Slack's App Directory Proves it's More Than Just a Chatroom

Slack's App Directory Proves it's More Than Just a Chatroom
The business communications tool's apps give it access to information from outside sources.

All those apps in collaboration suite Slack are about to get a little easier to find and integrate within your team -- and over 160 of them live within the company's new Slack App Directory. Just type "/apps" and then the keyword of your choice to bring up a list of compatible applications. For example, "/apps productivity" in the Engadget Slack channel brings up Google Calendar, Wunderlist and WorkingOn, while "/apps video" comes back with storage and video chat applications like Dropbox and Google+ Hangouts. The idea is that when one of these integrated apps is connected, like Weiko's visitor check-in system for example, the relevant party will automagically get a ping saying their guest has arrived.

As TC reports, Slack will use venture capital funds to support developers making enterprise apps for the platform to keep pushing that type of functionality ahead. Basically, it's investing within itself to make sure the list of integrated apps keeps growing. Cool. I just hope after all this, "/giphy" keeps delivering unintentionally hilarious results.