Slack for Chat

[Donna_Kx]

Here's an out of the box option for those of you who may have SocialEngine or another script that recently may have removed chat and replaced it with paid SaaS chat service. Some scripts don't even have any chat. Slack chat could be an option for you. They have a free plan and then some fairly affordable paid plans. We have Slack for Bello Dynamic. My partner and I have it for BryZar as well. We invite people to our Slack channel and can then chat with them. The free plan only stores chats for 90 days though. If you want them stored longer, you need a paid plan. 

Slack is pretty easy to use too. Here's the interface:


  slack.png (Size: 214.17 KB / Downloads: 8)
I had to blur out other slack channels on the above as that's the map app view and I have other channels in my slack. I like it. You can do calls (video and/or audio) too.

[Tiffany_Kx]

Great idea to use Slack in place of chat.  I was really surprised to learn that the paid version for chat in Social Engine is $99.00 per month and that's the basic plan. That is in "no way" a competitive price at all. 

I really like working in Slack as it's a great team space for communication.  It's nice that they have a free version, however, at some point, with any team space, having a record of previous conversations often can be useful, so I can see the possibility in getting the paid version.

[Donna_Kx]

Since the paid version is pretty affordable for most, it is a good option. I agree that having a record of previous conversations can be very helpful.

Chat is very heavy for any website as it involves querying the database for every user online, their friends, etc. So, it is costly to run and heavy on server resources. If using an external chat, you avoid those server issues and expenses.