The fundamentals
Understand these fundamentals of Threads and you'll be a master of the platform. By the end, you should feel comfortable teaching your team about Threads.
Overview
Start here to understand what Threads is and how to think about it as your team's communication platform. This page breaks down the fundamental building blocks of the product.
Let's start with Formats.
Formats
Two primary communication formats are core to Threads: chat and threads.
Messages
Messages are what you're probably used to—basically texting at work. You can add images, videos, files, and GIFS to a message or just send plain text.
The message can be long or short. Messages are great for things that are quick and casual.
Threads
Threads are a new format we created to help you share insights and gain alignment. A thread is made up of blocks where each block is capped at 500 characters to push people to be simple and straightforward with their language.
Threads are similar to posts you already see around the internet: Facebook posts, tweets, Reddit posts, etc.
What makes a thread special is its flexibility. You can turn any thread into a presentation and even add a video narration over it. Additionally, each thread can house a nested sub-discussion that allows for multiple parties to ask questions and make decisions.
Send a message or start a thread?
Send a message for anything quick or casual, but if it's something that will be relevant for longer than an hour, do your team a favor and start a thread.
Containers
So, where do these formats (messages and threads) live? Who can see them? What should they be about?
There are two containers: chats and channels.
Chats
Chats are where messages live.
Create a chat with a single person or a group (feel free to name it!) in order to send messages. Only the people added to the chat will have access to it.
Channels
Channels are where threads live.
Channels are areas for specific discussion topics. Create a channel for every project, team, or workflow you have in your company.
Channels can be public or private. If the channel is public, anyone in the organization will be able to join it. If it's private, you'll need to be directly added to the channel to access any of the threads in it.
Notifications
You control your notification settings for any chat or channel you're a part of.
Set your notifications at the account level, and then adjust them for each chat or channel that you're in to make sure you're only notified about the content you want to be notified about.
A message notification will appear as a badge next to the chat on the left sidebar
A thread notification will appear as a badge next to the channel the thread is in on the left sidebar
Triage
Because each thread is a distinct conversation, we created an inbox workflow to help you triage your threads as efficiently as possible.
To enter the triage mode, go to the Inbox tab and click on any of the threads.
To triage through each thread, either mark it as done if you're done with it or do later if you want to follow up on it later. You'll set a specific time when you want to follow up on the thread in your Inbox.
Permissions & Portability
We believe it should be easy to understand and control who has permission to access your content.
And, given the nature of hybrid communication, it should also be easy to change the privacy of some communication whenever you need to.
Permissions
Chats: People need to be directly added to chats.
Threads: Anyone in an organization can join a public channel, and people need to be directly added to a private channel.
Guests: Add a guest to a specific thread to give them access to just that thread, or add them to a channel to give them access to all of the threads in that channel. You'll be able to set granular controls for how they can interact with the threads they have access to from the threads themselves.
Portability
You can move threads between channels
You can copy a link from any block on a thread and share it in a chat or a thread
You can highlight messages in chat and turn them into an artifact that can be attached to a thread
Integrations
Powerful integrations are key to any workplace communication tool. We have an extensive set of integrations designed for both async workflows and others that are better suited for synchronous communication.
We're constantly adding integrations, but you can also create your own custom-write integrations to post wherever you want using Zapier or our developer API.
Here are some of our most popular integrations:
Intercom: Post conversations with customers directly to a channel so your team can keep up with customer feedback
Linear: Get updates in a chat and create Linear tasks directly from a comment on a thread
Zoom: Use /zoom in a chat to start a call with the person you're chatting with
Figma: Import frames into a thread to share them with your teammate and get focused feedback on them with image annotations
Mobile
Keep up with your chats and threads on the go. Use the mobile app to:
Start a chat or a thread
Read and reply to messages and threads
Triage your notifications
