The Outlook is one of the preferred email clients used to access Microsoft Exchange Server email. Apart from providing access to Exchange Server email it also includes contact, calendaring and task management functionality. And the good news is that one can also use Outlook for Slack to have more benefits. Now the thing that comes to your mind will definitely be what is slack? Am I Right? If yes then do not need to worry here is the answer to your questions…
Install the Outlook Calendar app. Visit the Outlook Calendar app page in the Slack App Directory. Click Add to Slack. Click Allow to grant Outlook Calendar access to Slack. Follow the prompts, then click Open Slack to return to your workspace. From the Outlook Calendar app’s Home tab, click Connect. When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to.
Part 1: What is Slack?
Slack is like the heart of a corporation that can replace the email to help you and your team work together impeccably. Its objective is to support the way the people genuinely work together, it is a platform using which you can collaborate with the people as effectively as you can do face to face. Not only this, it has various considerable benefits that lure people towards it:
An Effective Way of Communication
Undeniably, communication is the backbone of any project or any collaboration. This is because without communication nothing is possible, especially in the business world. Slack supports the way people work by making collaboration easy and efficient as like working face-to-face.
Direct Messages
For ad-hoc conversations, direct messages and group direct messages are considered best that do not require an entire channel to weigh in. These can be useful in various ways:
- An alternate for one-to-one conversation.
- A simple way to catch up with a teammate.
- A swift and easy way to ask questions.
Notifications:
Notifications are the ways of slack to tell you about the things that need your attention. It can be chosen by you that you want to receive notifications on your desktop, your mobile device or by email. Slack notifications can even be customized by channel, so you can prioritize the things that need your attention.
It's secure to use there is a number of ways available to secure your data. For an additional layer of security, there is an option to turn on two-factor authentication for your account. If your password is compromised or stolen, you will have peace of mind knowing that only you can sign in. Slack also supports SAML-based SSO, that allows you to steadily access to Slack through an identity provider of your choice.
Not only this, but you can also give your team a quick way to see when you are in a meeting, working remotely or out of the office. With the Outlook Calendar, you can automatically update your Slack status based on your calendar events, making it easy to know whether you are unavailable or slow to respond.
Syncing your Slack outlook status with your calendar is a great way to:
- Let others check your availability in real-time without leaving slack.
- Helps to set expectations when you might be slow to respond to messages.
Part 2: How to Connect Outlook Calendar to Slack?
Following is the list of steps that you need to follow to connect a calendar to Slack:
Step 1: Install or open the app
From your desktop, locate the Apps section at the bottom of your left-hand sidebar. Then, click the plus icon. Search for Outlook Calendar. If not installed yet? Then, Click Add to Slack to visit the Slack App Directory, and then follow the steps to connect the app. And if already installed? Click Open in Slack.
Step 2: Set up Outlook Calendar in Slack
Once it’s connected, Outlook Calendar will be listed below Apps in your left sidebar. Follow the up-coming steps to complete the setup.
- Firstly, click Outlook Calendar in your left sidebar to open the app.
- Then, from the Home tab click Connect an account and follow the prompts.
- Thereafter, go back to the Outlook Calendar app in Slack.
- Hit the Messages tab, and then click Use this calendar to finish connecting your Outlook account.
Once you connect your account, you will start receiving calendar notifications in Slack. To stop duplicate notifications, learn how to adjust your Outlook Calendar notifications for your email, desktop and mobile devices from Microsoft Support.
What’s more? Now the thing that everyone wants to know will definitely be, how to use Outlook calendar in Slack?
Part 3: How to Use Outlook Calendar in Slack?
To view your full schedule
To see upcoming events click today or tomorrow From the Home tab. Then, hit Select a date to see all events of a particular day. For seeing more details, press the three dots icon to the right of an event. Choose view event details to check the location, guest list, and description.
For automatically update your Slack status:
Using your primary calendar, the Outlook Calendar app can robotically set your Slack status to one of these options: In a meeting, Working remotely or Out of office.
Adjust notification settings
You can alter your Outlook Calendar notification settings in Slack turning certain notifications on or off. Here’s how:
Step 1: Firstly, find and press Outlook Calendar in the Apps section of the left sidebar.
Step 2: Then, From the Home tab, click Settings in the top right.
Step 3: After that, below your calendar, click Notification preferences.
Step 4: Thereafter, Set your notification preferences and click Update.
Step 5: Eventually, Click finished saving.
Disconnect your calendar
Step 1: First of all, find and click Outlook Calendar in the Apps section of your left sidebar.
Step 2: Then, From the Home tab, click Settings in the top right.
Step 3: Thereafter, click Disconnect calendar.
Step 4: Eventually, click yes to confirm.
Bonus: How to Export Calendar from Outlook?
If you are looking for a way to share your Outlook calendar with others, you can export your Outlook calendar. One of the best ways to do this is using ScanOutlook. It is a professional tool that helps you to repair corrupt Outlook PST & OST files and to recover deleted Outlook mailbox data such as emails, attachments, calendars, contacts, etcetera.
Key Features of iMyFone ScanOutlook:
- Recover deleted or lost items and export them from Outlook, including calendar, emails, attachments, etc.
- Repair Outlook PST/OST files from any scenarios: data corruption, software issue, human errors and more.
- Preview the recovered files before selectively restoring them.
- Compatible with all versions of Microsoft Outlook, including the latest Outlook 2019.
Slack is a team communication tool, that brings together all of your team communications in one place, instantly searchable and available wherever you go.
This connector is available in the following products and regions:
| Service | Class | Regions |
|---|---|---|
| Logic Apps | Standard | All Logic Apps regions except the following: - Azure China regions |
| Power Automate | Standard | All Power Automate regions except the following: - US Government (GCC High) - China Cloud operated by 21Vianet |
| Power Apps | Standard | All Power Apps regions except the following: - US Government (GCC High) - China Cloud operated by 21Vianet |
| Contact | |
|---|---|
| Name | Microsoft |
| URL | Microsoft LogicApps Support Microsoft Power Automate Support Microsoft Power Apps Support |
| Connector Metadata | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Microsoft |
| Website | https://slack.com/ |
| Privacy policy | https://slack.com/privacy-policy |
Known Issues and Limitations
As per the Slack API documentation, some Slack API methods that the connector uses will stop functioning in February 2021 and will not work with newly created apps after June 10th, 2020. So please use latest versions of below actions.
Actions:
Create a groupis deprecated, please use latest version ofCreate a channelto create private channels.The maximum number of characters in a message is limited to 4000. For more details, please refer to Slack's official documentation.
Connector in-depth
For more information about the connector, see the in-dept section.
Throttling Limits
| Name | Calls | Renewal Period |
|---|---|---|
| API calls per connection | 100 | 60 seconds |
| Frequency of trigger polls | 1 | 120 seconds |
Actions
| Create a channel | Create a channel in slack. |
| Create a channel [DEPRECATED] | This action has been deprecated. Please use Create a channel instead.
|
| Create a group [DEPRECATED] | Creates a group in slack. |
| Join a channel [DEPRECATED] | This action has been deprecated. Please use Join a public channel instead.
|
| Join a public channel | Join a public channel in slack. |
| List channels [DEPRECATED] | This action has been deprecated. Please use List public channels (Pagination support) instead.
|
| List public channels | List the public channels in slack. |
| List public channels (Pagination support) (Preview) | List the public channels in slack. |
| Post message (V2) | This operation is used to post a message to the specified channel. |
| Post message [DEPRECATED] | This action has been deprecated. Please use Post message (V2) instead.
|
| Set do not disturb | Set the do not disturb status for the user. |
Create a channel
Create a channel in slack.
Parameters
| Name | Key | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| name | string | The name of the new channel. | ||
Is Private channel? | is_private | boolean | Channel is private or not |
Returns
Create a channel [DEPRECATED]
This action has been deprecated. Please use Create a channel instead.
Create a channel in slack.
Parameters
| Name | Key | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| name | string | The name of the new channel. |
Returns
- Body
- CreateChannel_Response
Create a group [DEPRECATED]
Creates a group in slack.
Parameters
| Name | Key | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| name | string | The name of the group. |
Returns
| Name | Path | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Id | group.id | string | The id of the group. |
| group.name | string | The name of the group. |
Join a channel [DEPRECATED]
This action has been deprecated. Please use Join a public channel instead.
Join a channel in slack.
Parameters
| Name | Key | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| name | string | The name of the channel. |
Returns
- Body
- JoinChannel_Response
Join a public channel
Join a public channel in slack.
Parameters
| Name | Key | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| channel | string | The name of the channel. |
Returns
- Body
- JoinChannel_ResponseV2
List channels [DEPRECATED]
This action has been deprecated. Please use List public channels (Pagination support) instead.
List the channels in slack.
Returns
List public channels
List the public channels in slack.
Returns
List public channels (Pagination support) (Preview)
List the public channels in slack.
Returns
Post message (V2)
This operation is used to post a message to the specified channel.
Parameters
| Name | Key | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| channel | True | string | Channel, private group, or IM channel to send message to. Can be a name(ex: #general) or an encoded ID. | |
Message Text | text | True | string | Body of the message to send. Slack API will truncate messages containing more than 40,000 characters. For formatting options, see https://api.slack.com/docs/formatting |
| username | string | Name of the bot. | ||
Post As User | as_user | boolean | Pass true to post the message as the authenticated user, instead of as a bot. | |
| parse | string | Change how messages are treated. For details, see https://api.slack.com/docs/formatting | ||
Slack markup parsing | mrkdwn | boolean | Slack markup parsing setting. Enabled by default. | |
| link_names | integer | Find and link channel names and usernames. | ||
Unfurl Links | unfurl_links | boolean | Pass true to enable unfurling of primarily text-based content. | |
| unfurl_media | boolean | Pass false to disable unfurling of media content. | ||
Icon Url | icon_url | uri | URL to an image to use as an icon for this message. | |
| icon_emoji | string | Emoji to use as an icon for this message. |
Returns
Details of the message posted to a Slack channel.
- Body
- PostMessageResponse
Post message [DEPRECATED]
This action has been deprecated. Please use Post message (V2) instead.
This operation is used to post a message to the specified channel.
Parameters
| Name | Key | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| channel | True | string | Channel, private group, or IM channel to send message to. Can be a name(ex: #general) or an encoded ID. | |
Message Text | text | True | string | Body of the message to send (less than 4000 characters). For formatting options, see https://api.slack.com/docs/formatting. |
| username | string | Name of the bot. | ||
Post As User | as_user | boolean | Pass true to post the message as the authenticated user, instead of as a bot. | |
| parse | string | Change how messages are treated. For details, see https://api.slack.com/docs/formatting. | ||
Link Names | link_names | integer | Find and link channel names and usernames. | |
| unfurl_links | boolean | Pass true to enable unfurling of primarily text-based content. | ||
Unfurl Media | unfurl_media | boolean | Pass false to disable unfurling of media content. | |
| icon_url | uri | URL to an image to use as an icon for this message. | ||
Icon Emoji | icon_emoji | string | Emoji to use as an icon for this message. |
Slack Outlook Add-in
Returns
| Name | Path | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| ok | boolean | Indicates if the operation was successful. | |
Channel | channel | string | The channel which the message was posted to. |
| ts | string | yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss.fffZ | |
Message Text | message.text | string | Body of the message. |
| message.id | string | Unique identifier of the message. | |
Creator Id | message.user | string | Unique identifier of the user who posted the message. |
| message.created | integer | Unix timestamp for when the message is created. | |
Is Deleted | message.is_user-deleted | boolean | Whether or not the message has been deleted. |
| error | string | Details of the error messages, if any. |
Set do not disturb
Set the do not disturb status for the user.
Parameters
| Name | Key | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| num_minutes | string | The number of minutes to set do not disturb. |
Returns
| Name | Path | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Snooze Enabled | snooze_enabled | boolean | Whether snooze is enabled. |
Triggers
| When a file is created | When a file is created |
When a file is created
When a file is created
Parameters
| Name | Key | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| channel | True | string | The name of the channel. |
Returns
| Name | Path | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Id | id | string | Id of the file |
| created | integer | When the file was created. | |
Name | name | string | The name of the file. |
| title | string | The title of the file. |
Definitions
Channel
The Channel
| Name | Path | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| id | string | The id of the channel. | |
Name | name | string | The name of channel. |
ListChannels_Response
Slack Outlook Integration Daily Schedule
| Name | Path | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| channels | array of Channel |
ListChannels_ResponseV3
| Name | Path | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| value | array of Channel |
CreateChannel_Response
| Name | Path | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| channel | Channel | The Channel |
JoinChannel_Response
Slack Outlook Calendar Not Working
| Name | Path | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| already_in_channel | boolean | Whether the user is already in the channel or not. | |
Channel | channel | Channel | The Channel |
JoinChannel_ResponseV2
| Name | Path | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| channel | Channel | The Channel | |
Warning | warning | string | Whether the user is already in the channel or not. |
PostMessageResponse
Details of the message posted to a Slack channel.
| Name | Path | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| ok | boolean | Indicates if the operation was successful. | |
Channel | channel | string | The channel which the message was posted to. |
| ts | string | Unix timestamp for when the message was created. | |
Message Type | message.type | string | Type of the message. |
| message.text | string | Body of the message. | |
Created Time | message.ts | string | Unix timestamp for when the message was created. |
| error | string | Details of the error messages, if any. |