There are two central problems that I faced with Slack: 1. Slack feels like I am developing in Eclipse, in a Windows VM, on an old Linux laptop. Where does all the bloat come from? It can't even have more than one channel open at a time! 2. In some cases, Slack can [force you to log out][SlackTimeout] after 12 hours, say. I understand why you would check that box as an IT admin, but I will show you that Slack is currently not enforcing this policy, and so I'd prefer to not be subject to it. 😼 ## Good Slack Clients The first problem is rather easy to solve, you simply use an alternative client. There are three options I am aware of: - Using [WeeChat][] with the [WeeSlack][] plugin. I also recommend the [WeeEdit][] plugin to post multi line messages, especially for those code blocks. Finally, I use [WeeAutosort][] because the list of slack channels in WeeChat is a little confusing otherwise. This client is certainly your best option if your top priority is to go open source, to get it for free, or to use it on the command line. And it is a really good way to use Slack, too. I like it very much. - You can use [Pidgin][] with the [slack-libpurple][SlackLibPurple] plugin. Unfortunately, I have to say that this works rather poorly and I mention it here only to be complete. I thoroughly recommend WeeChat if you are absolutely not willing to use a commercial and closed source program; it is better to use WeeChat with [WeeSlack][] in a terminal for Slack than to use the Pidgin plugin. - If you are willing to pay $20 for your happiness, you should buy [Ripcord][] (Win/Linux/Mac supported). Even though it is in Alpha, it is the best Slack (and Discord!) client I have used. It supports Slack features in a more natural way because it is built specifically to do so, where in WeeChat some things may be awkward (inline images, navigating threads, etc). It is fast, has a low memory footprint, feels snappy, and gives you tabs for channels, DM's and threads. It is my weapon of choice. [AndroidEmulator]: https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator [AndroidEmulatorNetworking]: https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator-networking [Ripcord]: https://cancel.fm/ripcord/ [MITMProxy]: https://mitmproxy.org/ [Pidgin]: https://pidgin.im/ [HAR]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAR_(file_format) [SlackLibPurple]: https://github.com/dylex/slack-libpurple [WeeChat]: https://weechat.org/ [WeeSlack]: https://github.com/wee-slack/wee-slack [WeeSlackSecure]: https://github.com/wee-slack/wee-slack#4-add-your-slack-api-keys [SlackTimeout]: https://slack.com/intl/en-de/help/articles/115005223763-Manage-session-duration-?eu_nc=1 [SlackAPI]: https://api.slack.com/web [SlackOverflow]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11012976/how-do-i-get-the-apk-of-an-installed-app-without-root-access [NougatChanges]: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2016/07/changes-to-trusted-certificate.html [WeeEdit]: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/keith/edit-weechat/master/edit.py [WeeAutosort]: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/de-vri-es/weechat-autosort/master/autosort.py [WeeOTR]: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mmb/weechat-otr/master/weechat_otr.py ## Loot Slack Tokens from Mobile Now if you want to come along and get around periodic logouts in Slack with me, we'll have a bit of work to do.