One of the cool features of Slack is Slackbot, which is a bot that responds to certain commands. Slackbot can also be configured to provide customisable automatic responses when chosen activation phrases are used. This automatic response functionality can be configured to provide useful information but can also be configured with some more fun responses too.
An example of a potentially useful Automatic response from Slackbot is to post the company’s address when someone posts the message “What’s our address?”. Similarly, Slackbot can be configured to post the Wi-Fi password when someone types the word “wifi”.
One thing to be aware of is that Slackbot will automatically reply to any message that includes a full activation phrase, even if the message doesn’t exclusively contain the activation phrase. For example, if you configure Slackbot to post a message about the Wi-Fi password when the word “wifi” is posted in the workspace, Slackbot will respond with the automatic response about the Wi-Fi password if someone posts the word “wifi”, the message “What’s the wifi password”, or “is the wifi down?”.
It is a good idea to make sure your activation phrases aren’t too generic as otherwise the response may be sent too often and get annoying. Similarly, it is a good idea to ensure that the activation phrase isn’t too specific either as people may end up forgetting your helpful but overly long activation phrase, or forgetting to include punctuation such as a question mark.
Tip: Activation phrases are not case sensitive, so you don’t have to worry about that. Special characters such as question marks are, however, important if included in the activation phrase.
For a more light-hearted automatic response, you could configure Slackbot to flip a coin or roll dice. You can configure multiple responses for a single activation phrase by putting each response on a new line. A random response will be chosen, meaning you can configure Slackbot to respond with “heads” or “tails” to the activation phrase “flip a coin”. To roll a die you can configure the numbers one through twenty for the activation phrase “d20”. You can even add secret responses to things like a coin flip by configuring the “heads” and “tails” responses a hundred times each and then having one response that says: “The coin landed on its side!”.
Tip: You can also configure multiple activation phrases for the same output or outputs by separating activation phrases with commas.
How To Configure Automatic Slackbot Responses
To configure Slackbot automatic responses, you need to go into the workspace customisation settings. To do so, need to first click on the workspace name in the top-right corner. Next, in the dropdown menu, select “Settings & administration”, then “Customise <workspace name>” to open the workspace customisation settings in a new tab.
Once you’re in the workspace customisation settings, switch to the “Slackbot” tab, then click “Add new response” to add a new automatic response.
Enter one or more activation phrases in the textbox labelled “When someone says”, then enter the possible responses in the textbox labelled “Slackbot responds” and click “Save”.
Slackbot automatic responses can provide useful information or can provide some light-hearted fun in a workspace. By following the steps in this guide, you can add your own custom automatic Slackbot responses to your workspace.
