Slack’s 2016 Roadmap

Josh Constine, reporting on Slack’s plans to roll out voice and video chat this year:

The imminent release of voice and video chat could make offices noisier, but it will certainly make Slack more of a comprehensive communication solution rather than a tool plugged into a suite of other products. That might convince companies Slack is worth paying for.

Given Slack’s focus on making work searchable, it’s easy to imagine that years down the line, Slack could use voice recognition to create transcripts of your voice or video meetings.

Here’s what I wrote when Slack acquired Screenhero in January 2015:

We use Slack at Relay, and, like many others, I like its integration with other services and apps. I always wondered if Slack would ever take on Skype, and I’m curious to see if what they’re building could be a possible solution for podcasters who are forced to use Skype today.

More than a year later, we use Slack intensively every day, and Skype is only being used to hold audio conversations with multiple people. If Slack’s take on voice chat supports channels and group calls and is sleek and stable enough, I think podcasters may want to keep an eye on it.

(Would Ecamm make a Slack Call Recorder, though? Would Slack consider automatically archiving those voice chats?)