How to Use Slackbot

Last Updated: February 12, 2020 Tested

Slackbot is a chat robot that’s prepared to answer any question you have about using Slack. Not only can you send Slackbot a question via a direct message and receive an answer, you can also use Slackbot to set reminders for important dates and deadlines. Team admins can even program Slackbot to respond to specific words or phrases with a custom message. Learn how you can use Slackbot to increase your productivity.

Method 1

Method 1 of 4:

Sending Slackbot a Message

1
Open the Slack app. If you have questions about using Slack, you can send a message to Slackbot and get an answer. Start by opening Slack on your computer or mobile device.
- Members of the channel cannot see what you send to Slackbot.
- Slackbot can only answer questions about Slack.
2
Sign into your Slack team. When prompted, sign in to your Slack team with your username and password. Once logged in, you’ll enter your team’s default channel.

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3
Click “Direct Messages” on the left menu bar. Now you’ll open a new direct message conversation with Slackbot.^{[1]
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- If you’re using a mobile version of Slack, just type /dm @Slackbot and press Send to open a message to Slackbot.
4
Type “Slackbot” into the search box and press ↵ Enter. If you’re using the desktop version of Slack, this will open a direct message conversation with Slackbot.
- The message box says “Message @Slackbot,” meaning that anything you type into this box will be sent directly to Slackbot.

Method 2

Method 2 of 4:

Asking for Help

1
Open a direct message to Slackbot. You can ask Slackbot a question about any Slack feature by sending it a direct message. Slackbot will respond to your question with an answer—or, at the very least, a link to a page that will give you more information.^{[2]
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2
Type a question into the Message box and press ↵ Enter. Your question can be about any Slack feature.
- For example, type “How do I upload a file?” to receive a quick walk-through and a link that contains more information.
- You could also type a keyword or phrase instead of a question. Typing “upload a file” will yield the same response as “How do I upload a file?”
- Slackbot can only answer questions about using Slack.
3
Rephrasing your question. If Slack doesn’t understand your question, it will respond with, “I’m afraid I don’t understand, I’m sorry!” Think about other ways to ask the same question, and then try them out.
- For example, asking “How do I talk to my coworker privately?” will confuse Slack, but “How do I send a private message?” will yield a direct link to a helpful walkthrough.
4
Get more help. If you’re not able to get a helpful response from Slackbot after rephrasing your question, visit Slack’s help database at http://get.slack.help.
5
Close the DM with Slackbot. When you’re done asking questions, click the name of your desired channel in the left menu (desktop version) or tap the down-arrow next to “@Slackbot” and choose “Close DM” (mobile).

Method 3

Method 3 of 4:

Setting Reminders

1
Sign into your Slack team. The /remind command lets you use Slackbot to set reminders for just about anything. When you set a reminder, you’re telling Slackbot to send you a message at a certain time. Start by launching Slack and signing in to your team.
- You can also send reminders to another team member or an entire channel.
2
Join any channel. You can set a reminder from anywhere in Slack using text commands, so it doesn’t matter which channel you join.^{[3]
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3
Add a new reminder. The format for setting a slack reminder is /remind [who] [what] [when], though those elements need not be in order.^{[4]
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Research source} Here are some examples:
- /remind me to do jumping jacks on Tuesday at 1:30pm
- /remind @natalie “Stop working so hard!” in 5 minutes
- /remind #writing-team on Jan 14th 2017 at 11:55 to call the conference bridge
- /remind #design of free bagels every Tuesday at 8am *this sets a recurring reminder
4
Managing your incoming reminder. When Slackbot notifies you of a reminder, you’ll also see a few options at the end of the message:^{[5]
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- Click or tap “Mark as complete” if you’ve completed the task and don’t need another reminder.
- Choose “15 mins” or “1 hour” to tell Slackbot to send you this message again in that amount of time. This is also called “Snoozing.”
- Those this option is not listed, you can use /snooze to define your own snooze period. For example, /snooze 5 minutes.
- Select “Tomorrow” to snooze the message until this time tomorrow.
5
Type /remind list to view all your reminders. Now you’ll see a list of upcoming reminders, as well as those which occurred in the past or are incomplete. Here you’ll see the option to mark reminders as complete or delete reminders no longer needed.^{[6]
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- Each reminder that has not yet been marked as complete will display a link to mark it now.
- Using /remind list in a channel will show you channel reminders in addition to those which only apply to you.
6
Set a reminder from a Slack message. You can easily turn any message to Slack into a reminder. This works the same way as reminders set using text commands.
- Hover your mouse over the message until the “…” appears at its top right corner.
- Select “Remind me about this.”
- Choose a time period from the list.

Method 4

Method 4 of 4:

Customizing Responses

1
Sign in to your team on Slack. If you’re a team administrator, you can instruct Slackbot to respond to certain words or phrases with specific text. Start by opening the Slack application on your computer and signing in to your team.^{[7]
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2
Click your team name at the top left corner of Slack. A small menu will expand.
3
Click “Workspace Settings.” The “Settings & Permissions” page will load in your default web browser.
4
Click “Customize” on the left menu. Now you’ll see a tabbed website that has various customization options for your Slack team.^{[8]
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Click to the “Slackbot” tab. This is where you’ll come to add and remove custom Slackbot responses.
6
Add the trigger phrase to the “When someone says” box. Note that every time someone uses this phrase anywhere in Slack, Slackbot will respond with your custom text.
- For example, if you type the words “wi-fi password” into this box, you can have Slackbot respond with the password.
7
Add the response to the “Slackbot responds” box. When anyone on your team types the trigger word or phrase, Slackbot will respond with whatever you type here. When you’re done, your changes will save automatically.
- For example, if you typed “wi-fi password” into the previous box, you can type something like, “If you’re looking for the office Wi-Fi password, here it is: g0t3Am!”
8
Click “+ Add new response” to add another custom response. You can create another response in the same manner now, or you can return later if the need arises. Otherwise, you can close the window.