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5 min read

9 Slack automation ideas

Set these up today and save time tomorrow

By Justin Pot · January 4, 2024
A hero image featuring the logos for Slack and Zapier

Slack is a great way to coordinate your team, cross-collaborate on projects, and find information about your business in real-time.  It is, essentially, where most of the work happens. 

That's not to say that Slack isn't distracting at times. Between daily requests from team members that can get lost in the noise to important company announcements that take time to carefully read, Slack can be a lot. But if you set up the right automated workflows—what we call Zaps—you can make Slack a more productive place. 

From automatically notifying your sales teams in Slack when new leads come through to using AI to set up Slack assistants that can respond to company-specific questions, here are the best ways to automate your Slack messages.

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Table of contents

  • Find out when a new lead or customer comes in

  • Create Slack reply bots and assistants with AI

  • See incoming emails and coordinate as a team

  • Streamline your internal communication

  • Send saved items to your to-do list and vice-versa

  • Monitor your social media accounts

  • Connect your calendar

  • Get a daily weather forecast

  • Push data to and from Slack with webhooks

To get started with a Zap template—what we call our pre-made workflows—just click on the button. It only takes a few minutes to set up. You can read more about setting up Zaps here.

Find out when a new lead or customer comes in

Does your business run on leads? Then you know how essential it is to respond quickly. Slack is an app you probably keep open all the time, so it's a great place to send alerts about new leads. Here are a few templates for doing just that, notifying you and your team when would-be customers fill out a contact form on Facebook and other sites.

Get Slack channel notifications for new Facebook Lead Ads

Get Slack channel notifications for new Facebook Lead Ads
  • Facebook Lead Ads logo
  • Slack logo
Facebook Lead Ads + Slack

Get Slack notifications for new Typeform entries

Get Slack notifications for new Typeform entries
  • Typeform logo
  • Slack logo
Typeform + Slack

Share Google Forms responses in a Slack channel

Share Google Forms responses in a Slack channel
  • Google Forms logo
  • Slack logo
Google Forms + Slack

Get Slack notifications for new Eventbrite attendees

Get Slack notifications for new Eventbrite attendees
  • Eventbrite logo
  • Slack logo
Eventbrite + Slack

Get Slack notifications for new Stripe sales

Get Slack notifications for new Stripe sales
  • Stripe logo
  • Slack logo
Stripe + Slack

Set these up and your team will see the leads as they come in, without having to manually check yet another app. They can discuss who will respond right in Slack, meaning there's no ambiguity when it comes to client communication. 

The same goes for getting notified whenever new leads and opportunities are added to your customer relationship manager (CRM). By setting up Slack alerts to tell you and your team when your CRM is seeing new activity, you can stay in the loop and act on leads while they're still warm—and even stay up to date in terms of how deals are progressing.

Get Slack notifications for new Salesforce opportunities

Get Slack notifications for new Salesforce opportunities
  • Salesforce logo
  • Slack logo
Salesforce + Slack

Send Slack channel messages for new deals in HubSpot

Send Slack channel messages for new deals in HubSpot
  • HubSpot logo
  • Slack logo
HubSpot + Slack

Note that you can also do this with Google Sheets, seeing a notification every time a new row is added. This is a great way to track leads and a lot more.

Send Slack messages whenever Google Sheets rows are updated

Send Slack messages whenever Google Sheets rows are updated
  • Google Sheets logo
  • Slack logo
Google Sheets + Slack

Related: Your Slack automations will look a lot nicer if you learn how to format Slack messages in Zapier

Create Slack reply bots and assistants with AI

It's no secret that an inordinate amount of daily communication takes place in Slack. 

Pulling the power of AI into your Slack workspace can help streamline that communication. With these Zaps, you can create ChatGPT- or OpenAI-powered assistants that can answer questions across a range of topics—directly inside Slack. From accounting bots that answer company-specific topics to a simple explainer bot that can break down complex messages, these workflows will do wonders for your productivity. 

Get a response from GPT-3 whenever a prompt is posted in a particular Slack channel

Get a response from GPT-3 whenever a prompt is posted in a particular Slack channel
  • Slack logo
  • OpenAI (GPT-4, DALL-E, Whisper) logo
  • Slack logo
Slack + OpenAI (GPT-4, DALL-E, Whisper)

ChatGPT Over My Head Helper Bot

ChatGPT Over My Head Helper Bot
  • Slack logo
  • ChatGPT logo
  • Slack logo
Slack + ChatGPT

See incoming emails and coordinate as a team

Slack users don't need email for internal coordination, but the outside world still uses it to contact your team. Sharing an inbox can be confusing, however—who is supposed to respond to which emails? Slack is a great place to decide. Here are a couple automations that can notify your team when a new email comes in.

Set these up and you can discuss who should respond to emails, meaning your customers will never get multiple responses—or be left in the dark—again.

Send new Gmail emails as Slack channel messages

Send new Gmail emails as Slack channel messages
  • Gmail logo
  • Slack logo
Gmail + Slack

Send Slack messages from new Microsoft Outlook emails

Send Slack messages from new Microsoft Outlook emails
  • Microsoft Outlook logo
  • Slack logo
Microsoft Outlook + Slack

Send Slack notifications for new emails matching Gmail search queries

Send Slack notifications for new emails matching Gmail search queries
  • Gmail logo
  • Slack logo
Gmail + Slack

Ever waiting on email attachments and other important documents to be signed or uploaded to Google Drive? Whether it's from a fellow team member or someone outside of your organization, you can notify yourself or your team in a public Slack channel. Or, if it's sensitive in nature, set up a Zap that sends the alert as a direct message. That way, it happens automatically.

Send Slack channel messages for signed DocuSign envelopes

Send Slack channel messages for signed DocuSign envelopes
  • Docusign logo
  • Slack logo
Docusign + Slack

Get Slack notifications for new Google Drive files in a folder

Get Slack notifications for new Google Drive files in a folder
  • Google Drive logo
  • Slack logo
Google Drive + Slack

Send Slack direct messages when new Gmail attachments are received

Send Slack direct messages when new Gmail attachments are received
  • Gmail logo
  • Slack logo
Gmail + Slack

Streamline your internal communication

Need to log your messages somewhere more permanent than Slack itself? Slack's free version only lets you browse the 10,000 most recent messages, but there's a workaround.

You can create your own log of all messages in Google Sheets. Just set up this simple automation and every message will be saved, giving you a personal archive. This is also handy if you need to gather data quickly from a specific Slack channel or want to create a log of messages in Google Sheets that's easily shareable.  

Add Slack messages to a Google Sheets spreadsheet

Add Slack messages to a Google Sheets spreadsheet
  • Slack logo
  • Google Sheets logo
Slack + Google Sheets

You might want to keep your whole team up-to-date when it comes to what's going on in Slack—especially in announcement channels about company news, HR updates, and more. To avoid your team missing out on important news, you can set up this simple automation: 

Send Slack channel messages for new public messages posted anywhere

Send Slack channel messages for new public messages posted anywhere
  • Slack logo
  • Slack logo
Slack

Send saved items to your to-do list and vice-versa

People ask you to do stuff on Slack. Then you forget about it. You can save messages that include a request, but there's a better way to turn your saved messages into to-do tasks. You can send Slack messages you save over to your to-do list app. Here are a few Zaps for that:

Add new saved Slack messages to Todoist as tasks

Add new saved Slack messages to Todoist as tasks
  • Slack logo
  • Todoist logo
Slack + Todoist

Create Google Tasks items from new saved Slack messages

Create Google Tasks items from new saved Slack messages
  • Slack logo
  • Google Tasks logo
Slack + Google Tasks

Create Trello cards from new saved Slack messages

Create Trello cards from new saved Slack messages
  • Slack logo
  • Trello logo
Slack + Trello

Add saved Slack messages to Things as to-dos

Add saved Slack messages to Things as to-dos
  • Slack logo
  • Things logo
Slack + Things

Create a card on a board in Miro when a new Slack message is pushed

Create a card on a board in Miro when a new Slack message is pushed
  • Slack logo
  • Miro logo
Slack + Miro

These are just a few examples. You might also want to flip that workflow on its head and get notified when a new task or project has been added to your project management app. Perhaps you want to know when you're needed on a project or celebrate when your team completes their tasks. Here are a couple of Zaps for those scenarios: 

Send Slack messages for new Notion database items

Send Slack messages for new Notion database items
  • Notion logo
  • Slack logo
Notion + Slack

Post new Airtable records to Slack

Post new Airtable records to Slack
  • Airtable logo
  • Slack logo
Airtable + Slack

You could create a similar workflow using any of the thousands of apps supported by Zapier, including a bunch of task management apps.

Monitor your social media accounts

Social media is... a lot. But your team needs to stay on top of it. You can get notifications in Slack for every major social media site, meaning your team won't have to keep all of those apps open to see what's going on. Here are a bunch of Zaps for that.

Share new Facebook Page posts in Slack

Share new Facebook Page posts in Slack
  • Facebook Pages logo
  • Slack logo
Facebook Pages + Slack

Share new RSS items in Slack

Share new RSS items in Slack
  • RSS by Zapier logo
  • Slack logo
RSS by Zapier + Slack

Share your new Instagram photos and videos in Slack

Share your new Instagram photos and videos in Slack
  • Instagram logo
  • Slack logo
Instagram + Slack

Send new YouTube videos in a channel to Slack

Send new YouTube videos in a channel to Slack
  • YouTube logo
  • Slack logo
YouTube + Slack

Obviously, only some social networks are going to matter to your team, and you should only set up the Zaps that are useful for you. The kinds of sites that journalists need to track are different than what real estate agents will need. But the ideas remain the same: seeing relevant social content in realtime, without having to keep yet another tab open.

Connect your calendar

Your Slack status lets co-workers know whether they can expect to reach you—if you remember to change it. If you never do, don't worry: We've got a few Zaps for the job.

Update your Slack status when new Google Calendar events begin

Update your Slack status when new Google Calendar events begin
  • Google Calendar logo
  • Slack logo
Google Calendar + Slack

Create new status updates in Slack with Microsoft Outlook calendar events

Create new status updates in Slack with Microsoft Outlook calendar events
  • Microsoft Outlook logo
  • Slack logo
Microsoft Outlook + Slack

If using your status is too subtle, don't worry: you can also send a message to your team when an event starts. This is also a great way to make sure your entire team knows when a meeting is about to begin.

Send Slack channel messages for new Google Calendar events

Send Slack channel messages for new Google Calendar events
  • Google Calendar logo
  • Slack logo
Google Calendar + Slack

Do you ever set aside time in your schedule to focus or tackle specific tasks? Instead of manually updating your Slack status, set up this Zap to do the heavy lifting for you.

Set Slack status on an automatic daily schedule

Set Slack status on an automatic daily schedule
  • Schedule by Zapier logo
  • Slack logo
Schedule by Zapier + Slack

Here are more ways to automatically update your Slack status using Zaps.

Get a daily weather forecast

Weather isn't the most exciting thing on the web, but it's always useful. Here's a quick way to get a weather update on Slack, every day.

Post today's weather forecast in Slack

Post today's weather forecast in Slack
  • Weather by Zapier logo
  • Slack logo
Weather by Zapier + Slack

Push data to and from Slack with webhooks

Are none of the above automations quite right for you and the apps you use? Then you might want to try using webhooks. When you want to send information to Slack from a tool you use that doesn't integrate with Zapier, you can use webhooks to push that data. That means you can still get notified in Slack for things happening in your favorite apps. 

Here are just a few ideas to get you started:

Send Slack channel messages from a Webhook

Send Slack channel messages from a Webhook
  • Webhooks by Zapier logo
  • Slack logo
Webhooks by Zapier + Slack

Post Slack notifications for new URL entries

Post Slack notifications for new URL entries
  • Webhooks by Zapier logo
  • Slack logo
Webhooks by Zapier + Slack

Send private Slack messages when new webhooks come in

Send private Slack messages when new webhooks come in
  • Webhooks by Zapier logo
  • Slack logo
Webhooks by Zapier + Slack

These examples just scratch the surface of what you can do with Slack and Zapier. Zapier supports thousands of apps, meaning you can build almost any automation you can imagine. Start building your Zap now and see what you can come up with.

Related reading:

  • How to integrate Google Forms with Slack

  • How to integrate Notion with Slack

  • How to automatically update your Slack status

  • Automatically create tasks from email or Slack messages

  • How to send a reminder in Slack for Google Calendar events

  • How to break your bad Slack habits

This article was originally published in March 2020 and was most recently updated in January 2024 by Elena Alston.

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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'