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Why is Slack Called Slack?

December 30, 2015 by Adam Lang 9 Comments

The inspiration behind Instagram was not beautiful images and filters, the inspiration behind Twitter was not hashtags (#) and 140 character updates and the inspiration behind Flickr was not hosting and photo-sharing. Like these powerhouse brands that evolved over the years, Slack was no different. Believe it or not, the idea behind Slack was derived from the struggle of team communication when developing a gaming company called Glitch.

Slack is a slick piece of inter-office software that allows teams to communicate more effectively. Down to its very core, the product aims to better organize and structure conversations among internal teams. And at the moment, it’s less about replacing email and more about complimenting it. Within the tool, you could create a team titled “Marketing” and get more granular by creating channels titled: Social Media, Events, Email Marketing, SEM, SEO, etc. Certain team members can be a given access to different teams and channels. While collaborating in the tool, users can use hashtags (#), mentions (@), search for past topics, send private messages and more recently, use emojis. The product is truly a mix of email, Twitter and Facebook Messenger.

Slack Product Image

Photo Credit: Engadget

Like most employees, your work inbox is filled with meeting requests, internal communications, external emails with prospects and of course, reminder emails that your current password expires in 14 days. According to Slack’s co founder, Stewart Butterfield, “Email will be the cockroach of the internet,” when asked whether Slack will kill email. “I think we’ve got another 30 or 40 years of email left. The reason email survives, even though everyone seems to hate it, is that “email has many benefits, it’s the lowest common denominator for official communications. But it’s a terrible way to manage internal communications.”

Why is it called Slack?

In project management, you’ll hear a lot of different terms get tossed around. If you’re in the field, you’re already aware of milestone, scope, sprint and many others. Chances are you’ve also heard float, too, or as it’s sometimes called, slack. This is where we originally thought the name was derived from, but today (9/27/2016) Founder, Stewart Butterfield published the tweet below. At the moment its unclear if Slack is an acronym or a backronym – an acronym deliberately created to suit a particular word or words. I’ve tweeted Butterfield for clarification and will update the article when I hear back from him.

Yes. November 14th, 2012 (previous codename was “linefeed”):
Re https://t.co/GbFbiofkWS pic.twitter.com/mhdkWk16o2

— Stewart Butterfield (@stewart) September 27, 2016

Slack, in project management, refers to the amount of time a delay could take from a task without causing subsequent problems. So if your current assignment is held up because you’re waiting on someone to get back to you, but you have a month to finish, you could say, “I have at least a few weeks of slack, so waiting another day won’t be a major problem.” It implies flexibility in the project schedule, a positive.

Our name may seem funny, but think on this: without slack, there is no reach, no play, no flexibility, no learning, no evolution, no growth.

— Slack (@SlackHQ) February 7, 2014

The company was founded in August 2013 (became publically available in February 2014) by Stewart Butterield (former co founder of Flickr), Cal Henderson, Eric Costello and Serguei Mourachove and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. To date, the company has over 2 million daily active users (DAUs), has raised over $330 million in funding and is valued at more than $2.8 billion dollars. Lastly, Slack integrates with a large number of third-party services to keep the conversation in one place. Integrations include, but are not limited to: Twitter, Google Hangouts, Asana, Grove, Google Drive, Trello, Dropbox, GitHub and one of my favorite services, Zendesk.

Is your company Slackin’ and needs a new name? Try using a powerful product name generator as a springboard for creativity! What’s your biggest frustration with internal office communication? Comment below! Thanks for reading Why is Slack Called Slack! #WhyisitcalledSlack

Post Updates: Slack adds free conference calling.

Adam Lang
Adam Lang

Adam Lang is the founder and editor of Rewind & Capture. He is passionate about creative marketing, design and brand etymology.

Filed Under: How Tech Brands Got Their Names Tagged With: messaging app, Slack, team collaboration

Comments

  1. L0k1Ky3 says

    November 13, 2016 at 5:37 pm

    Slackers are people who use SlackWare linux dont take that from us its all we have.

    Reply
    • ADTC says

      October 12, 2017 at 11:06 am

      There are Slackers, then there are Slackers.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Slack, the red hot $3.8 billion startup, has a hidden meaning behind its name : Ride The Wolrd says:
    September 28, 2016 at 12:04 am

    […] Some people guessed it’s supposed to stand for the term used in project management, which refers to the “amount of time a delay could take from a task without causing subsequent proble… […]

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  2. Slack, the red hot $3.8 billion startup, has a hidden meaning behind its name - Age Times says:
    September 28, 2016 at 1:25 am

    […] Some people guessed it’s ostensible to mount for a tenure used in plan management, which refers to a “amount of time a check could take from a charge but causing successive problems.&… […]

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  3. Slack, the red hot $3.8 billion startup, has a hidden meaning behind its name | Business Insider says:
    September 28, 2016 at 3:59 am

    […] Some people guessed it’s supposed to stand for the term used in project management, which refers to the “amount of time a delay could take from a task without causing subsequent proble… […]

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  4. The Origin of Slack Application’s Name – Why Is It Called Slack? - Mobile Magazine says:
    September 29, 2016 at 9:18 am

    […] no many people know the actual meaning behind the name, “Slack.” Slack is inter-office software that allows teams or individuals to communicate more […]

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  6. Slack, the red hot $3.8 billion startup, has a hidden meaning behind its name | Business Insider Singapore says:
    June 30, 2017 at 1:13 pm

    […] Some people guessed it’s supposed to stand for the term used in project management, which refers to the “amount of time a delay could take from a task without causing subsequent proble… […]

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