The Zoomification of Slack
Uncanny Valley | WIRED23 Kesä 2022

The Zoomification of Slack

If you work in an office, chances are you spend a lot of time on Slack. The workplace messaging platform has become an even more important tool in the work-from-home era. And it has been rolling out new stuff that's supposed to replicate the office atmosphere, online. Last year Slack introduced Huddles—a spontaneous audio room you can join right in Slack—and it quickly became became the fastest-adopted feature in Slack's history. Now the company is adding video to Huddles, inching toward becoming a full-fledged video conferencing service.

This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED writers Lauren Goode and Gilad Edelman chat about the Zoomification of Slack, whether we really need another video chat app, and what this all means for how we communicate online.

Show Notes

Read Lauren’s story about how the future of Slack looks a lot like Zoom. Read Mat Honan’s 2014 WIRED profile of Slack founder Stewart Butterfield. Here’s Clive Thompson’s piece about how it’s time for “maximum viable product.”

Recommendations

Gilad recommends getting a chef’s pan. Lauren recommends using the Calendar chatbot in Slack.

Gilad Edelman can be found on Twitter @GiladEdelman. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Jaksot(426)

Pedal Revolution

Pedal Revolution

Ebikes are having a moment. Today's electric bikes are powerful, elegant, maneuverable, and, as battery technology improves, they're able to ride for miles and miles. For some people, they're even rep...

20 Marras 202032min

Apple Chips Ahoy

Apple Chips Ahoy

Another month, another Apple event. This time around, we saw three new Macs, all with a shiny new chip inside them. Apple's M1 processor is a great big leap forward for the company. It marks a shift f...

13 Marras 202024min

Console Wars

Console Wars

Consoles: They're new, they're shiny, they'll be here next week. Sony's PlayStation 5 and Microsoft's Xbox Series X launch a couple days apart, and together, they're expected to usher in a new era of ...

6 Marras 202030min

Car Talk

Car Talk

On November 3, Massachusetts voters will get to weigh in on Question 1, a proposal on the ballot that would make the data on a car’s computer available to third-party repair shops. This would change t...

30 Loka 202031min

Google and the Government

Google and the Government

This week, the US Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit against Google. It accuses the company of stifling competition and operating a near-monopoly on the search advertising industry. Natural...

23 Loka 202034min

The iPhones 12

The iPhones 12

Less than a month after its last hardware event, Apple held another one this week where it announced a slate of new iPhones. The standout feature of all four (4) phones is 5G capability. Apple, along ...

16 Loka 202029min

Battling Burnout

Battling Burnout

Trying to be a functional human being in 2020 can feel exhausting. Our devices send us constant notifications, social media demands all our attention, and even simple daily tasks start to feel Sisyphe...

9 Loka 202032min

Invasion of the Home Drone

Invasion of the Home Drone

In the past few weeks, we’ve seen hardware announcements from Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. In them, there’s been a lot of emphasis on gadgets and services for the home. (Like Amazon's crazy i...

2 Loka 202028min