The Business Voice

Slack is a popular team communications app that we’ve just adopted here at OnSIP. And we’re certainly not alone. In April 2015, TechCrunch reported Slack is used daily by 750K workers and boasts customers like Adobe, New York Times, Blue Bottle Coffee, BuzzFeed, Live Nation, Expedia, HBO, PayPal and the State Department. But of course, as business VoIP provider, we immediately wanted to figure out:

How do you video chat on Slack? While we love text-based chat, sometimes you want to voice and video chat. It's more personable, and it can cut down on time.

Before we dive in, know that Slack bought a screen sharing app Screenhero in January. Word on the street is that they'll offer voice and video collaboration any day now.

I imagine that folding Screenhero into Slack is a pretty big project for them because Slack is so cross-platform. For example, I use Slack for Mac OS and Slack in my browser. As a happy end user, I think Slack's success is built on their reliable and consistent end user experience across devices, operating systems, and browsers. And it's not a small feat. But instant messaging has a temperamental cousin— and that's voice and video chat. Achieving cross platform voice and video is a whole new ball game.

Anyway, let's review our video chat integration options today. I’m specifically covering using Slack and video chat on a desktop or laptop with a browser; we’ll explore mobile another day (if that works!) Also, the below options are free.

Slack Video Chat Via Google Hangouts

With Google Hangouts integration, you can voice or video chat with your Slack channel. You must have a Google Hangouts account and install the integration. Assuming you are logged into Google Hangouts and Slack, it works, like everything else, with a slash command. You type “/hangout”

Then, slackbot (Slack's automated bot) will message you a link for you to interact with: “Start a new Google+ Hangout in this channel.” Only you see this message from slackbot.

If it’s your first time trying it out, this link will direct you to an authorization view where Google Hangouts asks if you want to share data between your Google account and Slack. You will probably click Yes (all zombie-like, without reading) like most people do.

Next, you are brought to a Google Hangouts room that you can name. You also have the option of inviting people on Hangouts and limiting which circles can join— e.g. the world, or just your business domain if your company runs on Google Apps for Work.

Once you click the Invite button, the hangouts bot will post an invitation in the channel you entered the /hangout command in. It reads: “@YourName has started a Google+ Hangout for this channel. Click here to join.”

Everyone can click that link to join the Hangout like any other Hangout.

My Thoughts on Hangouts for Slack

Honestly, it’s a little clunky. First, slackbot has to help you out. Then, hangout bot comes in to invite everyone. Too much bot conversation. If you’re sitting in Hangouts already, and you want to video chat a person or two, the difference between initiating a Hangout from Hangouts, itself, and using the slash command is negligible. However, the use case becomes much more compelling if you have a channel of 5+ people who want to regularly meet at a given time. Daily SCRUMs come to mind— especially for remote teams. (But, read on to appear.in)

Google Hangouts video chat limits to 10 participants, unless you are a Google for Work customer, then it’s 15. Hangouts works on all major desktop and laptop web browsers.

Slack Video Chat Via The OnSIP App

The OnSIP app is a voice/video phone app that can facilitate free business quality video conferencing from Slack. Simply sign up for a free OnSIP account and add the free OnSIP app integration from the Slack App Directory to get started.

The OnSIP app has free video calling that uses high grade codecs such as VP8 and H.264, output that's higher than the average YouTube video. Once you have the OnSIP Slack app installed, you can use a simple slash commands to generate a web call link:

To generate a link, simply type "/onsip call", followed by the destination SIP address and the name that you wish to display on the call page. Clicking on the call link will open up a new browser tab showing the intended party via the OnSIP app interface. The user can decide to make the call voice-only or video-capable:

These unique call links can be shared via Slack, embedded in an email signature, or shared on social media for anyone to use. However, only one user can join the call at a time - multi-person video conferencing is currently unavailable with these web links.

My Thoughts for the OnSIP App for Slack 

[insert thoughts here] 

Slack Video Chat Via appear.in

Now this is a nice integration by appear.in, a startup of 13 people within the incubator environment of Telenor Digital. Telenor Digital has been working with WebRTC since 2012, and yes, this product is WebRTC-based. It only works on browsers that support WebRTC: Namely Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.

The app appear.in basically lets you create voice, video, and IM chat rooms of up to 8 participants. It’s free. It generates a link that you can share with friends. You can lock the room, too. Here's how this works in Slack:

You do not need any sort of appear.in account. Just simply activate this integration in Slack. Once activated, you use the /appear slash command. You can define your room name using /appear {room name}, or simply leave it blank. (I wonder what happens if someone else, somewhere else chooses the same room name?) In any case, if you leave it blank, appear.in will choose a wonderfully creative, and sometimes awkward, chat room name for you— like “attractive-vulture.”

After your /appear command, the appear.in bot will post the appear.in room link for up to 8 people in the channel to hop on.

When you click the link, you’ll be asked to share your camera/microphone in WebRTC fashion. Then voila, instant voice, video, and IM in your browser.

You might wonder, what happens if more than 8 people hop on? The team at appear.in says that the “application will crash because of the number of connections being handled by the browser.” This is a common technical hurdle and open question for plenty-a-WebRTC-developers out there.

My Thoughts on appear.in Slack Integration

The /appear command is way more seamless than Hangouts! If you want to chat with 1-8 people and your team uses any combination of Chrome, Firefox, or Opera, you should totally use this app.

In Summary

I recommend for video chats of 1-8 participants who use Chrome, Firefox, or Opera, you use appear.in. If you’re looking to about double that capacity, and you’re a Google for Work customer, then Google Hangouts is your answer. Or, if you have some stubborn Internet Explorer or Safari users. Then too.