There is a good chance that you will still be working from home at least part of the time, even after the pandemic subsides, and Slack wants to make this new lifestyle easier. He has just launched the long-promised Slack Connect feature, which allows you to send direct messages to anyone, not just people in your company or team. Send an invitation and you can start a secure conversation with an important customer or partner without having to resort to email conversations.
Up to 20 companies can chat with each other. You can now use several applications designed for Connect, such as a scheduler (Calendly), a document subscriber (DocuSign) and an account mapper (Crossbeam).
Connect is now available for paid Slack plans and should eventually be expanded to free users. You will have to wait for some features, however. Additional anti-phishing measures will arrive in late spring, while personalized policies and a programming kit will not arrive until the summer. The option to build a complete business network will have to wait until winter.
Even so, Connect is already a significant change for Slack. It can become less of an internal tool and more of a social glue that connects companies and replaces existing formats in some cases, including email. That, in turn, could squeeze Microsoft Teams and other messaging systems in the workplace that vie for your attention.