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7 Ways to Connect Microsoft Teams and Slack in 2021

This post exists to answer the question: Does Microsoft Teams integrate with Slack?

We know chat must be native, seamless, and simple to administer. But with both Microsoft Teams and Slack dominating the team collaboration market, enterprises using both apps need to connect Slack and Microsoft Teams.

Most notably, we hear from customers that were thinking about moving from Slack to Microsoft Teams or blocking Slack in favor of Microsoft Teams, and vice versa.

Does Microsoft teams integrate with Slack?

Rather than continue working in silos, we’ve highlighted 7 ways to connect Slack and Microsoft Teams then gone out and found a better one for internal use and a better one for external use.

1 – Connect Slack and Microsoft Teams without introducing a new chat client

Native federation

Pros:

There are services in the marketplace that allow you to federate with other enterprises via their own chat client, but this doesn’t resolve the issue of multiple chat platforms in a single organization.

It does, however, bring them together in a slightly improved chat client.

Natively, apps like Skype for Business also provide this functionality. Skype for Business users just need to turn on the federation facility within their Office 365 admin portal.

Cons:

Some UC providers have started to introduce cross-platform messaging into their collaboration offerings.

Whilst this does remedy the issue of switching between multiple apps, the solution here is to totally replace the solution you are already invested in.

You can message any number of other businesses using most chat apps. But, this comes with the disadvantage of giving up the native app that everybody uses.

Guest access

Pros:

Take the typical example where your engineering team loves Slack and your IT and Sales teams prefer Teams.

Guest access on both platforms allows external parties to join in the conversation, but access is limited.

Cons:

Removing either (or both) of Slack and Microsoft Teams, in favor of a catch-all UC solution, almost always results in using Slack and Teams for some services.

Obviously, this is the ideal scenario for the UC provider. However, they may not always be the best fit for the business.

Moving your messaging stack to a new product could still leave you heavily invested in Microsoft Office 365 – a waste of a powerful app already paid for in your Office 365 strategy.

2 – Configure webhooks for Slack & Microsoft Teams

Pros:

By using webhooks, you have a low-cost solution to a complex enterprise issue.

Webhooks also take little time to configure per scenario. If the issue exists in a single channel, webhooks are a good solution to a large scale problem.

Cons:

The downside to using webhooks revolves around the amount of manual configuration required.

When you are dealing with multiple channels in an enterprise scenario, webhooks are simply not scalable.

They also don’t tend to display in a native way, and instead, from a bot.

End users have to re-train behavior in order to message cross-platform, and who has time for that? You? Didn’t think so.

In an organization of a few hundred or more, remembering who uses what platform becomes impossible to mentally track.

News also broke in April 2020 when it was discovered some Slack webhooks has been exposed as potential phishing hooks.

Researchers said there are nearly 131,000 Slack webhook URLs available on the Internet.

3 – Use APIs & bots to connect Slack & Microsoft Teams

Pros:

Bots for Slack and Microsoft Teams are on the rise. Bots can be leveraged to create a more native experience.

Microsoft publishes a Slack connector in its connector inventory that enables some Slack and Microsoft Teams crossover.

You will benefit from functionality like joining a Slack channel and can even set triggers for certain events.

However, limited functionality stops experiments pretty quickly. For example, direct messaging goes totally unmentioned.

Cons:

Most users, especially in the enterprise space, are still in the experimental phase in terms of users being comfortable using them.

One Github community working on a tool to connect Slack and Microsoft Teams expressed concerns that various API and migration tools are limited to basic functionality.

Most of these solutions are still configuration based.

This means you will spend incredible time and resource making each channel work for you – and maintain this configuration as you add and modify channels.

4 – Create your own app using an app builder

Pros:

Generally, app builders are simple to use.

With a no-code approach, you don’t need to hire a specialist engineer to connect Slack and Microsoft Teams

You can get a free trial to play around with your requirements.

Most app builders support a wide range of apps to integrate like Slack, Google Sheets, and Trello.

Cons:

Functionality is limited by the supported features available on a particular app builder.

One user got in touch with Mio for a replacement solution to using an app builder stating:

“I tried an app builder but it was too limited. Excel 2011 download. Threads didn’t work, and users name matching was absent. “

The functionality will also be limited by your own building skills and requirements gathering.

While support is available with most app builders, it is considered a DIY approach to connecting Slack and Microsoft Teams.

5 – Slack and Microsoft Teams calling integration

The integration between Slack and Microsoft Teams VoIP functionality arrived as part of a comprehensive update at Enterprise Connect, April 2020.

Pros:

The update allows for Microsoft Teams calls to start through Slack. You can access the integration through the shortcuts button on Slack. This lightning-bolt shaped icon near your message input field allows you to start a Teams call instantly.

If you prefer the Slash command option on Slack, then you can opt for the /Teams-Calls to launch your Teams call from Slack instead.

Cons:

Unfortunately, the Slack and Teams calling integration is limited. It only connects one aspect of Slack and Microsoft Teams.

You can start a call through Microsoft Teams in Slack this way, but you can’t send instant messages or send files from someone on Slack to someone on Teams.

Tom Arbuthnot, Principal Solutions Architect at Modality Systems and Microsoft MVP, agrees the Slack and Teams calling integration is not a complete solution for connecting Slack and Microsoft Teams.

“The Slack “integration” to Microsoft Teams, while clever, is really just Microsoft Teams meeting join link in Slack that fires up Microsoft Teams to join the Teams meeting.”

Users often ask for further integration like being able to directly call or chat from one platform to another.

Team collaboration tools should allow access to a wide range of communication options. That makes the latest integration restrictive. After all, there’s a lot more to Slack and Microsoft Teams than just calling.

In an interview for UC Today, our CEO Tom Hadfield commented on news of the integration:

“The future of intercompany collaboration relies on full interoperability between Slack and Microsoft Teams. Cross-platform calling is a good start, but our customers tell us what they really need is cross-platform shared channels and direct messaging.”

6 – Use the Microsoft Graph API to migrate Slack to Teams

Microsoft is working on a migration API to help IT managers and Microsoft admins migrate chats from Slack to Teams.

As of September 2020, Microsoft has made documentation available and certain tenants can sign up to the beta program.

In theory, Microsoft wants to allow Slack messages to be migrated over to Teams without a delay or break in service and/or conversation.

The in-scope and out-of-scope items are included below:

Pros:

Previous attempts to migrate Slack to Teams have resulted in a loss of historical data and messages. The new migration API changes that.

As Tom Morgan, Product Innovation Architect at Modality Systems, pointed out his blog, an organization might be moving from Slack to Teams but have 5+ years worth of message history in Slack.

Previously, in this scenario, there have been workarounds that result in a disjointed and almost unworkable experience. With the migration API, theoretically, all messages and message information should be transferred over.

For businesses who decide they must migrate from Slack to Teams, instead of choosing interoperability between the two apps, this is the most likely option of keeping your Slack users happy.

Cons:

A game changer for most businesses is that messages can only be imported into public channels. If you plan to use private channels, Microsoft doesn’t offer support for this.

One further restriction is the lack of support for backups.

As documented by Tony Redmond, Principal at Redmond & Associates and Author of the Office 365 for IT Pros Book, this process doesn’t include a backup.

“The lack of a backup and restore API for Teams that covers team structure and content is regrettable. Because Teams is interconnected with the rest of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, it is a difficult application to backup. But that’s no reason for Microsoft to ignore the need.”

Tom Morgan also pointed out that the whole process made his head hurt.

“It’s a ‘behind the curtain’ operation that changes how I think about Teams messages. These aren’t operations for the every day, but if you need to migrate over messages from third-party systems into Microsoft Teams, these API calls will give you the power you need to achieve it. Just, make sure you don’t break any other parts of the delicate balance of time and space whilst you’re at it.”

7 – Federation to connect to external guests across Slack and Teams

Do you communicate with people outside your organization as well?

According to research, they’ll likely be using Slack or Microsoft Teams, but not necessarily the same as you.

It’s hard to chat with freelancers, contractors, and suppliers when you’re not on the same platform.

When this is the case, it becomes extremely unproductive moving out of your app to accommodate your guest.

Or even worse, end up resorting to email like it’s the 90s. (Okay, email has a purpose but you get the point).

That’s why Mio has created universal channels for Microsoft Teams with Slack.

You can stay in Teams and send messages to your contractors, suppliers, or clients that use Slack.

They stay in their platform too and Mio translates the messages across platform.

And it’s not just messages that are supported! GIFs, emojis, channels, DMs, and message edits/deletes are all supported.

If this sounds like something you need, try your first universal channel for free here. Your first three are completely free.

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Bring your business phone to Slack and start text messaging your customers in real-time. Confirm appointments, ask for reviews, offer promotions, the possibilities are endless.

Finally, an SMS service built entirely for Slack.

Either bring your existing number, or choose your own, and immediately give your business line super-powers inside of Slack.

Centralize Your Text Messaging

Like a cellphone for your entire team, consolidate SMS to a Slack channel and let your team gain visibility to customer requests and messages in real-time. No more reliance on one central cellphone or VoIP system with missed messages and upset customers.

Your Business Phone in Slack

Consolidate your SMS in Slack threads

Your staff can now have their own private SMS channel or you can have a centralized inbox channel for everyone to collaborate with. Clerk keeps track of your conversations in a tidy thread that is persistent.

Clerk works in one or many channels

Add your business phone line to any channel(s) and even bring multiple numbers to multiple channels, it is entirely up to you.

Call Forward & Voicemail in Slack

Enable powerful add-ons that turn Slack into a telephony powerhouse all consolidated and simplified for the entire team in the app you already love.

Bring Your Own Number

Connect your existing carrier and enjoy all of the benefits and features of Clerk while keeping your service provider contracts, phone numbers, and rates.

RingCentral

RingCentral for Slack integration brings your phone number natively into Slack.

Twilio

Enable your Twilio phone number in Slack and consolidate communication.

Zoom Phone

Host the SMS portion of your Zoom phone number and use it directly in Slack.

Vonage

Enable your Vonage phone number in Slack and consolidate communication.

Google Voice

Consolidate your google voice conversations in Slack

VoIP / Landline

Enable SMS capabilities on your existing VoIP or a landline.

Industries that love Clerk

Start texting your customers today. Keep your company’s text messages organized and secure with Clerk.

Startups

Reach your customers faster and grow your customer base more efficiently. Close sales by answering customer questions quickly.

Law Firms

Attorneys, paralegals, and assistants can schedule and confirm legal appointments, submit document requests, and confirm court dates.

Insurance Agencies

Send text messages to reach your team on the mobile devices that they are already using.

Real Estate

Connect with prospects and close more deals. Create a better customer experience.

Support Teams

Increase efficiency of your support teams and handle multiple customer issues simultaneously all in Slack.

Medical Offices

Send SMS to confirm appointments, change treatments, or ask questions. SMS enable your business phone number, while keeping the existing voice service intact.

Scheduled Slack SMS Campaigns

95% of SMS are read in the first 5 minutes. Included in all plans, you can start sending important alerts, thousands of messages, marketing campaigns or promotions in one click. You can even schedule multiple SMS campaigns minutes, days and weeks in advance.

Sync your Address Book

We've built dedicated integrations to help you import your contacts from the leading systems such as Hubspot, Google, Salesforce and CSV..

Salesforce

Use Salesforce and Slack together to manage your conversations.

Google Contacts

Import your contacts directly from Google contacts.

Hubspot

Load your Hubspot contacts and lists and start texting your customers.

Google Sheets

Use sheets as a universal addressbook. Import CSV, share with teammates..

Your Business Phone, in Slack

Enable powerful add-ons such as calling, call-forwarding, voicemail and make Slack a telephony powerhouse.

Trusted by leading companies

From startups to the Fortune 500, Clerk is the most visual and simple way for teams to comminicate via text message in Slack.

I have used many tools over the last 5 years to communicate with my customers over SMS and Clerk has been, by far, the fastest and easiest way to get setup. In no more than 5 minutes I had a phone number connected to a Salesforce channel and was communicating seamlessly with customers.

Clerk has revolutionized how our office communicates with patients. Our patients have given us great feedback on how easy communication has become with our staff. We’ve always prided ourselves on being industry leaders for hearing treatment; now, we can be industry leaders for technology, too.

Clerk offers some of the best customer service around. We installed Clerk and had questions on how to send an SMS campaign from Salesforce. We reached out and were able to get Clerk support team on a call with us in a matter of minutes. They helped our team get up and running in no time.

After searching for hours and hours for an app that would be capable of sending mass sms texts using a different number, I finally came across clerk. It is painless to setup, very powerful and at the best price point. I have never experienced such good customer support in an app. Highly recommend!

Install Slack

Wow! Incredble that this is all built on top of Salesforce. I played around with the Hubspot integration and was shocked how seamless and quick the experience was. Clerk really cuts down on response time when communicating with our clients. It has become essential toolbox in our arsenal.

Slack 101- Intro To Slack

Watch this video for a quick tour on how to get started in Slack.

Intro To Clerk - Send Your First SMS

Step-by-step guide to get Clerk up and running on your Slack team.

Helpful answers

In Slack Can You Delay A Post

We know there's a lot to learn and read about all that Clerk can do. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions.

Send and receive text messages, mms, with our native Slack app. SMS for Slack is perfect for customer support, marketing, and team communication.

Yes. Clerk allows to send and receive txt messages coming from your phone number. Just let us know what number or area code you would like to use and we will set it up.

Yes. Clerk allows you to have a unique phone number in every Slack channel.

Absolutely. Please reach out to support@clerk.chat and we will get back to you asap.

Yes. Our bulk texting service lets you reach large groups of people with a single text. The group size can be small, medium, large, or huge. It all depends on the number of contacts in your addressbook.

Use Clerk the same way you would use your mobile phone. Both emoji and image messages are suported.

SMS standard has a character limit of 160 characters. Messages using non standard characters such as emojis are limited to 67 characters.

Clerk has a number of unique integrations with tools such as Hubspot, Gsuite, Salesforce.

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