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Ouriel Ohayon

Calls on Slack - Make voice calls in Slack

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Ben Tossell
This was inevitable! I've even forgotten Slack doesn't have voice calls and then am surprised when I try to call and realise I can't. Skype/Google Hangout/the others are surely going to struggle to compete here I feel
Anton Eliasson
@bentossell was just going to wrote that. We use video more than audio only so we can't wait for video support, no more Hangout links then!
Andreas Duess
@bentossell Same here. There's been countless occasions when I've been trying to remember the voice call code only to... duh!
Thibault Bouveur
@antoneliasson @bentossell The hangout integration does the trick to avoid links
Luis Borges Quina
@bentossell Slack isn't yet in the charity business :) In the free plan (most used for communications outside the company), only the 1:1 call is included otherwise you'll have to move to the standard $6,67 plan. So as long as the free plan only includes 1:1 calls, link based conferencing based on WebRTC probably will be the easiest way.
Sid Puri
@bentossell I know I forgot it didn't have everything. Just been in love with the product since day 1
Ed Shelley
👏 🏻Great (if somewhat inevitable) move from the Slack team! But it's not going to replace Skype for me (and many other people) until there's a seamless way to include external people in those calls...
Frank
@mr_ed There was an exodus away from Skype when they were acquired by MSFT. Did you not get the memo? 😋
Luis Borges Quina
@mr_ed I totally agree with you Ed. When Google open sourced WebRTC (the technology behind Screenhero) I heard everywhere around the world announcing "Skype is dead" ... this was back in 2012! I think calls on Slack is a GREAT feature and the least you can ask to a collaborative platform. However, I don't see 1:1 calls (in the free plan) kill massively Hangouts and Skype. In enterprises, people will still use MS Lync or other WebRTC client solutions like BlueJeans. Ottspott.co offers Slack teams the ability to get external calls from regular phones and allows also to call mobile and landlines with slash commands. A perfect fit with Calls on Slack :-)
Luis Borges Quina
@stillupmysleeve @mr_ed Frank, when Slack will offer free group audio/video conf, + mobile I agree Skype and Hangouts will suffer. For the moment 1:1 is great but having to pay for what you have for free with Skype and Hangouts will keep a lot of teams away.
Patrick Sullivan
Very excited about this. Especially the video chat that is coming soon!!!
Fred Rivett
Great to see voice calls totally integrated into this platform. Appear.in has been a great stand in in the mean time, but native will always have benefits that appear.in couldn't offer. Excited to try this out. p.s. What's next? Video on Slack? VR on Slack? Scratch and sniff on Slack?
Owen Williams
@fredrivett Video calling is coming for sure, they said they were working on it for a while, so i guess that's next
Cory Shaw
Is this the roll out of the Screen Hero acquisition? I truly miss Screen Hero and cannot wait for it to be integrated into slack. It was hands down the best way to screen share and pair on code problems. https://screenhero.com/
Joey Brooks
@coryshaw You don't have to miss it. Screen Hero is still around for paid Slack teams. See: https://slack.com/screenhero
Ludovic Bostral
Awesome :) we are using appear.in for conference, but this is far more practical. Waiting for video now.
Pulkit Agrawal
@ludobos yeah we use appear.in too but it's annoying for external parties - in case they don't use Chrome and then can't screenshare or something. Love how quick it is to get going though - that's the usp
Ouriel Ohayon
Hunter
one big thing missing though. Mobile. nothing yet. needs to work to make it popular
Owen Williams
So, just played with this and it's pretty amazing. The level of friction-free here is pretty impressive -- I hit call and our entire team was on this within just a few seconds. We usually spend a ton of time messing around with Hangouts or Skype, but this was just like *bam* you're in the room. Blown away -- now hanging out for video calling . What'll be interesting to see is how this eats Slack's competitors. Why use Hangouts, GoToMeeting or Skype when you can just click a button and not launch another app?
Ben Tossell
@ow I'm interested in seeing how it will all work across team/calling people not in a same slack as you... if that is a thing these days 😉
Luis Borges Quina
@bentossell If Slack sets up a searchable directory like Skype did, it might be possible :) There is an option on the Slack call screen for sharing a link. This might allow to invite people outside your team.
Luis Borges Quina
Great move ! At ottspott.co we provide phone numbers for Slack teams that have no phone number for their business. For us this means that it will be much easier to get calls inside the teams and transfer external calls between teams and team members. Meaning you can now definitely throw away your old school cloud telephony solutions. Can't wait to start using Calls on Slack !
Daniel Kempe
Awesome!! Any plans for screensharing? That way, I could ditch skype altogether!!
Troy Ruediger
skype and google hangouts =💩 Slack = 🙌
Jason Dainter
Hmm so followed the link but don't appear to have that button? Is it not available on all accounts? universalavenue.slack would love access to this if any slack overlords are watching these threads
Simon Bromberg
Still don't see it on the Team Settings page
Ouriel Ohayon
Hunter
Say Goodbye to Google hangouts (and possibly some of Skype)
Armaan Gupta
Been waiting for this and still anxiously waiting the video integration! Wondering if there are any limits on the number of people who can join in on a call at the same time??
Luis Borges Quina
Hi @katoree. As it's based on a WebRTC audio-videoconference bridge (Screenhero) , you should probably be able to have as many participants as you wish. In the free plan, it's only 1:1.
Gabriel Reynard
That's very important for Slack growth!
Nikita Korotaev
Hey Slack, how can I get my team on the beta list?
Evan Walden
Hope they can handle bandwidth issues when this scales. It would be sad to have a reason to complain about Slack...
Evan Walden
@ugumu Yeah, I guess I was jumping ahead to their comments about video. Voice calls aren't really a pain point for our team, but being able to jump into a crisp video call on Slack would be the real game changer.
Kristian Muñiz
Awesome news! Slack is stepping up the game!
Matt Samet
Looks like Slack's ScreenHero acquisition is bearing fruit 😄 Always loved SH's voice quality! Hopefully screen share will follow soon (as their page promises).