Slack is increasingly placing itself as among the most compelling communication tools for enterprise and is a serious competitor to Skype and makes WhatsApp’s business minded moves seem futile. Of course, Microsoft has consistently been rumored to be interested in buying Slack, but at the moment, the company is going it alone and continuing to launch new features.
The latest feature is one that Slack users have been asking for consistently, the ability to make voice calls. The company has announced that voice calls are rolling out to all users, leaving the beta phase of the last few months.
Anyone can make one-on-one calls, while paid teams can also make group calls in any channel or group DM. When someone initiates a call, a message will appear, inviting you to join the call.
As you would expect, the feature is easily accessed from within the Windows application (or indeed Chrome), with a phone icon button sitting on the top right above the chat pane. Those running Slack on their Windows phone will have to wait a little longer to get the voice calling feature, although a tweet (replying to Windows Central) from the company said the mobile feature is still in beta and will land soon.
We're working on it! The Windows phone app is still in beta so it's going to be a little further down the road yet. ?
— Slack (@SlackHQ) June 8, 2016
Slack announced the voice calling feature earlier in the year, before launching it in beta form in March. At the same time, the company also said it would be introducing video calling to the service sometime during the year, so there is still plenty more to look forward to from Slack in 2016.
The company says the voice calls will be coming to everyone by Friday.
