To add Slack as an integration, click on Settings > Tools & Integrations > Slack.

On the Slack page, you will then see the Connect button at the bottom of the page. Click on it to begin setting up the integration. Doing so will take you to the Slack website where you will be asked to log into your organization's workspace. Once you log in or if you already are logged in, Slack will ask you to give Textline permission to view messages in Slack and perform actions. These permissions allow Textline to interact with your Slack environment but rest assured we only are using these permissions to interact with the messages that we post into Slack.

Once you have allowed Textline to interact with Slack, you will be redirected back to Textline. From here, you will select how you would like Textline to send messages to Slack. The default setup is to send All Departments to one Slack channel (read below if you would like to send notifications to private channels). You can configure the integration to send individual Departments to different Slack channels. You can configure as many groups as needed.

This integration will send all inbound Textline messages and, if configured, all outbound messages and actions to your selected Slack channels. The notification in Slack will also include a link to the Conversation in Textline, enabling you to easily access, and respond to the message.

We also include buttons for Slack agents to interact with Textline messages. From within Slack you can take the following actions:

Please note that to use these buttons in Slack, you must already be a Textline user and the email you use to log into Slack must be the same as your Textline user. If not, any actions you take will not work. If you want to update your user’s email address, head to your user profile in Textline.

You can configure each department group of your integration with Slack to use one of 2 notification style options:

This is the default style for the Textline Integration for Slack. All messages from customers will be sent to the selected channel. This will allow you to keep track and be alerted anytime a customer messages in. You can also configure the integration to also push all agent messages and actions taken to the same channel. This can help you keep track of what your organization is doing in Textline as well.

To allow our customers to "clean up the noise" in their Textline/Slack channels, we have a notification style that will "group" Textline conversations into Slack threads. The first message or action that creates a conversation in Textline will be posted to the channel, but all subsequent messages and actions for that conversation will be added as a thread to that first notification. This will help cut down the number of messages to the main channel, but will still allow those interested to keep track of the conversation. Those that claim or are transferred a conversation will then follow the thread so that they can be updated using Slack's notification system.

When claiming or transferring a conversation in Textline, we will alert the user in Slack. We do this by matching the email addresses for Textline agents and Slack users and using the Slack feature @ mention.

Note for existing users: If you have the Integration for Slack connected to your Textline organization before the update in April 2021, you will need to disconnect and reconnect the integration to access the notification options and action buttons. If you do not, the new style options will not be seen in your Textline settings and the buttons will appear grey in Slack and you will not be able to use them.

By default, private Slack channels will not show in the dropdown list. To have Textline notifications sent to a private channel, you will need to

We hope this article helps! If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to Textline support at +1 (415) 849-4349 or [email protected].