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Automatically set your Slack channel topic

By Grace Montgomery · June 16, 2025
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Working in Slack means your channel topic is basically the team's bulletin board. But in a busy channel, it's easy to forget to update it—leaving outdated info like last quarter's strategy or last week's on-call schedule front and center.

Don't let Slack chaos rule your (work) life. When you throw automation into the mix, everyone gets the context they need, where they need it. Whether you're updating who's on call, sharing the latest meeting agenda, or highlighting important team documents, keeping your Slack channel topic up to date helps your team stay aligned. 

Here's how you can use Zaps—Zapier's automation workflows—to update your Slack channel topics automatically based on your calendar, tools like PagerDuty, or whatever else happens in your workday.

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Why should you automate your Slack channel topic?

Changing a Slack channel topic sounds like a tiny task, but doing it consistently takes effort—especially when you're jumping from one task (or crisis) to the next. Automating your channel topic helps:

  • Set clear expectations across the team

  • Reduce the need to ask basic questions

  • Avoid confusion around who's on call or what the channel is focused on

  • Save time and mental energy

Even better: you can tailor your Zaps to match the way your team works.

Update your Slack channel topic for on-call schedules

If you're on an engineering or IT team that handles incidents, your team probably lives and breathes incident management apps like PagerDuty.

Knowing who's on call is critical, but manually updating a Slack channel topic? That's one more thing that can slip through the cracks. And when you're dealing with major outages or customer issues, the extra time spent trying to track down the on-call engineer can have a big impact.

This Zap looks up who's on call each day and updates your Slack channel's topic so the entire team knows who's got point. 

A Slack channel topic set to: On-Call @Xavier

Just customize what time you want the Zap to run, and you're set.

Update Slack channel topic with on-call user from PagerDuty

  • Schedule by Zapier logo
  • PagerDuty logo
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Schedule by Zapier + PagerDuty + Slack
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    Keep your team informed about who is on call every day with this workflow. Each day, Zapier will check PagerDuty for the current on-call user and automatically update the topic of a specified Slack channel. That way, everyone on your team can quickly see who to reach out to for urgent issues.

    Update your Slack channel topic from your calendar

    Your team calendar is packed with events that matter to the whole group—like team meetings, client calls, or weekly planning sessions. Instead of pinging everyone to remind them what's happening, you can let your Slack channel topic do the work.

    Use a Zap that monitors your shared Google Calendar for upcoming events and updates the channel topic automatically. For example, if you have a recurring team standup every morning, the channel topic can change to show "Team Standup at 9:30 a.m.—Zoom link in calendar" right before the meeting. Or, if there's a big sales call coming up, it can switch to reflect that so everyone stays prepared.

    Update Slack channel topics with new Google Calendar events

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    Google Calendar + Slack
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      Find yourself regularly posting meeting and event reminders to your Slack channel? Save that effort and set up this Google Calendar-Slack integration to keep everyone on time for the next one. It will trigger with each new Google Calendar event added from then on, automatically setting a new topic for your entire Slack channel to see every time.

      Pro tip: Want to only update your channel topic for certain meetings? Add a filter step to make sure only the most relevant events are reflected in your channel.

      A Zap in the Zap editor highlighting a filter step to only allow calendar events that include the term "salls call" in the calendar summary.

      Highlight the latest meeting notes or team updates

      Running an async standup or a meeting that doesn't require everyone to join live? Or have important summary or strategy docs the team needs to keep top of mind throughout the quarter? Use your Slack channel topic to point people to the latest doc or agenda.

      For example, if you drop new agendas or team notes into a shared Google Drive, Notion page, or Trello board each week, you can use one of these Zaps to automatically update your Slack status:

      Set Slack channel topics from new files in a Google Drive folder

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      Google Drive + Slack
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        A Slack channel's topic is a great location for information you want to ensure is seen by the whole team, like links to your latest files, but updating it all the time can be a chore. Set up this Google Drive-Slack integration, however, and Zapier can take care of that for you, automatically updating your chosen Slack channel's topic with the details from every new file you add to a specific Google Drive folder from then on.

        Set Slack channel topics from new Trello cards

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        Trello + Slack
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          Want to guarantee everyone hears about important new Trello cards? Put this Trello-Slack integration to work and you'll be able to set your channel's topic automatically with those cards' details. Once active, it will trigger whenever a new Trello card is added to a specific list, using the information (like the card's title) to update your Slack channel topic for you every time.

          Update Slack channel topic with new Notion database item

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          Notion + Slack
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            Streamline your team's communication by automatically updating your Slack channel topic whenever a new item is added to a Notion database. This workflow ensures your team is always aware of the latest developments and can stay aligned without having to check Notion constantly.

            It keeps the whole team aligned and makes it easy for everyone to find what they need without hunting through channels.

            Pro tip: Want to customize the channel topic based on your documents without manually writing copy? Add an AI step with ChatGPT or AI by Zapier to automatically draft unique copy for you.

            A multi-step Zap that sets a Slack channel topic from a new Notion database item after AI summarizes the item.

            Keep Slack updated automatically

            Automating your Slack channel topic isn't just a nice-to-have—it's a small way to reduce clutter, improve transparency, and give your team the info they need, when they need it. With the right Zaps, your Slack channels can practically manage themselves.

            Whether you're highlighting the latest meeting doc or letting the team know who's on call, Zapier helps you keep your channels relevant without anyone needing to remember to update them.

            Ready to build your first Slack channel topic automation? Start here.

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            A Zap with the trigger 'When I get a new lead from Facebook,' and the action 'Notify my team in Slack'