For those people who work from home and use Slack for this, it is very important to learn how to use channels . The application is chosen by hundreds of companies around the world and in the workplace, it is highly relevant..
But it is not only useful for work issues, it can also be used to chat with friends and family. Although Slack offers paid plans, it is also possible to sign up for the free version, use the channels, create a space and have conversations with our colleagues.
Precisely, each of the conversations and projects in Slack are called channels. These work like chat rooms or group chats. There is no limit to the number of channels we can create or private messages we can send; although the free version only allows us to see the last 10,000 messages sent in the workspace..
How to create channels in Slack
First, we are going to hover over “Channels” in the left column until we see a + sign. We hover over this sign again and we will see a pop-up label “Add channels”. We click on this button and select “Create a channel”.
We will see that a pop-up window appears that says “Create a channel”. Now we will have to write a name for the channel. Most Slack channels have two-part hyphenated names: the first part describes the channel's function, while the second part is more specific..
When we type in the name field, Slack will offer some suggestions on how to categorize this; we can use those suggestions if we like any or just write what we want, as long as it is available. It is also possible to add a description.
We also have the option to make the channel private, this means that only those people we specifically invite can see it. Actually, we can make it private at any time; the only drawback is that once it is made private, it cannot be made public again.
Once everything is configured, we click on create. It is possible to add everyone to the workspace, select some people, and skip adding people for now. It is also possible to configure the channel so that anyone who joins is added automatically, without approval.
How to join different channels
Using Slack channels is extremely important and learning how to join one is all too easy thanks to the “Channel Explorer”.
The first thing we will do is click on the + sign next to the Channels label that we can find in the left column; then we will select “Browse channels” in the drop-down menu.
For those who use the Slack desktop app, we can also open the channel browser with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + L on Windows and Command + Shift + L on Mac.
In Slack on the web, we will first have to click on “Browse Slack” located at the top of Channels on the left and choose “Channel Explorer”.
How to add someone to an existing channel
We open the channel and click on the button that indicates the people who already belong to the channel, it is located in the upper right part, we are going to see their icons; Then we click on “Add people”.
If we are adding new members to a private channel, we can choose “Add to (channel name)”, which will allow these members to enter the channel. We can also choose “Create a new channel”, to create a private channel with its members.
Regardless of the choice, we will click on "Continue" and in the next window "Add people" we will write the name of the people we want to add in the bar.