Slack is exploring a wide variety of new features that could be making their way to the popular messaging platform, including scheduled messages, Instagram-style stories, and short video and audio messages.
According to CEO Stewart Butterfield in a recent interview on The Vergecast, the company has already “implemented APIs for scheduled sending of messages, and I think we’re going to end up putting that in the product at some point.” He also noted that competitors like G Suite already offer similar features.
Butterfield also mentioned that the company is looking to add more tools to make it easier for users to “keep track of the things you want to get back to,” including the aforementioned scheduling tools and “more control over notifications,” although there aren’t too many details as to what that will look like.
Additionally, Butterfield mentioned that there’s a chance that Slack could add some sort of Instagram Story-like UI within Slack channels for teams at some point down the line. The goal would be to offer a way for teams to communicate broader project updates or statuses in a way that simple text messages don’t allow for.
In a similar vein, Slack is also exploring a way for groups of users to collaboratively curate messages and content within Slack to better manage the sometimes-overwhelming amount of information that can pass through the messaging service.
On the flip side, Butterfield also elaborated on an area that Slack doesn’t plan to look to compete with: real-time video chats, like those offered by Zoom or Google Meet. Instead, Butterfield explained, the company is focusing on opportunities for “asynchronous video or audio communication,” similar to the quick audio and video message features offered in apps like WhatsApp and iMessage, as better fits for Slack.
It’s not entirely clear which of these ideas Butterfield is interested in and which (if any) are in active development as future features for the service. Some — like scheduled messages, with APIs that are already implemented into Slack — certainly sound further along than developing a new story system, but there’s no announced timeframe for when or if to expect any of the new functionality.
