Review Summary
Slack is the best enterprise group messaging app, integrating thousands of apps and automated workflows to help teams work more efficiently.
About This Product
2013
Vancouver, Canada → San Francisco, United States
Stewart Butterfield (CEO), Cal Henderson (CTO), Eric Costello, Serguei Mourachov
Detailed Review
Slack was born from the ashes of Glitch — a video game that Stewart Butterfield and his team spent 4 years building before it failed in 2012. But in the process of building Glitch, the team created an internal communication tool to coordinate remote work — that became the prototype for Slack. Butterfield, a Canadian of Vietnamese descent (Vietnamese name: Nhiếp Phong Vũ), had previously succeeded with Flickr (sold to Yahoo for $35 million in 2005) — also born from a failed online game.
Slack launched in August 2013 and went viral almost immediately in the tech startup community. The growth rate — reaching 1 million DAU within 24 hours of going public — had never been seen before in business software. It was expected to be an email killer, but Slack actually complements email more than it replaces it. Channel-based communication, threads, and workflow tool integrations created "Slack as operating system" for many companies.
Salesforce acquired Slack in 2021 for $27.7 billion — Salesforce's largest acquisition ever. Integration with Salesforce CRM creates "Customer 360" with clearer business context in every conversation. Slack AI summarizes long channels and threads, auto-drafts messages, and enables intelligent search across history.
Current Developments (2025–2026)
Deeper Slack-Salesforce integration — deal updates, support tickets, and account data from the CRM now appear in the Slack sidebar. Slack Lists — integrated task management — is competing with Asana and ClickUp for lightweight project management. Huddles have improved audio quality and screen sharing into a persistent virtual office. 38 million DAU and 750,000 organizations are actively using Slack in enterprise environments.
Strengths
- Slack has changed the way teams communicate at work
- Instead of long email chains, Slack provides topic-based chat channels, integrating with most modern work tools.
- Integrates seamlessly with popular tools and platforms in modern workflows
- Intuitive interface with a shorter learning curve than most competitors in the same segment
Areas for Improvement
- Extensive feature set can feel overwhelming to new users — expect a few weeks to get fully comfortable
- Some advanced features require an internet connection and do not work well offline
Verdict
Slack is an excellent choice for anyone needing a powerful tool in the Mobile App category. Founded in 2013 by Stewart Butterfield (CEO), Cal Henderson (CTO), Eric Costello, Serguei Mourachov, this product has undergone years of development and continuous improvement. With a rating of 8.8/10, it ranks among the best in its segment. We encourage you to try the free version before deciding to upgrade.
