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We've used Campfire and are now using HipChat. What are the things that Slack offers over these?

emirb 12y ago
I use it everyday and it helps a lot when you connect it to various services (github, trello etc.) It offers dozens of them: https://slack.com/integrations https://slack.com/integrations
- gitdude 12y ago
  love to understand why slack is better - is it primarily because of integrations? or is it something more?
- ryantownsend 12y ago
  Ditto this, the integrations are really the icing on the cake for Slack. We've even written notifications from our own applications to push into Slack, so we get notified on everything from continuous integration test results and deployments through to analytics and sales figures.
toomuchtodo 12y ago
Used Hipchat at my last gig, Slack now at my fully remote startup position. You could not pay me to go back to Hipchat. It's not just the UX. Slack is more reliable on mobile, and Slack search is incredibly good compared to Hipchat (archives, context in the Mac GUI, etc).
mbesto 12y ago
I use both HipChat and Slack everyday. Honestly, I don't feel Slack is as massive of an upgrade as people claim it to be. A few things that make Slack stick out: 1. It's got a SlackBot that does a lot of functions for you (like /hangouts etc). You can do all of this with GitHub's Hubot if you want, but it requires your own maintenance. 2. It's "media" posting (sharing links) and search are slightly better. But these are simply more cosmetic preferences than total usability upgrade. 3. I find Slack's mobile app much better (responsive, less buggy) but that's more of a technical implementation. I think HipChat's dev team has simply become less focused on supporting it (speculation). 4. Slack has built-in private groups and #hashtags for organizing conversations and topics better. My general conclusion is that Slack has a much higher value for non-tech folks. I'm technical, so I'm fairly indifferent. There are some quirks that I don't like about Slack, and I personally prefer some of the elements of HipChat over it.
- dasil003 12y ago
  This is really just the tip of the iceberg. There is an impressive level of polished UX spanning every aspect of Slack that is matched by very few apps anywhere. Everything from the on-boarding to the way mobile push notifications happen when you're afk, to the way it automatically gives you discounts for inactive users is just incredibly well designed. You didn't even mention the integrations, which are where Slack makes everything else look like amateur hour. There are over 50 turn-key integrations, each of which is impeccably designed and offering comprehensive coverage of the service's features that you might want to wire into Slack. Then there are another half-dozen more flexible integrations ranging from webhooks to full API access that give you more granular control and customizability. Saying that the media posting and search are merely cosmetic is an understatement. Imagine the delight of posting a link to a Google doc, then finding the content of the document indexed and available in search. This goes far beyond cosmetic, Slack is executing on the vision of being the actual go-to communication platform for a whole team, potentially taking a major bite out of email in a way few things have been able to in a professional setting. I also find it very strange that you think it's higher value for non tech folks. For me, having GitHub (commits, PRs), CI, exception notification, system monitoring, and ticketing system all wired in, and the quality of the presentation of that information is what puts Slack head and shoulders above HipChat which does most of the same things, just not nearly as well.
  - mbesto 12y ago
    > push notifications happen when you're afk HipChat does this. > it automatically gives you discounts for inactive users HipChat is free/cheaper. > You didn't even mention the integrations I have BitBucket, GitHub, Heroku and Papertrail all integrated and took me 15 minutes to set up. Not sure what else Slack gives me out of the box. Ok, /hangouts isn't built into HipChat (my biggest gripe). We use Trello obsessively for both of my accounts and the integration in both cases is pretty worthless. > Imagine the delight of posting a link to a Google doc, then finding the content of the document indexed and available in search. Except it needs to be posted in Slack in order to be indexed right? There is this weird personal desire to want to search every document/email/app/account you have connected for information until ultimately, you don't.[0] > For me, having GitHub (commits, PRs), CI, exception notification, system monitoring, and ticketing system all wired in, People have been doing this for years on HipChat via Hubot. GitHub itself uses it obssessively https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCVvYCjvoZI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCVvYCjvoZI As I mentioned, the one huge benefit of Slack is Slackbot comes pre-bundled and doesn't require you to maintain your own bot. Hence my comment why non-technical people love it. Please note, I very much think Slack is a superior product, but I think that notion is slightly overstated. If there is one thing Slack got right, is that it made much of it's functionality seem like magic to it's users (whereas HipChat did not) [0] - http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/14/greplin-grabs-4-million-from-sequoia-for-social-search/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/14/greplin-grabs-4-million-fro...
wzsddtc 12y ago
I use HipChat and Slack everyday, and to be honest, they are not that much different at the moment for my use cases. The biggest thing Slack has over HipChat right now is the media postings, they are much easier to navigate. However, I can see Slack improve so much faster than HipChat has HipChat did not really add much new features much after getting acquired. And HipChat's Android app is the worst (bad reconnecting policies).

emirb 12y ago

I use it everyday and it helps a lot when you connect it to various services (github, trello etc.) It offers dozens of them: https://slack.com/integrations https://slack.com/integrations

gitdude 12y ago
love to understand why slack is better - is it primarily because of integrations? or is it something more?
ryantownsend 12y ago
Ditto this, the integrations are really the icing on the cake for Slack. We've even written notifications from our own applications to push into Slack, so we get notified on everything from continuous integration test results and deployments through to analytics and sales figures.

toomuchtodo 12y ago

Used Hipchat at my last gig, Slack now at my fully remote startup position. You could not pay me to go back to Hipchat. It's not just the UX. Slack is more reliable on mobile, and Slack search is incredibly good compared to Hipchat (archives, context in the Mac GUI, etc).

mbesto 12y ago

I use both HipChat and Slack everyday. Honestly, I don't feel Slack is as massive of an upgrade as people claim it to be. A few things that make Slack stick out: 1. It's got a SlackBot that does a lot of functions for you (like /hangouts etc). You can do all of this with GitHub's Hubot if you want, but it requires your own maintenance. 2. It's "media" posting (sharing links) and search are slightly better. But these are simply more cosmetic preferences than total usability upgrade. 3. I find Slack's mobile app much better (responsive, less buggy) but that's more of a technical implementation. I think HipChat's dev team has simply become less focused on supporting it (speculation). 4. Slack has built-in private groups and #hashtags for organizing conversations and topics better. My general conclusion is that Slack has a much higher value for non-tech folks. I'm technical, so I'm fairly indifferent. There are some quirks that I don't like about Slack, and I personally prefer some of the elements of HipChat over it.

dasil003 12y ago
This is really just the tip of the iceberg. There is an impressive level of polished UX spanning every aspect of Slack that is matched by very few apps anywhere. Everything from the on-boarding to the way mobile push notifications happen when you're afk, to the way it automatically gives you discounts for inactive users is just incredibly well designed. You didn't even mention the integrations, which are where Slack makes everything else look like amateur hour. There are over 50 turn-key integrations, each of which is impeccably designed and offering comprehensive coverage of the service's features that you might want to wire into Slack. Then there are another half-dozen more flexible integrations ranging from webhooks to full API access that give you more granular control and customizability. Saying that the media posting and search are merely cosmetic is an understatement. Imagine the delight of posting a link to a Google doc, then finding the content of the document indexed and available in search. This goes far beyond cosmetic, Slack is executing on the vision of being the actual go-to communication platform for a whole team, potentially taking a major bite out of email in a way few things have been able to in a professional setting. I also find it very strange that you think it's higher value for non tech folks. For me, having GitHub (commits, PRs), CI, exception notification, system monitoring, and ticketing system all wired in, and the quality of the presentation of that information is what puts Slack head and shoulders above HipChat which does most of the same things, just not nearly as well.
- mbesto 12y ago
  > push notifications happen when you're afk HipChat does this. > it automatically gives you discounts for inactive users HipChat is free/cheaper. > You didn't even mention the integrations I have BitBucket, GitHub, Heroku and Papertrail all integrated and took me 15 minutes to set up. Not sure what else Slack gives me out of the box. Ok, /hangouts isn't built into HipChat (my biggest gripe). We use Trello obsessively for both of my accounts and the integration in both cases is pretty worthless. > Imagine the delight of posting a link to a Google doc, then finding the content of the document indexed and available in search. Except it needs to be posted in Slack in order to be indexed right? There is this weird personal desire to want to search every document/email/app/account you have connected for information until ultimately, you don't.[0] > For me, having GitHub (commits, PRs), CI, exception notification, system monitoring, and ticketing system all wired in, People have been doing this for years on HipChat via Hubot. GitHub itself uses it obssessively https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCVvYCjvoZI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCVvYCjvoZI As I mentioned, the one huge benefit of Slack is Slackbot comes pre-bundled and doesn't require you to maintain your own bot. Hence my comment why non-technical people love it. Please note, I very much think Slack is a superior product, but I think that notion is slightly overstated. If there is one thing Slack got right, is that it made much of it's functionality seem like magic to it's users (whereas HipChat did not) [0] - http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/14/greplin-grabs-4-million-from-sequoia-for-social-search/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/14/greplin-grabs-4-million-fro...

wzsddtc 12y ago

I use HipChat and Slack everyday, and to be honest, they are not that much different at the moment for my use cases. The biggest thing Slack has over HipChat right now is the media postings, they are much easier to navigate. However, I can see Slack improve so much faster than HipChat has HipChat did not really add much new features much after getting acquired. And HipChat's Android app is the worst (bad reconnecting policies).