Slack is the go-to team chat app for most businesses these days, and when the servers go down, it’s chaos. GR itself is affected by a Slack outage as I write this, but luckily we have a backup plan in place for when Slack is down. Read on below for what to do when there’s Slack downtime, and how to check for when it’s coming back up.
Slack Down: How to Check Server Status
The first thing you’ll want to do when your chat starts sending errors is to take a deep breath. All too often companies rely too largely on one solution for communication, and when it goes down, no work can get done.
Since you’re likely sitting there confused on what to do next. Your first step is to open up the Slack server status site. This page will tell you what the issues with Slack are and will let you know when it’s back up. You can also check in on the official Twitter, which will also keep you updated on the service status.
Apologies for the interruption! We're doing out best to get things back up and running ASAP, and will be providing updates here: https://t.co/OLr9rAPNQh
— Slack (@SlackHQ) May 13, 2020
Slack Down?: Make a Back-Up Plan
Slack is pretty reliable, so it’s easy to rest on your laurels when it comes to team communication. However, you never know when one day the service may go down for an extended period. In this day and age, emails are too slow for most day-to-day operations, so your best bet is to have a backup chat method in place to switch to in case of an outage.
The winner in my book for a Slack back-up is Discord. It’s set up similarly, easy to use, and you can even set up different channels. Sure, your neat integrations won’t be functioning, but Discord is a great alternative that will get you through the dark times.
