Whenever I think of shooting away a series of questions to someone on Slack, the Away status makes me question myself. Should I really disturb her/him? And the situation is also true in the reverse scenario. Slack, for the most part, sets the status to Away if you remain inactive for too long, even if you have it open on a browser tab on your PC. At times, this feature can be a relief as it gives me the focus I want. But it can be counterproductive as it doesn’t show the entire scenario — that you are actually working, even if it shows otherwise. In teams where communication is key, a simple thing such as the status is critical. Hence, if you are looking for ways to keep Slack always active while you work, you are in luck. Yep, there is a way to keep Slack availability as always active. In this post, we’ll see how to get it done.
How to Keep Slack Always Active on Browser
The method we are going to explore is via a tool called Slack Off. It’s a simple tool which works via Slack’s legacy Tokens. But what are Slack Tokens? In the good old days when Slack didn’t have app integrations, legacy tokens were used to make calls with the Web API. Since then, apps have replaced this method of integration. However, some tools still require these tokens to integrate, and the SlackOff tool is one of them. Now that we have established what Slack tokens are, let’s see how to use SlackOff app. Visit SlackOff
How to Use SlackOff
Step 1: Open the site and sign up on this service by clicking on the Try it out button. Here, the email ID that you sign up with doesn’t necessarily be the one you use to sign in to Slack. Step 2: After logging in, click on Add Team, which will redirect you to the Add a Slack Team page. It is here that you’d need to add the token. Here, tap on the link that says ‘API token here’ to generate your Slack Tokens. Alternatively, you may also click on the link below. Generate API Tokens Do remember to keep your Slack account logged in when you try the above step. Step 3: On the Slack Legacy token generator page, scroll down until you see your workspace and username. If this is your first time using this service, the Token will show as 0. Click on the Issue Token button. Step 4: Once you have copied the newly-generated token, go back to Slack Off and paste the token number in the text box. Next, click on Add Team. Step 4: Once the token is verified, you’ll be redirected to SlackOff’s home page where you’ll find your workspace name and with the Schedule set as Always Online. And that’s pretty much it! From now on, you’ll always appear as Online, the green light will burn bright as you carry out your daily work. In fact, SlackOff will show you as online even when you are actually inactive, and that’s the only issue with the free version of Slack Off. So, before you log off for the day, do remember to set the status as Away. The next time when you load or reload Slack, it will ask you for a new status. All you need to do is keep it as Active, and that’s it. This limitation is removed if you upgrade to the paid version of SlackOff. The paid version for $1.99/month comes with a nifty option to schedule your timings. Thankfully, you can give the trial version (requires credit card information) a shot before you invest. So if you are a freelancer working only on select days, you can set your schedule accordingly. To set your schedule, click on your workspace name within Slack and tweak the timings as per your preference, and then hit the Save button. If for some reason you feel, that you can do without staying active at all times, simply delete the team.
Privacy Issues?
The makers of SlackOff claim that they do not share any information publicly or with third-parties. But in the long run, if you stop using SlackOff, do make sure to revoke the token. Note that Slack automatically revokes old tokens if are not used for a long period.
What about Android and iPhone
While I searched far and wide for a dedicated solution for Android and iPhone, I couldn’t find any at the time of writing. One workaround is to keep SlackOff running on one of the browsers on your PC. Also, since Slack’s Legacy Tokens page can be accessed via desktop, you can also enable the desktop version via Chrome for Android.
Go Green
So this was how you can match Slack’s availability with your own. Do you like this method? Or, would you rather go on working distraction free? Do let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Next up: Thinking of deleting the old Slack files? Learn how to do just that in the article below.
