
The Slack Platform Roadmap - ALee
https://medium.com/slack-developer-blog/the-slack-platform-roadmap-34067b054177#.8hh8m4s4c
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throwawayasd
No away message support? Is Slack allergic to this for some reason? I cannot
fathom why this basic functionality hasn't been added yet without requiring
awkward contortions of adding custom fields to your profile.

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hspak
When is the away status insufficient?

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throwawayasd
For purely remote scenarios, it is an important indication of whether you will
be back soon or if you are afk for an extended period of time. Without it you
are left broadcasting your status ("going afk for an hour to run an errand,
etc") on channels, or having to hack up your profile each time and assume that
other users will know where to look to determine when you will be back.

Just about every messaging system has support for this: ICQ, MSN Messenger,
Jabber, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk and now Google Hangouts, HipChat, etc.
Even with IRC there are cheap ways to simulate it. It's really hard to get
used to not having it after making good use of it for almost 2 decades.

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wpietri
I think the "2 decades" thing is relevant here. Most of the products you
mention were created before people were almost always physically in contact
with an internet-enabled device.

I never used any of those much, but starting using Slack when I joined a
company where it was ubiquitous. I never saw anybody care about declaring an
away message. People at any point could be busy and might not answer, but they
were rarely "away". The culture was just to assume that people were available,
and if not that they'd reply when they could.

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proksoup
100% agreed.

I work for a slack competitor that has away messages, and I'm jealous of
Slack's willingness to ignore the old interface patterns and implement the
simplest solution possible that makes the most sense for larger group users,
new users, ignoring the expectations of the smaller group of users, old-time
users.

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akhatri_aus
I wish they'd put a bit more effort in making it faster (outside the US/EU)
(and feel more native)

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rickr
The actual roadmap is here:

[https://trello.com/b/ZnTQyumQ/slack-platform-
roadmap](https://trello.com/b/ZnTQyumQ/slack-platform-roadmap)

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perseusprime11
There is not much here. Real roadmaps look bit more complex than this. This
seems like a roadmap created for hiring purposes.

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awakeasleep
I don't see anything about fixing screen hero. This sucks for those of us in
multiple professional organizations.

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mikhailt
I don't think they have any plans to fix it, they're just going to integrate
some of its technology into the new Calls feature in Slack that's been
available for a while now.

I actually prefer Slack's Calls than any other group calling services out
there now.

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tfinniga
I really enjoyed this presentation about platforms and power over their
lifetime: [http://www.lostgarden.com/2011/03/gdc-2011-game-of-
platform-...](http://www.lostgarden.com/2011/03/gdc-2011-game-of-platform-
power.html)

In the framework of this presentation, slack is currently in the 'Engage'
phase of the platform. They're all about openness and building something
great.

But code is law, and eventually their APIs will be used for something they
dislike. Building on a platform is always going to be like snatching pennies
from in front of a steamroller.

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joeyspn
That is the most abstract and confusing roadmap I've ever seen... Two
improvements before rocket.chat eats your lunch...

1 - Give devs the option to extend the UI via fly-in panels (like rocket.chat
does)

2 - Update API to support comms with 1

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josefdlange
So, why can't I view the roadmap?

