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I feel like Slack deserves some blame here for their poor uptick during COVID. Slack's audio/video product has been abysmal, and hasn't improved during the loc

I feel like Slack deserves some blame here for their poor uptick during COVID. Slack's audio/video product has been abysmal, and hasn't improved during the lockdowns. If you use Slack on iOS and someone shares their screen, you can't see what they are sharing. My teams have never been comfortable using Slack for audio calls, and there were enough problems that calls were just done over teams instead. I know many companies that used Slack, and then used Teams (or Zoom) for audio/video. How does Zoom factor into all this which grew like crazy? Teams is technically competitive but Zoom really nailed an important part of the product.

mcintyre1994 6y ago
I do agree with this, but at the same time - where was their above-baseline growth from COVID actually going to come from? We already used Slack even when we were all working in the same office with occasional remote work, we use it more now and rely on it more but that doesn’t affect their bottom line until we grow our team. I don’t think there’s many teams that wouldn’t have benefited from Slack before COVID and would after. Whereas with Zoom, we used to use Google Meet (never had much luck with Slack video either), it was pretty rubbish but it was fine to keep the one person WFH in the loop on the standup or do an occasional all remote one. Once it was all remote all the time there was a motivation to move to the best tool in the space. I think that’s why Zoom has insane growth compared to before and Slack doesn’t - you needed Slack anyway, you could get away with worse alternatives for Zoom. Zoom also has massive growth outside of its enterprise space with family/friends using it to stay connected. Slack doesn’t really get anything much above baseline there either because people already had ways to text large groups. And their free tier/pricing doesn’t work well in that space either compared to competitors, whereas Zoom has an individual pricing plan that does.
- halfdan 6y ago
  What frustrates me most about Slack Video/Audio is that they bought and shut down Screenhero. Screenhero was an excellent tool I got to use for audio calls and screensharing about five years ago. It was clearly an acquihire but somehow when they integrated the product into Slack it became the shit show it is today.
  - AsyncAwait 6y ago
    The Screenhero guys launched https://screen.so https://screen.so
  - apple4ever 6y ago
    YUP! Screenhero was amazing. Instead of keeping it running until they could properly integrate it, they just half assed it and shut it down. Slack had a great opportunity and totally blew it.
- Closi 6y ago
  I think OPs point was that teams is effectively slack + zoom for most organisations, and that video calling was the ‘must have’ Covid feature, so while Zoom and Teams have won (because they both have great video calling) Slack lost.
ToniCipriani 6y ago
The only thing I need and haven't found in others is Slack's functionality of drawing on someone else's screen. Webex has it but it's super cumbersome to use.
- apple4ever 6y ago
  Zoom has it and its really amazing. I gotta say, of the products I've used, Zoom blows all the others out of the water (Teams, Google Meet, Slack, WebEx)
  - com2kid 6y ago
    Somehow everyone has forgotten about Uberconference. And jitsi has much higher quality than Zoom. The latency on zoom is super annoying. Start a meeting on your phone from your laptop, easy 1/2 second delay...

mcintyre1994 6y ago

I do agree with this, but at the same time - where was their above-baseline growth from COVID actually going to come from? We already used Slack even when we were all working in the same office with occasional remote work, we use it more now and rely on it more but that doesn’t affect their bottom line until we grow our team. I don’t think there’s many teams that wouldn’t have benefited from Slack before COVID and would after. Whereas with Zoom, we used to use Google Meet (never had much luck with Slack video either), it was pretty rubbish but it was fine to keep the one person WFH in the loop on the standup or do an occasional all remote one. Once it was all remote all the time there was a motivation to move to the best tool in the space. I think that’s why Zoom has insane growth compared to before and Slack doesn’t - you needed Slack anyway, you could get away with worse alternatives for Zoom. Zoom also has massive growth outside of its enterprise space with family/friends using it to stay connected. Slack doesn’t really get anything much above baseline there either because people already had ways to text large groups. And their free tier/pricing doesn’t work well in that space either compared to competitors, whereas Zoom has an individual pricing plan that does.

halfdan 6y ago
What frustrates me most about Slack Video/Audio is that they bought and shut down Screenhero. Screenhero was an excellent tool I got to use for audio calls and screensharing about five years ago. It was clearly an acquihire but somehow when they integrated the product into Slack it became the shit show it is today.
- AsyncAwait 6y ago
  The Screenhero guys launched https://screen.so https://screen.so
- apple4ever 6y ago
  YUP! Screenhero was amazing. Instead of keeping it running until they could properly integrate it, they just half assed it and shut it down. Slack had a great opportunity and totally blew it.
Closi 6y ago
I think OPs point was that teams is effectively slack + zoom for most organisations, and that video calling was the ‘must have’ Covid feature, so while Zoom and Teams have won (because they both have great video calling) Slack lost.

ToniCipriani 6y ago

The only thing I need and haven't found in others is Slack's functionality of drawing on someone else's screen. Webex has it but it's super cumbersome to use.

apple4ever 6y ago
Zoom has it and its really amazing. I gotta say, of the products I've used, Zoom blows all the others out of the water (Teams, Google Meet, Slack, WebEx)
- com2kid 6y ago
  Somehow everyone has forgotten about Uberconference. And jitsi has much higher quality than Zoom. The latency on zoom is super annoying. Start a meeting on your phone from your laptop, easy 1/2 second delay...