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They're not. Between Slack and HipChat it's a wash. Both work reasonably well and have their own quirks. I'm more cognizant of Slack's quirks at the moment, bec

by baddox 12y ago

They're not. Between Slack and HipChat it's a wash. Both work reasonably well and have their own quirks. I'm more cognizant of Slack's quirks at the moment, because that's what I currently use. For instance, most URLs don't work on iOS Slack, because ampersands get HTML escaped into &. I sent feedback, and someone quickly responds that they know about and they intend to fix it.

stock_toaster 12y ago
As a hipchat using company, we got a slack account to give it a test drive, and I was ... surprised how much of a wash it is vs hipchat. I had a "this is what all the fuss is about?" reaction. I actually seem to prefer the hipchat UI personally, and apparently so do many of my colleagues. The fact that hipchat is cheaper only made it clearer to us. note: only using and comparing the osx desktop app for both services.
- baddox 12y ago
  Actually, it sounds small, but the biggest advantage of HipChat over Slack is that HipChat allows you to change the background color of bot messages (like incoming exceptions, deploys, etc.). It is incredibly frustrating that Slack can't allocate an engineer to just do this. Slack's custom message styling options are virtually nonexistent. Yeah, yeah, I know we programmers shouldn't say "it will only take a few minutes," but come on!
  - indeed30 12y ago
    Although you can't change the bg color, you can certainly change the coloured left-border.
- burger_moon 12y ago
  I've used both and currently use slack. I prefer the simple ui of hipchat to slack for sure. In my area slack seems to be becoming the more popular chat tool but maybe I just have too small of a pool to be accurate.
justsee 12y ago
Slack executes so much better at every level that stating it's a wash between Slack and HipChat just doesn't compute. One key example is the multiple teams feature: the ability to have multiple accounts logged in at the same time, and the ability to easily swipe between them on iOS or toggle on desktop is a huge advantage. A quick look at HipChat indicates this still isn't possible [1]. Considering more and more people wear different startup / company / organisation hats not having this feature is a great way to limit participation / growth in a communications platform. That Slack had this feature at the outset for me meant I've already spread use of Slack to multiple orgs and participate in all of them at the same time. [1] https://help.hipchat.com/forums/138883-suggestions/suggestions/2716912-let-me-be-a-member-of-and-sign-in-to-multiple-acco https://help.hipchat.com/forums/138883-suggestions/suggestio...
- micmcg 12y ago
  "A quick look at HipChat indicates this still isn't possible" Not currently possible, but officially confirmed as being worked on. "It’s official: Development is underway for multiple account support in the HipChat clients. Stay tuned because updates are just around the corner."
  - tonyarkles 12y ago
    I waited for it for several years before switching (and switching my clients) to slack.
- vacri 12y ago
  Slack executes so much better at every level Nonsense. Slack is very beautiful with everything around the core feature, but the core feature is awful. The main chat window wastes incredible amounts of space, even in the compressed mode. The least visible items on the screen (apart from timestamps) are the chat messages from users - instead their names, icons, channel names, navigation elements are HUGE. Cute niceties like emotes are screwy due to the standard layout. We're using the Jira integration, and it wastes so much space that one entire page is taken up by a mere 3 Jira ticket updates. Stick it into 'compressed' mode and now every chat line starts at a different point, depending on the user name. Hipchat has none of the problems I've listed here, though it has it's own - generally they're issues outside the core feature. For people used to chat elsewhere, these issues are pretty obvious. But Slack seems to be marketing to people who've never used chat, so they get to set their expectations from scratch.

by baddox 12y ago

stock_toaster 12y ago

As a hipchat using company, we got a slack account to give it a test drive, and I was ... surprised how much of a wash it is vs hipchat. I had a "this is what all the fuss is about?" reaction. I actually seem to prefer the hipchat UI personally, and apparently so do many of my colleagues. The fact that hipchat is cheaper only made it clearer to us. note: only using and comparing the osx desktop app for both services.

baddox 12y ago
Actually, it sounds small, but the biggest advantage of HipChat over Slack is that HipChat allows you to change the background color of bot messages (like incoming exceptions, deploys, etc.). It is incredibly frustrating that Slack can't allocate an engineer to just do this. Slack's custom message styling options are virtually nonexistent. Yeah, yeah, I know we programmers shouldn't say "it will only take a few minutes," but come on!
- indeed30 12y ago
  Although you can't change the bg color, you can certainly change the coloured left-border.
burger_moon 12y ago
I've used both and currently use slack. I prefer the simple ui of hipchat to slack for sure. In my area slack seems to be becoming the more popular chat tool but maybe I just have too small of a pool to be accurate.

justsee 12y ago

Slack executes so much better at every level that stating it's a wash between Slack and HipChat just doesn't compute. One key example is the multiple teams feature: the ability to have multiple accounts logged in at the same time, and the ability to easily swipe between them on iOS or toggle on desktop is a huge advantage. A quick look at HipChat indicates this still isn't possible [1]. Considering more and more people wear different startup / company / organisation hats not having this feature is a great way to limit participation / growth in a communications platform. That Slack had this feature at the outset for me meant I've already spread use of Slack to multiple orgs and participate in all of them at the same time. [1] https://help.hipchat.com/forums/138883-suggestions/suggestions/2716912-let-me-be-a-member-of-and-sign-in-to-multiple-acco https://help.hipchat.com/forums/138883-suggestions/suggestio...

micmcg 12y ago
"A quick look at HipChat indicates this still isn't possible" Not currently possible, but officially confirmed as being worked on. "It’s official: Development is underway for multiple account support in the HipChat clients. Stay tuned because updates are just around the corner."
- tonyarkles 12y ago
  I waited for it for several years before switching (and switching my clients) to slack.
vacri 12y ago
Slack executes so much better at every level Nonsense. Slack is very beautiful with everything around the core feature, but the core feature is awful. The main chat window wastes incredible amounts of space, even in the compressed mode. The least visible items on the screen (apart from timestamps) are the chat messages from users - instead their names, icons, channel names, navigation elements are HUGE. Cute niceties like emotes are screwy due to the standard layout. We're using the Jira integration, and it wastes so much space that one entire page is taken up by a mere 3 Jira ticket updates. Stick it into 'compressed' mode and now every chat line starts at a different point, depending on the user name. Hipchat has none of the problems I've listed here, though it has it's own - generally they're issues outside the core feature. For people used to chat elsewhere, these issues are pretty obvious. But Slack seems to be marketing to people who've never used chat, so they get to set their expectations from scratch.