive notifications)
Forums on lunch break (Score:2)
Forums are not quite the same as chat. Though the logging in Matrix, Slack, Skype, and Discord makes it less synchronous and ephemeral than IRC, it's still in practice somewhat more synchronous than something like Slashdot, where multiple-paragraph researched replies are commonplace. In something asynchronous like a threaded or nested forum, you can compose replies to several comments on your lunch break and still be seen as a participant in the discussion. And at least one analyst believes that synchronous
No it isn't. (Score:2)
It's a verbatim copy of IRC running of cloud microservices and web protocols controlled by a single company and used by bazillions because it offers unified branding and apps you can install everywhere. Plus it also offers per account per channel per user chat history that carries over (a thing that is a bit sucky to set up in IRC). You can also integrate it into other cloudy stuff implemented in modern microservices, such as Google Docs.
Other than that it's just IRC in shiny. ... Which is where the "Shiny"
Re: Slack is an interruption machine (Score:2)