Selected examples of things that Slack thinks Slack is

2026/04/08

(If you don’t know what Slack actually is, this article isn’t very helpful.)

I was recently writing about Slack, and it occurred to me that for one of these dictionary-word-unrelated-to-what-the-product-is kind of products, it’s better to include a description of what it is. And I figured the most proper thing would be to go with something they officially use and that I agree with. A few easy to find clicks into their help center—actually the first article in the first section in the first menu item—get you to a page “What is Slack?” On that page, the first sentence gives the official answer:

Slack is the operating system for work.

Now I always imagined the audience for that article I was working on was the type to understand an operating system as something like Windows or Debian, so this description is not suitable.

Luckily, searching for "slack is" site:slack.com gives lots of results. Here’s a sample of these:


And yes I have heard the allegation that the name Slack originated as an acronym of a descriptive name.

My last post was about either How to sign in to Slack with a QR code or List of problems that can’t be solved with a big enough hammer. Find out which.