Slack, the popular messaging platform that is used by many organizations as the primary mode of communication between employees, most especially remote ones, is known to suffer outages from time to time. When this happens, social media platforms are usually filled with comments from users asking one question “Is Slack down?” Here is how to know when Slack is indeed down.

The Slack app is available on mobile devices (Android and iOS) as well as Windows, macOS, and Linux. While there is not an official app available for Chrome OS, users can install the Linux version as a lot of Chromebooks, including all of those launched in 2019 and later, support Linux. There is also a web version of the service. Slack offers three plans - Free, Pro, and Business+. The paid versions offer users features such as group video calls, more storage per member, unlimited message history, etc.

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An easy way to know if Slack is down is by checking any of the Slack Status pages. There is an official Slack Status webpage where details are posted about the status of the platform. Slack also has an official Twitter account that users can follow for updates on the status of Slack. These pages not only reveal when the service is down but will also provide updates on when they have been resolved and ways users can fix common errors.

Unofficial Alternatives

Slack logos banner

Apart from the aforementioned official channels, there are third-party options too. One of them is DownDetector, a site that reports outages on popular services including mobile networks, online gaming servers, streaming services, and communication platforms. To find out if Slack is down, users can visit the site and enter the name of the service in the search box. The site will provide reports about outages in the last 24 hours as well as heat maps that show where most of the reports are originating from.

While Slack can sometimes suffer an outage, not all issues might be from their end. If the Slack Status page shows that everything is working fine but Slack still isn't working, then users will have to troubleshoot it themselves. One way is to force close the app and relaunch it. Users can also clear the app cache, check out their network connection, or restart their device. Another suggestion is for users to try the web version of Slack.

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Source: Slack, Slack Status|Twitter, DownDetector