How-To

How to forward emails to Slack

This is a great tool for quickly sharing information with your Slack group.

by
Joy Okumoko
February 22, 2023

Image: KnowTechie

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Quick Answer (click to reveal)

1. Launch the Slack desktop app (or go to Slack.com)

2. Click on your profile picture and select Preferences

3. On the left pane, select Messages and media

4. Scroll to the “Bring emails into Slack” section. Now, select Get a forwarding address

5. Copy the generated email address and send an email to it from your preferred email client

6. Slackbot will deliver the email to Slack

For more information, please refer to the step-by-step guide further into the article.

If you work online, especially remotely, there’s a good chance that you use Slack. Slack is a popular messaging platform and work collaboration tool.

You can use Slack to chat with colleagues, share updates and announcements, and track progress on work-related projects, among others.

But did you also know that you can forward emails to Slack? Say you receive an important work-related email that you want to share with colleagues, you can share it via Slack as a forwarded email.

You can easily email a Slack channel using the Slack site or the Slack Desktop app, and Slackbot will deliver the email. Here’s how to do it.

How to forward an email to Slack

When it comes to sending emails to Slack, you can only use this feature on desktop. Currently, it is unavailable in the Slack mobile app. With that out of the way, let’s get into it:

Launch the Slack desktop app or go to Slack.com

Click on your profile picture in the top-right corner, and click on Preferences

On the left pane, click on Messages and media

Scroll all the way down to the “Bring emails into Slack” section. Now, click on Get a forwarding address

A unique random email address will be generated for you. Click on Copy to copy it. You can always reuse it or generate a new email address whenever you want

You can now open your preferred email client and send the email to the unique email address you just copied

Slackbot will deliver the email. You can choose to keep the email private or share it with your teammates. To view it, return to Slack and click on Slackbot. Simply leave it there to keep it private

To share the email with your teammates, click on the email and hover your mouse over the active email section

Mouse over the toolbar options that appear and click on the Share file… button

Select the person(s) you want to share it with, add a short message for context if you want, then click on Share

If you don’t want to reuse the random email address again, simply click on Disable this address, review the pop-up warning message, then click on Disable email to confirm

That’s it. You now know how to handle bringing emails into Slack and how to disable the address once you are finished with it.

Easy as ABC

As you can see, it’s pretty easy and straightforward to send an email to a Slack channel. The only extra hassle is switching between Slack and your email box.

Perhaps a future update will allow you to do it all in Slack, in-app. There are other fun things you can do with Slack, like scheduling your messages and starting a Huddle, among other things.

Email is an important medium of business communication. With this tutorial, you can bring it along to Slack and improve communication within your teams.

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