In October, Slack announced it would be the introduction of a product that would allow any paid user – in any organization – to exchange messages directly through the platform. On Wednesday, the company fulfilled that promise by opening Slack Connect DMs for anyone who is paying for the Slack subscription.
According to Slack’s announcement about the new feature, all anyone needs to do is send a invite to anyone in any organization and expect them to accept (or decline) the invitation. Soon, the company adds, it will expand these types of DM invitations to all teams, even those that are using Slack for free.
The new feature is an expansion of Slack Connect, which the company launched Last summer as a way to connect Slackers from up to 20 different companies on a single Slack channel. Thanks to the new DM feature, it appears that contacts between companies will not be relegated to speaking on an open channel, but through private messages as well – through email, but through Slack.
Although Connect is aimed at paying Slack customers, the company is also inviting non-paying Slackers – or even people who don’t use Slack – to try these new DMs on their own. The company is offering a 90-day free trial for eligible users to connect to a paying user’s shared channel.