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HipChat is probably under fire from Slack. That's why I think they are making this change, because I just made the transition a few weeks ago and Slack has bee

by joeblau 12y ago

HipChat is probably under fire from Slack. That's why I think they are making this change, because I just made the transition a few weeks ago and Slack has been amazing. Once you go Slack, you never go back.

adricnet 12y ago
Would you mind linking to the competing service you mention, or perhaps a review of it? I've been advocating for Hipchat but haven't seen Slack yet.
- saiko-chriskun 12y ago
  www.google.com
- davidkuridza 12y ago
  https://slack.com/ https://slack.com/ We switched from HipChat recently, so far it's working fine. The only thing we miss are cross team notifications, but apparently they are working on it (can't find the link at the moment).
  - alexcroox 12y ago
    Does it integrate with 3rd party chat clients like Adium or are you forced to have their tab/client open too?
    - bcj 12y ago
      You can connect to it using an IRC client, but you lose the ability to view history or make edits to posts
      - baddox 12y ago
        You also lose the ability to mention other team members, which is huge.
  - davidkuridza 12y ago
    @alexcroox can't reply directly for some reason, hopefully you'll see this. It's possible, see https://slack.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201727913-Connecting-to-Slack-over-IRC-and-XMPP https://slack.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201727913-Connec... for more details. You'll lose the history though. We've been using native clients more or less, all are working fine.
- bmelton 12y ago
  Not the OP, but here's a link: https://slack.com/ https://slack.com/ I've used it, and it seems pretty good, but I don't have enough time behind the wheel to provide a review.
- IbJacked 12y ago
  Since I've only dabbled with it I can't provide a proper review, but the link is https://slack.com/ https://slack.com/
- owenwil 12y ago
  Here's a small review of how we use Slack at our company: http://hoistapps.com/blog/tools-we-love-slack/ http://hoistapps.com/blog/tools-we-love-slack/ tl;dr: it's awesome
- jess1003 12y ago
  If you communicate with more than one team (different emails), I'd look into Hall. It's chat, text, file-sharing on all your devices. Hall.com
izolate 12y ago
We were diehard HipChat users at my company, then one day I discovered Slack.com. Within a week it was our dominant messaging platform, not least because we could invite the entire company to use it for free (instead of just the development team). From a product design standpoint, Slack is streets ahead of the conservative HipChat.
- eddieroger 12y ago
  Similar for me and mine. We ran out of free users, hired a new guy and couldn't add him in. Someone else suggested Slack, and until this announcement, haven't looked back.
joshma 12y ago
Any thoughts/justifications for pricing? The only thing holding us back is that Slack costs 4x as much ($8 instead of $2). While this isn't a big spend at the end of the day, we're sort of anchored at $2. There's nothing terribly wrong with hipchat, seems to address all our (simple) chat needs, and switching to slack doesn't seem to give us 4x as much value. So far the best reasoning I have is that we're a mostly-dev team, and that there's something for non-devs that is appealing in Slack, but surely it's not a prettier interface? I'm genuinely curious, as I'd like to justify switching to the prettier product. :)
- klausa 12y ago
  Slack has IRC gateway, so you can use irssi for company chat. It might not be a big deal for you, but when we were briefly using Slack at previous company, I loved that I could just add it as another network to irssi.
  - Nux 12y ago
    One could use Bitlbee to connect irssi (or any other irc client) to a jabber server and not only. http://www.bitlbee.org/main.php/news.r.html http://www.bitlbee.org/main.php/news.r.html
  - baddox 12y ago
    Unfortunately, the IRC gateway causes a bad experience, not so much for the people using IRC, but for the people using the real Slack client. Slack apparently doesn't recognize username mentions ("@joe123") coming from IRC, so everyone needs to add their username to their list of highlight words so that the team members using IRC can mention them.
- avelis 12y ago
  Yes. The integrations. https://slack.com/integrations https://slack.com/integrations This isn't the usual "host your own server" integration. All Slack asks for are credentials for services you use and it seamlessly integrates into an assigned chat room (channel). My CEO did it for the startup I work at and in ten minutes from signup we had: Github, Trello, New Relic, Twitter, and Stripe all integrated.
freerobby 12y ago
I disagree. We tried Slack on our 26-person team and left it after a week. It had a few fans, but most people found the interface to be more complex and noisy than HipChat. Lots of red icons and blue banners that could not be disabled. No ability to see at a glance who is in a room without clicking the list and scrolling through it. The integrations were nice and the search was amazing, but those things were less important to us than the frictionless communication tools, which HipChat has nailed. Additionally, Slack lacks a distinction between @all and @here, which is frustrating when you want to announce something in a room without emailing everyone present.
- silvertonia 12y ago
  We just made the switch and I'm in agreement-- too noisy to be a serious tool. But there is an all/here distinction-- just named everyone/channel.
  - freerobby 12y ago
    everyone/channel is similar but not the same. In HipChat, you can be in a room but you won't get notifications if people mention "@here" while you're idle. With Slack, this isn't possible; you would get email notifications for all of the rooms you're in every time "@channel" is mentioned. Furthermore, "@everyone" can only be used in the primary chat room, not others.
- cjbarber 12y ago
  I wrote this: https://github.com/cjbarber/hipchat-alternatives/ https://github.com/cjbarber/hipchat-alternatives/ I while back. This move by HipChat makes me happy. I've attempted to move over, but HipChat is far superior for my needs.
  - NicoJuicy 12y ago
    You could add: https://jabbr.net https://jabbr.net , it's opensource, so people could customize it (it's on the .Net platform)
- 12y ago
chermanowicz 12y ago
They are definitely feeling pressure as users are demanding and expecting more from their communication tools. Slack's done a good job at bringing more to the table, but we're really just at the start of a renaissance in business communication. If you think about "chat" in generations, you started with IRC, AIM (which is still used in many companies) and then came HipChat. Not much development there for a couple years so Slack put some lipstick on the last generation of chat product. There's a whole new class of communication platforms being developed now that are taking things even further, by enabling true cross-company communication (meaning both internal & external), things like customer support integrated with internal team communication, etc.
medwezys 12y ago
We were looking for something better than campfire and tested slack and flowdock. Settled with flowdock, which in my opinion is much better, but is less hyped.
astrodust 12y ago
The HipChat native client for OS X has been fantastic, plus there's an iOS client that pairs well with it, giving you push notifications for mentions. It's not clear if Slack has this too.
- dserodio 12y ago
  Slack has nice native clients for OS X, Android and iOS too.
  - nirvdrum 12y ago
    I'm still holding out to see if they add Linux and Windows client support. Until then, HipChat is the only option for us.
    - disillusioned 12y ago
      Why's that? I use Chrome Application Shortcuts for Slack and it essentially creates a task bar shortcut, and works with desktop notifications. It's currently missing background notifications, but aside from that, there's no appreciable differences between it and something truly "native client".
      - nirvdrum 12y ago
        Chrome on Linux is barely usable most of the time. But having something that is native lets you do all the fun things you can do with native apps: auto-start at login, minimize to systray, alt-tab with nice icon, and so on. Maybe Slack is different, but most rich web apps I've used ends up eating gobs of memory after prolonged usage.
  - lobster_johnson 12y ago
    I wouldn't call the OS X client "native". Sure, it's an app, but it's just a wrapper around the web page.
    - 12y ago
subdane 12y ago
Our 6 person team started using Slack a few weeks ago and we love it. Particularly great - awesome mobile integration.
meritt 12y ago
Does slack have native clients yet? And by native I mean a native application not a thin wrapper for a browser.
- d0m 12y ago
  Yeah, the Android native version is amazing. I know there's an ios one too.
  - gre 12y ago
    The Android version has not been amazing for me. It crashes several times a day, switching rooms is clumsy and slow, and the push notifications arrive minutes after I've already replied to a message, so the phone is constantly buzzing for things I've already replied. Additionally, there's no native Windows client.
- baddox 12y ago
  Is there an inherent reason to dislike a thin wrapper around a web app? The Slack OS X app is that, but it doesn't have any problems that are caused by being a wrapped web app.
namityadav 12y ago
Can we run multiple organizations from the same client of Slack? That and an ability to refer to a specific comment/message (like Flowdock's threaded messages) are two things that can make me switch from Hipchat.
ab 12y ago
Honestly I can't imagine how we ever used HipChat. The Linux client is abysmal, and the IRC/Jabber integration is also terrible. Slack is really the best I've seen.
chadcf 12y ago
I really liked slack but in the end we went for hipchat for a two main reasons. 1. It's 25% of the cost (although that has now shifted). This may not be a big deal for small teams but if you want to have 100 users on either service, the difference is between $2,400 a year or $9,600 a year. That's a big difference. 2. Hipchat has a self hosted option in the works which should be available within a month or two (per them). This is essential for any company that deals with potential PHI on their IM systems. Slack says they plan to offer a self hosted option but it's a long way out. Those are two things slack just couldn't overcome, beyond the fact that I generally liked slack better (it's prettier, much better message searching, better integrations, etc). The fact that hipchat also has voice chat is a big plus too though we've not found it reliable. Presumably at some point it will get better though and make it a more valuable feature.

by joeblau 12y ago

adricnet 12y ago

Would you mind linking to the competing service you mention, or perhaps a review of it? I've been advocating for Hipchat but haven't seen Slack yet.

saiko-chriskun 12y ago
www.google.com
davidkuridza 12y ago
https://slack.com/ https://slack.com/ We switched from HipChat recently, so far it's working fine. The only thing we miss are cross team notifications, but apparently they are working on it (can't find the link at the moment).
- alexcroox 12y ago
  Does it integrate with 3rd party chat clients like Adium or are you forced to have their tab/client open too?
  - bcj 12y ago
    You can connect to it using an IRC client, but you lose the ability to view history or make edits to posts
    - baddox 12y ago
      You also lose the ability to mention other team members, which is huge.
- davidkuridza 12y ago
  @alexcroox can't reply directly for some reason, hopefully you'll see this. It's possible, see https://slack.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201727913-Connecting-to-Slack-over-IRC-and-XMPP https://slack.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201727913-Connec... for more details. You'll lose the history though. We've been using native clients more or less, all are working fine.
bmelton 12y ago
Not the OP, but here's a link: https://slack.com/ https://slack.com/ I've used it, and it seems pretty good, but I don't have enough time behind the wheel to provide a review.
IbJacked 12y ago
Since I've only dabbled with it I can't provide a proper review, but the link is https://slack.com/ https://slack.com/
owenwil 12y ago
Here's a small review of how we use Slack at our company: http://hoistapps.com/blog/tools-we-love-slack/ http://hoistapps.com/blog/tools-we-love-slack/ tl;dr: it's awesome
jess1003 12y ago
If you communicate with more than one team (different emails), I'd look into Hall. It's chat, text, file-sharing on all your devices. Hall.com

izolate 12y ago

We were diehard HipChat users at my company, then one day I discovered Slack.com. Within a week it was our dominant messaging platform, not least because we could invite the entire company to use it for free (instead of just the development team). From a product design standpoint, Slack is streets ahead of the conservative HipChat.

eddieroger 12y ago
Similar for me and mine. We ran out of free users, hired a new guy and couldn't add him in. Someone else suggested Slack, and until this announcement, haven't looked back.

joshma 12y ago

Any thoughts/justifications for pricing? The only thing holding us back is that Slack costs 4x as much ($8 instead of $2). While this isn't a big spend at the end of the day, we're sort of anchored at $2. There's nothing terribly wrong with hipchat, seems to address all our (simple) chat needs, and switching to slack doesn't seem to give us 4x as much value. So far the best reasoning I have is that we're a mostly-dev team, and that there's something for non-devs that is appealing in Slack, but surely it's not a prettier interface? I'm genuinely curious, as I'd like to justify switching to the prettier product. :)

klausa 12y ago
Slack has IRC gateway, so you can use irssi for company chat. It might not be a big deal for you, but when we were briefly using Slack at previous company, I loved that I could just add it as another network to irssi.
- Nux 12y ago
  One could use Bitlbee to connect irssi (or any other irc client) to a jabber server and not only. http://www.bitlbee.org/main.php/news.r.html http://www.bitlbee.org/main.php/news.r.html
- baddox 12y ago
  Unfortunately, the IRC gateway causes a bad experience, not so much for the people using IRC, but for the people using the real Slack client. Slack apparently doesn't recognize username mentions ("@joe123") coming from IRC, so everyone needs to add their username to their list of highlight words so that the team members using IRC can mention them.
avelis 12y ago
Yes. The integrations. https://slack.com/integrations https://slack.com/integrations This isn't the usual "host your own server" integration. All Slack asks for are credentials for services you use and it seamlessly integrates into an assigned chat room (channel). My CEO did it for the startup I work at and in ten minutes from signup we had: Github, Trello, New Relic, Twitter, and Stripe all integrated.

freerobby 12y ago

I disagree. We tried Slack on our 26-person team and left it after a week. It had a few fans, but most people found the interface to be more complex and noisy than HipChat. Lots of red icons and blue banners that could not be disabled. No ability to see at a glance who is in a room without clicking the list and scrolling through it. The integrations were nice and the search was amazing, but those things were less important to us than the frictionless communication tools, which HipChat has nailed. Additionally, Slack lacks a distinction between @all and @here, which is frustrating when you want to announce something in a room without emailing everyone present.

silvertonia 12y ago
We just made the switch and I'm in agreement-- too noisy to be a serious tool. But there is an all/here distinction-- just named everyone/channel.
- freerobby 12y ago
  everyone/channel is similar but not the same. In HipChat, you can be in a room but you won't get notifications if people mention "@here" while you're idle. With Slack, this isn't possible; you would get email notifications for all of the rooms you're in every time "@channel" is mentioned. Furthermore, "@everyone" can only be used in the primary chat room, not others.
cjbarber 12y ago
I wrote this: https://github.com/cjbarber/hipchat-alternatives/ https://github.com/cjbarber/hipchat-alternatives/ I while back. This move by HipChat makes me happy. I've attempted to move over, but HipChat is far superior for my needs.
- NicoJuicy 12y ago
  You could add: https://jabbr.net https://jabbr.net , it's opensource, so people could customize it (it's on the .Net platform)
12y ago

chermanowicz 12y ago

They are definitely feeling pressure as users are demanding and expecting more from their communication tools. Slack's done a good job at bringing more to the table, but we're really just at the start of a renaissance in business communication. If you think about "chat" in generations, you started with IRC, AIM (which is still used in many companies) and then came HipChat. Not much development there for a couple years so Slack put some lipstick on the last generation of chat product. There's a whole new class of communication platforms being developed now that are taking things even further, by enabling true cross-company communication (meaning both internal & external), things like customer support integrated with internal team communication, etc.

medwezys 12y ago

We were looking for something better than campfire and tested slack and flowdock. Settled with flowdock, which in my opinion is much better, but is less hyped.

astrodust 12y ago

The HipChat native client for OS X has been fantastic, plus there's an iOS client that pairs well with it, giving you push notifications for mentions. It's not clear if Slack has this too.

dserodio 12y ago
Slack has nice native clients for OS X, Android and iOS too.
- nirvdrum 12y ago
  I'm still holding out to see if they add Linux and Windows client support. Until then, HipChat is the only option for us.
  - disillusioned 12y ago
    Why's that? I use Chrome Application Shortcuts for Slack and it essentially creates a task bar shortcut, and works with desktop notifications. It's currently missing background notifications, but aside from that, there's no appreciable differences between it and something truly "native client".
    - nirvdrum 12y ago
      Chrome on Linux is barely usable most of the time. But having something that is native lets you do all the fun things you can do with native apps: auto-start at login, minimize to systray, alt-tab with nice icon, and so on. Maybe Slack is different, but most rich web apps I've used ends up eating gobs of memory after prolonged usage.
- lobster_johnson 12y ago
  I wouldn't call the OS X client "native". Sure, it's an app, but it's just a wrapper around the web page.
  - 12y ago

subdane 12y ago

Our 6 person team started using Slack a few weeks ago and we love it. Particularly great - awesome mobile integration.

meritt 12y ago

Does slack have native clients yet? And by native I mean a native application not a thin wrapper for a browser.

d0m 12y ago
Yeah, the Android native version is amazing. I know there's an ios one too.
- gre 12y ago
  The Android version has not been amazing for me. It crashes several times a day, switching rooms is clumsy and slow, and the push notifications arrive minutes after I've already replied to a message, so the phone is constantly buzzing for things I've already replied. Additionally, there's no native Windows client.
baddox 12y ago
Is there an inherent reason to dislike a thin wrapper around a web app? The Slack OS X app is that, but it doesn't have any problems that are caused by being a wrapped web app.

namityadav 12y ago

Can we run multiple organizations from the same client of Slack? That and an ability to refer to a specific comment/message (like Flowdock's threaded messages) are two things that can make me switch from Hipchat.

ab 12y ago

Honestly I can't imagine how we ever used HipChat. The Linux client is abysmal, and the IRC/Jabber integration is also terrible. Slack is really the best I've seen.

chadcf 12y ago

I really liked slack but in the end we went for hipchat for a two main reasons. 1. It's 25% of the cost (although that has now shifted). This may not be a big deal for small teams but if you want to have 100 users on either service, the difference is between $2,400 a year or $9,600 a year. That's a big difference. 2. Hipchat has a self hosted option in the works which should be available within a month or two (per them). This is essential for any company that deals with potential PHI on their IM systems. Slack says they plan to offer a self hosted option but it's a long way out. Those are two things slack just couldn't overcome, beyond the fact that I generally liked slack better (it's prettier, much better message searching, better integrations, etc). The fact that hipchat also has voice chat is a big plus too though we've not found it reliable. Presumably at some point it will get better though and make it a more valuable feature.