10 Advanced Slack Features Every Power User Should Know

As a daily Slack user for over 5 years across multiple workspaces, I‘ve discovered countless features, shortcuts, and techniques to get the most out of this popular communication tool.

While Slack helps teams communicate better, it can also lead to distraction and information overload without the right setup. The key is to customize Slack to match your needs – turning off notifications at the right times, automating repetitive tasks, and streamlining conversations.

In this article, I‘ll share my top 10 lesser-known tips and features that can take your Slack skills to the next level:

1. Preview Messages Before Sending

We‘ve all been there – hastily typing out a Slack message only to regret it right after hitting "Enter". Wouldn‘t it be nice to preview messages first?

Fortunately, Slack lets you do exactly that. Go to Preferences > Advanced > "Let me preview messages before sending". Now messages won‘t send until you explicitly click "Send" or use keyboard shortcuts.

This gives you a chance to proofread messages and correct any mistakes. I use this feature daily and it has saved me from embarrassing typos more times than I can count!

2. Advanced Search with Parameters

Slack‘s built-in search is handy, but it can get cluttered – especially in large, active workspaces. Boolean keywords, exclusion filters, and other parameters help narrow down searches significantly.

Some useful operators include:

• from: @user – Messages from specific team member
• in: #channel – Only in certain channel
• has: link – Messages with links
• exclude: general – Omit results from #general
• on: 2022-05-15 – On exact date

You can combine multiple operators like from:@user in: #channel to find messages matching all criteria. See Slack‘s help docs for more search tips.

3. Organize Key Info in a Canvas

Over time, important links, files, and task lists get buried in active Slack channels. Rather than dig for these, use a Canvas – a centralized place to store this content per conversation.

Click the "+" icon in any channel to add a Canvas. You can organize info into sections, @mention users, add task checklists, embed images/videos, annotate with comments and more.

It‘s perfect for things like:

• Project resources, assets, and links
• Meeting agendas and notes
• Team goals and status trackers
• Event checklists and plans

And since every member can contribute and comment, your team can collectively organize conversations rather than let things slip away into message history.

4. Create Custom Reminders

Ever promise to follow up on something in Slack but then forget? Wish Slack had a built-in "todo" list of sorts?

Good news – you can easily set reminders on messages using /remind commands. On any message, type:

/remind [channel or @user] [what this is about] [when]  

For example:

/remind @john send invoice for last month‘s work in 2 days

You‘ll get a DM from Slackbot at the requested time and date with a link back to the conversation.

This turns Slack into a pseudo task manager for one-off followups. No more "Sorry, forgot to get back to you!"

5. Auto-Update Your Status

Let your team know what you‘re up to without manually changing your status constantly. Automatically sync your status to display meetings, focus time, OOO, and more.

Connect Clockwise or a similar calendar integration to pull events from Google Calendar, Office 365 and others into your Slack status. Clockwise even lets you set status based on topics and people in meetings.

You can take this a step further by connecting Zapier to update custom messages when working on projects, based on timesheets, or use Cases to show support ticket volume.

6. Link Unfurling for Previews

When sharing links in Slack, you‘ve probably seen some auto-expand to show a preview image, headline, and description without clicking – also called "unfurling".

But unfurling doesn‘t work for all links by default. Fix this by adding any missing sites under Preferences > Advanced > App unfurling settings. You can add both internal and external domains.

This saves that extra click for colleagues and avoids the broken link confusion. Some apps like Zapier even let you pull rich excerpts from the content when shared.

7. Format Messages with Markdown

Tired of giant blocks of plain text in Slack? Wish you could emphasize key points? Markdown formatting allows some lightweight text styling.

Use symbols around text to make it bold, italic, or monospaced. Break up walls of messages with — horizontal rules. Link to websites like this.

See Slack‘s Markdown guide for the full spec – it covers lists, images, headers, blockquotes, and more.

Combined with the preview option, Markdown takes your Slack game to the next level.

8. Automate Repetitive Work with Zaps

Let‘s be honest – Slack can lead to lots of repetitive tasks like sharing drafts for feedback, filing things away in other apps, and more. But you can automate much of this busywork with Zapier.

Zapier connects hundreds of apps like Slack, Dropbox, Trello, Gmail and more. When you get a Slack message matching certain conditions, you can trigger automatic actions.

Some example Zaps:

• File Slack images into Dropbox folders
• Create Asana tasks for any message with "@todo"
• Send new Bitbucket commits into a Slack channel
• Save Slack channel messages into a Google Sheet

Check out 200+ Slack integrations on Zapier to eliminate redundant tasks.

9. Analyze Slack Usage with Stats Bots

As work happens more and more in Slack, admins need to track engagement and make sure it‘s working for employees. BUT going through reams of messages is near impossible.

That‘s why analytics apps like Simple Poll and Tempo for Slack are so valuable. Connect them to any workspace for activity monitoring, message volume tracking, participation by department, identifying experts, plus member happiness and burnout signals.

You can even do things like analyze channel relevance and trimunused ones. Just be transparent about monitoring and review aggregated stats rather than reading private conversations.

10. Scale Up with Enterprise Grid

If your team has outgrown a single Slack workspace, you‘re prime for Enterprise Grid. It‘s designed for large, complex organizations with specialized compliance needs.

Enterprise Grid handles an unlimited number of workspaces with centralized controls. Use data loss prevention policies, SSO authentication, and granular admin roles. Customize which groups sees what channels and messages.

And if your whole company can‘t make the switch yet, share channels connect Grid and free workspaces. Standard and Plus plans can even search Grid content. Start here if you need SOC 2 or ISO 27001 security standards.

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As you can see, Slack is capable of way more than chatting – from task automation to usage analytics and beyond. I hope these lesser-known yet seriously productive features help you transform how your team works.

What other Slack power-user tips would you add to this list? Let me know in the comments!