Welcome to the jungle. On Tuesday, Jan 9, the group messaging service that’s the backbone of offices around the country went out, and everyone is wondering the same thing: "Why is Slack down?" If you're someone who works on Slack daily, you're probably having a minor panic attack at this very moment. I mean, c'mon, how are you supposed to send memes to your coworkers? How are you going to plan that highly-anticipated meeting with your manager? And how the heck are you going to let your boss know you're stepping out for a mid-afternoon snack? HOW WILL WE SURVIVE THIS SLACK-LESS MOMENT?!
OK, maybe I'm being a little dramatic. However, a Slack-less world is a confusing one full of Google Chats and emails — and I'm not about it. In fact, I'm pretty curious about WTF is going on right now in Slackland. Luckily, Slack's Twitter page came to the rescue and let everyone know that they're having some "issues." Yes, I'd definitely say this is an "issue." (I'm sorry for my hostility; I just feel very lost and confused right now.)
After the outage started, the company tweeted, "If you're having issues connecting to Slack: we're working on getting things back to normal with top priority. Thanks kindly for your patience."
Deep breaths, everyone. It's going to be OK.
If you're not a member of Slack Nation (yes, I just made that term up), then you're probably curious about what Slack users have seen this afternoon during the outage. Based off my deceased Slack screen, I can tell you a few things.
For starters, this message appeared in a few of our company's Slack channels, and my heart sank when I saw it:
However, in our other Slack channel, all I saw was a blank screen. It was a bleak moment of emptiness and sorrow — and I'm still recovering from it. Talking to coworkers face-to-face just isn't something I'm used to, and being forced to socialize at my desk was an bizarre feeling.
Apparently, the entire internet felt the same way as me the moment Slack went down. In fact, these tweets about the outage prove we're all totally invested in the messaging app, and that work gets confusing and chaotic without it.
This tweet perfectly sums up our feelings about the Slack outage.
Some people aren't quite sure what to do with their hands at the moment.
WTF is paper?
"This is fine."
We miss you, Slack.
Like... a lot.
People actually had to talk to their coworkers.
I think you get the point.
After the outage was announced by Slack, the company provided another update on Twitter and gave confused customers a safe place to check their Slack status. In a tweet, they wrote,
We're sharing details and updates at https://status.slack.com/. Thank you for being patient as we worked to get that page stable. And sorry for the delay. We'll come back to you once we have more news.
Thankfully, more news quickly came. About 20 minutes after their second update, the Slack Twitter account tweeted and let everyone know that "many folks should be able to reconnect again." However, those who aren't able to connect yet should "hang tight." (I, unfortunately, am one of those people.)
Last but not least, a final update came from Slack — but this time, they assured everyone that everything should be back to normal. Slack tweeted, and said,
It's looking like everything is back to normal for all customers. Our sincere apologies for the disruption to your day. You were all so patient as we worked to get this fixed — thanks, everyone.
Phew. What a freaking afternoon. It's been a rollercoaster of emotions, and it appears that (almost) everyone is back on Slack. Thank goodness.
Slack, we forgive you. Thank you for acting fast to resolve the glitch.
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