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How to Get Started With Bots for Slack

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Hridoy Ahmed
How to Get Started With Bots for Slack

Start building your bot app for Slack. This guides are explore the unique features of Slack bots, reviews used cases and covers framework integrations.

The Slack community is full of bots. Since the app entered the world in 2013, developers have taken advantage of the Slack API to build bots of various types. Most Slack bots perform a function related to the main reasons people use the app: team collaboration and productivity. Still, you may be surprised at the variety of ways your bot can interact with Slack users.

Let's dive deep into the world of Slack robots. We will see what it takes to create a Slack bot and how to integrate a bot with Slack. Additionally, we will consider some representative use cases that demonstrate what your bot can achieve on the platform.

Why Build a Slack Bot?

There are many reasons to build a bot for Slack. These are some of the most compelling:

Your team is trying to accomplish something specific using Slack, and you want to make it easier for them to do it.

You have identified a particular service that could benefit the Slack community, but it is not yet available.

You've already created a productivity or collaboration tool for another platform, and you think the Slack community would find it valuable.

The main point is that Slack is not just another messaging application or social network, it is a tool that companies, organizations, and teams use to get the job done. As we will see soon, most bots that gain traction on the platform either address an internal business issue or take advantage of an external business opportunity.

Simply put, most Slack bots help people get things done that they were already going to do, only faster.

How to Make a Slack Bot

To build a Slack bot, start by reviewing the Slack API documentation. The first thing to understand is that the Slack API allows you to create apps for Slack, not just bots. Lazy apps come in various forms, and bots are among them.

In other words, you are actually creating a Slack app that turns out to be a bot app.

Create a Slack App

The documentation explains how to do this. After following this instruction, you has a Slack app that resides in a single workspace. In the long run, you can keep your bot-turned app in a single Slack workspace, allow users to communicate with it in other workspaces, or even submit it to the Slack app directory. It is your call.

After that, check out your chosen framework's documentation on Slack integration and check out the Slack bot creation tutorial. If you plan to create a bot that helps teams do a better job (and do it faster), you will surely succeed.

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