- Slack Donut Bot
- Donut Slack App Review
- Donut Investing
- Donut Slack Pricing
- Donut For Slack
- Virtual Doughnut
- Published on December 17, 2018
- Updated on
- Read time 8 minutes
- Category
Setting up Donut Add Donut to your Slack team. To install Donut, go to donut.com and click the “Add to Slack” button. You may then be. Create a Slack channel for Donut. We recommend creating a new, dedicated Slack channel to use for Donut intros. Set up your Intro channel.
Whenever the term team communication comes in question, one of the very first tools to pop in our minds is Slack. Released in August 2013, Slack has been able to gather a user base of 8 million people, out of which 3 million are the paid ones.
And why wouldn’t it? Coming with an advanced functionality revolving around improved team communication, Slack is best at what it does.
A go-to application for team collaboration, Slack also reduces the need to constantly juggle between multiple applications to get things done. It does so by providing the functionality of integrations. Coming with hundreds of integrations, there’s not a single function that you can’t perform with the tool.
You can find the best Slack integrations through the application’s built-in directory, but of course, who’s got the time to go through an entire directory just to get to that one perfect app. Therefore, we’ve done this for you! Today, we bring you the list of best Slack integrations catering to your distinct team needs.
Donut intros are limited to 12 pairs (a lucky dozen!) per round of intros. If you have more than 24 people in the channel, Donut will randomly choose 24 to pair up each round, and will eventually cycle through everyone in the channel. Watercooler topics are limited to 1 Donut channel (can be the same as or different from your Intros channel). Instantly start a video meeting right from Slack to increase face-to-face time with your hybrid team. Vote enables your team to vote anonymously about workplace issues. Anyone on your team can call for a Vote. Donut randomly sets employees up on coffee dates (or video chat dates for remote/hybrid teams!). Snack is the Donut alternative you should go for! Snack is Donut alternative with spontaneous video conversation & icebreakers. There are many Slack Bots aimed at strengthening relationships & connecting co-workers to foster a healthy remote team culture.
Read on to find details about them and the purpose they serve.
1. nTask – Best Slack Project Management integration
Placing all our bets on this tool, our vote for the best Slack integration for projects and tasks management goes to nTask. An intuitive tool that lets you manage your projects smartly through its intelligently designed feature set.
nTask facilitates project management from multiple dimensions, such as managing issues and risks, executing professional meetings, and creating multiple workspaces for different teams.
Through some easy steps, you can conveniently integrate nTask with your Slack app and get a top-notch Slack project management experience.
Here’s how you can achieve successful Slack project management through the Slack add-on:
- Add a new project or change information for existing ones in nTask, and it’ll automatically get updated in the linked Slack channels, mitigating the need to manually check updates again and again
- You can link and unlink the tasks with the Slack channel individually too
- Create a meeting in nTask and your team members can review all the details through Slack messages
- Post projects updates to channels in Slack
- Give feedback without switching applications
Get this Slack add-on to make team collaboration even more effective, whilst achieving streamlined project management.
Project Management from your Slack channels, absolutely free!
See for yourself why Slack users trust nTask to manage projects. Create unlimited, tasks, meetings, risks, issue & more.
Also Read:The 37 Best Free Productivity Apps of 2021
2. Time Doctor – Time Tracking in Slack
Every team needs a time tracking application for improving the overall team productivity. Enter Time Doctor! A real-time tracking tool that measures the time you spend on each task and takes the screenshots of your employees’ screens to better monitor their overall time spending patterns.
By integrating Time Doctor with Slack, you enable time tracking in Slack and achieve the following results:
- Receive notifications whenever a resource starts working on a task
- Track time an employee spends on a task and receive reports in Slack channels
- Receive updates when tasks are completed
- Assign specific recipients for notifications
- Track the websites and applications being accessed by an individual during the task
Through this Slack integration, you can get an effective web-based time tracking solution right in your Slack channels.
3. Wonder – Reminders in Slack
If you or your team tends to forget things easily and are always getting mini anxiety attacks because of it, Wonder is your savior!
A reminder tool that takes the form of a live chat, where you tell the app to remember a certain thing and afterward, you or your team members can retrieve the information anytime you want. Just tell the app and forget (ironic, isn’t it?). But, that’s exactly how the tool works. It remembers stuff for you.
Coming with an interface resembling messenger, Wonder helps in retaining easily forgettable, yet essential information.
Here’s what Wonder does for you once you integrate it with Slack:
- Bring up the information that you told it to remember in between Slack conversations
- Save important team information through memories
- Memories dashboard to store, update and categorize information
- Personalized memories that are only visible to you
There you go! Forgetting things should no longer be a problem for your team now.
4. Dropbox – Slack File Sharing and Cloud Storage
Undoubtedly, Dropbox takes the cake for being one of the most popular options when it comes to file management. Allowing users to keep all their files in one centralized location, Dropbox ensures safe data storage and retrieval.
By utilizing the option to sync your Dropbox with any device, you can access files anytime and from anywhere. Furthermore, the advanced security measures allow for only authorized access to the files.
The Slack add-on for Dropbox helps with:
- Easy importing of Dropbox files into Slack
- Searching for specific imported files and sharing with relevant team members
- Updates made in Dropbox files getting automatically updated in the imported files
So, take a step towards better file management for your team records with this integration.
5. Tettra – Knowledge Management in Slack
When teams grow, so does their knowledge base. In such a case, it becomes a need to introduce a common knowledge hub, so that the important team data doesn’t get lost in a sea of information.
This is where Tettra comes to your rescue!
Also known as Tettra Wiki, the tool provides a central hub for teams to store and share collective knowledge. This helps the teams to access the right information at the right time.
The easy accessibility of the tool provides an efficient and ideal means for storing the team information at one place, minimizing the hassle that comes with multiple storing locations.
Let’s see what you get when you integrate Tettra with Slack:
- Changes made in Tettra easily viewed in Slack channels by all team members
- Privately search for answers in Slack channels, and share them if required
- Search and find Tettra pages from within Slack
- Suggest and share new Tettra pages with your team members
- View and analyze content analytics
- Automated content suggestions
This smart knowledge management tool benefits the entire team to easily contribute to the central knowledge repository and gain the information whenever needed.
6. Statsbot – Data Analytics in Slack
If you use Google Analytics or any other data analytics tool, you need Statsbot right now!
Statsbot integrates with data analytics tools and provides easy means for tracking and monitoring data metrics. You can also easily connect Statsbot with your database and it will automatically generate data relationships for you to gain valuable insights.
The tool also allows for saving previous data exports by maintaining dashboards.
Integrate Statsbot with Slack to:
- Easily receive and share data metrics with your team members
- Get notifications for important updates in the database
- Reminders for off-track activities
- Schedule reports for monitoring metrics on regular intervals
The tool made it to our list of best Slack integrations for data analytics primarily because of the intelligent ways it captures data from various analytical sources and presents it in the most user-friendly manner in front of you.
7. Donut – Team Building in Slack
As much as it sounds clichéd, investing in some team building activities do result in bringing some positive vibes to the overall organizational culture. You can either practice some of these activities, or simply, use a professional tool to achieve the results for you.
This is where Donut comes into play!
It’s a social communication platform designed for building better team relationships. It does so by developing connections between the team members and reminds them to meet for collaborating on ideas (or to share donuts 😉).
The fun things you can do by integrating Donut with Slack are:
- Connect with team members you don’t know via direct messages
- Get reminders for meetings with your connected team members
- Create Slack pairing channels for multiple teams
- Customized intro messages
- Easy new employee onboarding by connecting them to other team members
8. Simple Poll- Polling app for Smart People
Simple Poll is a polling app that lets you create native polls right within Slack.
This software gives you the ability to create polls within Slack so you can get the opinion of your team members easily and instantly, without having to wait for your next meeting.
Once you install the app you can:
- Create polls about anything
- Helps make informed decisions with your team’s opinions in mind
- Create both anonymous or public polls
- Limit number of votes each member can cast
- Schedule recurring polls so you can get continuous feedback
9. Marker- Send Annotated Screenshots Directly to Slack
Marker is a Chrome extension that allows you to share screenshots with team members directly from Slack.
The application was primarily meant for bug tracking, it provides versatile uses. You can use the tool for simple reporting, sharing ideas for great lunch destinations, capturing parts of interesting articles – so on and so forth.
Once you install Marker you can:
- Capture an entire section or part of your screen
- Annotate it and share it with a person, or channel on Slack
- You can annotate with text, arrows, or even emojis
- The app attaches the URL of the screenshot source automatically.
10. Zapier- Workflow Automation and Management
Despite many integrations that Slack has to offer, you may still want to streamline your workflow with apps your team is already using. This is where Zapier comes into play.
Zapier provides you the ability to move information between different apps automatically.
Therefore, it can be used as a tool to automate different tasks on Slack.
By using Zapier for app integration you can:
- Automate information transfer between the apps which your team uses and Slack
- An action on any particular app will trigger influence on Slack or vice versa
- Interactive screen sharing options
- Set recurring reminders for essential tasks.
See? Team building doesn’t always have to be a tedious task. By using the right tool, you can get to know your team members better.
This marks the end of our roundup of best Slack integrations. Is there any Slack integrations and add-ons that you would like to be added to this list? Comment below and let us know about your thoughts.
Other Related Articles
- • 9 MIN READ
15 Best Toggl Alternatives for 2021 & Counting
- • 8 MIN READ
Top Down vs Bottom Up Approach: Which is Best for Your Organization?
- • 7 MIN READ
8 Best JotForm Alternatives to Use in 2021
- • 7 MIN READ
Project Termination Guide for Successful Failure & Minimum Blowbacks
- • 18 MIN READ
Expert’s Opinions: Keeping Teams Productive at Work
- • 10 MIN READ
How to Rock Your First Week With nTask?
- • 13 MIN READ
Effective Team Communication Tips for Agile Professionals in 2021
- • 9 MIN READ
10 Steps to Writing an Awesome Scope of Work Document
- • 6 MIN READ
Ingenious Ways to Inspire Team Autonomy
- • 6 MIN READ
Team Workload Management Tips, Ethics, and Guidelines for Project Managers
- • 6 MIN READ
Workplace Complacency: 4 Tips to Overcome Adversity as a Project Manager
- • 6 MIN READ
Microsoft Planner vs Trello: Which One is Better?
- • 32 MIN READ
The 33 Best Gantt Chart Software for Project Management in 2021
Trying to find ways to inject some fun into your remote team’s work days?
With COVID forcing employees to adopt remote working, communicating with teams via apps like Slack and Zoom has been on the rise. But staring into a computer screen all day without any work colleagues around can take a toll on an employee!
So, what can you do to help your team have a bit of fun?
How about trying out some Slack games?
Slack is a workplace communication and file sharing app, but it can integrate with tons of tools, including games and social apps.
In this article, we’ll look at why you should use Slack during work breaks. We’ll also show you some games and social apps that you can implement for your team’s break-time diversion.
This Article Contains
(Click on a link to jump to a specific section)
Why You Should Use Slack For Games And Social Apps
Slack isn’t just a workplace chat app.
Here’s why Slack can be used for a variety of non-work applications:
A. It’s Easy To Create Communities In Slack
Have you heard of an app called Discord?
The Discord server is where gamers worldwide engage in game-specific team chats.
But what does it have to do with Slack?
Like Discord, there are Slack channels, teams and global communities dedicated to different topics.
These channels cover a ton of topics such as travel enthusiasts sharing the best photo spots, soccer buffs arguing over the latest games, and gamers discussing a video game with the game developer.
You can easily create a new channel so that each employee can get together and discuss non-work related topics or play a fun game whenever they are on break.
B. Slack Is Perfect For Breaks
If you’ve worked in a physical office before, you’ll know that people don’t just talk about work.
They chat about their personal lives, sports and politics.
Using Slack channels for non-work-related chat gives your remote team space to take a break, socialize and bond over mutual interests. It’ll help strengthen connections among remote team members.
If you’re concerned about platform compatibility, don’t be!
Many of these Slack apps are accessible on the browser, and Slack’s desktop and mobile apps.
So, where can you find games and social apps for Slack?
You can download apps from the Slack app directory, and some apps are even downloadable from their websites.
7 Slack Games And Apps To Add Fun To Your Workspace
Let’s take a look at a few games and apps that will make work a lot more fun for your team.
Remember, you can customize the Slack Bot for a list of games and commands, so your team knows how to launch specific games or social apps.
1. Donut
Slack Donut Bot
Would you like your team members to get to know each other better?
Just create a Slack channel and get Donut to invite people. Donut will introduce team members through direct messages and encourage conversation between them.
This works for both on-site and remote teams, so your matched team members can meet either in person or virtually.
By connecting people, Donut helps teams build trust and friendships, regardless of physical distance.
Here are some ways that Donut works:
- Remote workers: Creates virtual coffee meetups and daily meetings so distributed teams can get to know each other.
- Team building: Facilitates cross-department meetups and lotteries for activities like a special virtual company lunch or a coffee break with the CEO.
- Learning opportunities: Donut connects peers for mentorship programs, job- shadowing sessions, and introduces code review buddies.
- New hires: Welcome new hires with onboarding pals and new hire lunch buddies.
Where to get Donut: Install from the Slack app directory or directly from the Donut website.
2. Polly
Polly is designed by a Seattle startup developer of the same name. It’s not a single game app but a suite of light-hearted, interactive social and team-building games designed for Slack and Microsoft Teams.
Here’s a look of some of Polly’s features:
- Trivia: Get your entire team to compete over trivia questions.
- Hot Takes: This feature lets you run a random Hot Take poll and spark a round of debate to give your team an exciting break.
- Surveys: Get feedback from your remote team using Pulse Surveys to see how they’re doing and ask for their opinions on important matters, in real-time.
Donut Slack App Review
Where to get Polly: Install from the Slack app directory or directly from the Polly website.
3. Rock-Paper-Scissors
Remember playing rock-paper-scissors with your buddies to decide who had to buy lunch?
Donut Investing
Your remote team can do that too!
Once installed, you can launch this fun game in your Slack channel with slash command “/rps @mention” (where “mention” is the person you’re challenging). You can also play in direct message channels with just “/rps”.
Want an extra challenge?
Type “/rpsls” for rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock!
Where to get Rock-Paper-Scissors: Install from the Slack app directory or the Rock-Paper-Scissors website.
4. Trivia
Enjoy answering questions during your coffee break?
This app is called Trivia, but it’s actually a suite of four games designed for Slack and Microsoft Teams:
- Trivia Quizzes: Offers 1000s of fun and easy trivia quizzes for your team.
- (Un)Popular Opinions: Get quick votes on any subject from your Slack team.
- Word Puzzles: Discover the word genius among your team with this anagram puzzle.
- Gotcha!: Generate multiple-choice questions for your players. They get points for getting it right, and you can earn points by fooling them with the wrong answer.
Track results on a leaderboard to see team member rankings and generate some friendly competition.
Where to get Trivia: Install from the Slack app directory or directly from the Trivia website.
5. Tic-Tac-Toe
This is an old-school classic morphed into digital format in Slack.
Now you can challenge a team member with a game of tic-tac-toe over a Slack channel. All you have to do is type “/ttt @mention” (where “mention” is your team member) to challenge them.
Run a quick three-minute game or let it last the whole day. You could also play personal challenges via direct message with “/ttt.”
Where to get Tic-Tac-Toe: Install from the Slack app directory or directly from the Tic-Tac-Toe website.
6. WordofTheHour
Ever wanted to learn a new language but just couldn’t find the time?
WordofTheHour is an app that helps you expand your vocabulary. Every hour, a new word is featured with translations into over ten languages. It’s a fun game for any user who loves learning languages, and it could even be useful on your next overseas trip.
How does this game work?
Once installed, use these bot commands:
- /getword: displays the current word of the hour
- /getword help: gives a list of all commands available
- /getword channel: sends the current word of the hour to the entire channel
- /getword <your language>: displays the list of words in the specified language
The Reddit community supports the app, and any user can join to contribute to clarifications and translations.
Where to get WordofTheHour: Install from the Slack app directory or directly from the WordofTheHour website.
7. ChessBot
Never played Chess and want to learn?
Chess is one of the oldest games in the world and is probably one of the most widespread.
With the ChessBot, you can challenge a Slack team member to a game of Chess.
What’s interesting with this app is that you don’t have to play a game all the way through, just make a move when you have a quick break.
Where to get ChessBot: Install from the Slack app directory or directly from the ChessBot website.
6 Slack Apps To Break Monotony At Work
Now, let’s take a look at some Slack games and apps you can add to your team’s Slack workspace to break the monotony of your daily routine:
1. Giphy
Trying to express yourself with something more than an emoji?
A picture can speak a thousand words, and Giphy will help you find that picture perfect GIF to express yourself to team members and add a bit of humor to things.
This Slack integration is easy to use once you install it. Just type “/giphy <subject>” and you’ll get a GIF of that subject. For example, “/giphy cats” will display a cat GIF in your channel. If you’re not happy with the GIF that you got, you can shuffle or cancel it.
Where to get Giphy: Install from the Slack app directory.
2. Simple Poll
Need to get a quick opinion from your team?
With Simple Poll, you can create native polls right within Slack.
But how is this fun?
It isn’t, but you could make fun by giving your team a break with fun, non-work-related polls.
On a more serious note, you can even use anonymous polls to get your team’s thoughts on company issues they may not be willing to answer directly.
Where to get Simple Poll: Install from the Slack app directory or directly from the Simple Poll website.
3. Search
Search isn’t a game, but it’s a fun way to do quick searches within Slack, instead of opening Google search on your browser. This gives your teams a nice break from all the work-related communications they’re used to seeing!
You can use the Search tool when you want to do a little shopping or check out the latest tweets while on break.
How does Search work?
Once installed, you can use this tool to search Amazon, Twitter, DuckDuckGo and Urban Dictionary directly from your Slack chat window. All you have to do is use the slash command “/<site> <search item>.”
Here’s an example of the slash command for looking up the word “Echo Dot” in Amazon: /amazon echo dot. And it’ll return the “Echo Dot” results for you in Slack.
Where to get Search: Install from the Slack app directory or directly from the Search website.
4. Spotify
Enjoy listening to music from Spotify when you work?
Music helps break the monotony when you get too focused on your job. You can also play white noise in the background to help you focus.
So why not control Spotify directly from Slack without switching apps?
With the Spotify integration and slash command /spotify, you can:
Donut Slack Pricing
- Play music
- View track information.
- Share music with your team.
Remember, you’ll need Spotify Premium to access the Premium feature library.
Where to get Spotify: Install from the Slack app directory.
5. Twitter
Feeling the need to stay up-to-date with Twitter, but don’t want to launch Twitter in your workspace?
Getting some social media activity is a great way to break the monotony of work.
You can post tweets to a channel, expand shared Twitter URLs, and display the full tweet and any attached media. You can use this integration to keep tabs of tweets from team members in company-owned accounts.
You can use this Twitter integration to display selected tweets on a public channel or keep it reserved for a particular company team on a private channel. This is a good way to share information with team members, like update-tweets from services that a team relies on.
Where to get Twitter: Install from the Slack app directory.
6. Meme Bot
Looking to share some memes with your remote team?
This is an app to spice up a chat on a channel full of team members. Use Meme Bot to get instant memes from Slack using slash commands “/meme-list” and “/meme.”
Where to get Meme Bot: Install from the Slack app directory or directly from the Meme Bot website.
Closing Thoughts
Working remotely can be challenging, and everyone needs a break to casually interact with team members now and then. Playing games is one of the easiest ways to help your team de-stress from hours of concentrated work.
Adding a little fun into the Slack workspace can also help teams relax, improve team relationships and communication. You could also have a dedicated channel for games and another channel for social interactions.
Whichever way you chose to implement a non-work channel, your remote team will appreciate the opportunity for a bit of distraction. Additionally, it’ll be a great way to reinvent your company culture!
Get more stuff like this
In your Inbox
Subscribe to our mailing list and get interesting stuff on remote working and productivity to your email inbox
we respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously.
Donut For Slack
Virtual Doughnut
Liam Martin is a co-founder of Time Doctor—a time tracking and productivity monitoring software designed for tracking hours and productivity of remote teams.