得益于几乎无与伦比的一组功能来帮助协作，Slack已成为全球远程办公室的必备工具。它使与团队成员的沟通变得简单而有效，这在一定程度上要归功于移动和桌面(mobile and desktop)上非常简单易用的界面。
它还附带一项功能，可以将您的生产力目标从公园中粉碎——Slack 机器人(park—Slack bots)（也称为Slack 应用程序(Slack apps)）。这些机器人帮助在Slack 界面(Slack interface)中集成其他服务，让您可以完成从团队规划(team planning)到视频通话等所有工作。这里有七个最好的Slack 机器人(Slack bots)供您在Slack 频道(Slack channel)上试用。
如果您厌倦了一次又一次地回答相同的问题，请考虑将 askSpoke 安装到您的Slack 频道(Slack channel)。这个Slack(part chatbot)机器人(slack bot)既是聊天机器人，又是售票台。该机器人会自动以明确的答案回答常见问题，同时将棘手的问题保存到您可以亲自回答的队列中。
您需要先将资源添加到 askSpoke，所以有一点设置过程(setup process)。保存后，无需任何人工干预即可回答这些常见问题，从而节省时间和金钱(time and money)（同时让您的同事满意）。
但是， askSpoke 不是(askSpoke isn)免费的，每位员工的起价为每月 4 美元。
预算有限的团队可能买不起Slack 机器人(Slack bot)，但有免费的Slack 机器人(Slack bot)可供试用。团队活动的最佳Slack 机器人(Slack bot)之一是Google Calendar for Team Events，顾名思义，它将您的团队Google 日历(Google calendar)与您的Slack 频道(Slack channel)集成以跟踪团队的日程安排。
每周或每日事件的摘要在Slack(Slack)本身中作为通知传递，以及即将发生的事件的自定义警报。对您的活动的任何更改（例如，取消的会议）也将传递给Slack，以确保您不会错过任何内容(t miss anything)。
这个Slack 机器人(slack bot)完全免费安装和使用。谷歌日历——(Google Calendar—one)最好的在线日历(online calendar)服务之一——也可以免费使用。
远程工作人员在团队会议(team meeting)期间无法准确举手。为了能够对您的员工进行测验，您的Slack 频道(Slack channel)需要一个像Polly这样的(Polly)投票机器人(polling bot)。Polly带有预制模板，您可以针对基本或复杂问题进行编辑。你也可以设计自己的，以节省更长的时间。
特别是对于大型企业来说， Polly(Polly)是一个强大的选择。借助先进的工作流程，您可以使用内置的入职系统(onboarding system)监控新员工，该系统可自动定期签到和提问，以帮助您掌握潜在问题。
它也很灵活，例如，您可以使用它来处理任何潜在的 IT 问题作为迷你帮助台。您可以通过 14 天的免费试用来试用Polly，计划起价为每月 29 美元，最多可容纳 20 名员工或用户。
如果您是一个较小的组织，您可能会发现 Polly 的功能对于您的需求来说有点过于复杂。这就是Simple Poll的用武之地，它提供了一个基本的稻草投票机器人(straw poll bot)，可以向您的员工快速提问。
名称不会(name doesn)说谎(t lie)，因为它使用起来非常简单——只需键入/poll，然后输入您的问题和可能的选项(question and potential options)。例如，/poll “Do you like cheese?” “Yes” “No”会显示一个简单的是非问题，询问您的用户是否喜欢奶酪。
Simple Poll可以免费使用，但对可以进行的投票和投票数量有一些限制。付费版本的限制较少，有匿名回复和回复限制以获得更清晰的答案，每月花费 49 美元。
远程工作人员有时会发现很难建立在办公环境(office environment)中自动形成的那种团队氛围(team atmosphere)。简单的事情，例如为同事的生日带蛋糕，可以被忘记。安装了生日机器人(BirthdayBot)后，您将永远不会忘记再次庆祝那些重要的日子。
BirthdayBot会跟踪团队中的生日。您的用户可以与BirthdayBot共享愿望清单，从而更轻松地挑选最好的礼物，并允许经理自动向员工发送生日礼品卡。
它是可定制的，让您也可以为即将到来的生日设置提示。当特殊的日子到来时，您可以设置生日(BirthdayBot)机器人在某些频道开始庆祝。每位用户的BirthdayBot(BirthdayBot)起价为每月 0.75 美元，可免费试用 14 天。
Slack 主要是一个文本聊天平台，但有时文本和表情符号(text and emojis)不足以解决问题。对于需要共享屏幕并通过语音和视频聊天(voice and video chats)进行交流的远程工作人员来说，最好的Slack 机器人(Slack bots)之一是 Dead Simple Screen Sharing。
Dead Simple Screen Sharing需要在您的 PC 上安装Chrome 扩展(Chrome extension)程序才能共享您的屏幕，尽管Firefox用户不需要这样做。它的功能很简单——它允许您共享您的网络摄像头和麦克风，以及您的桌面屏幕(desktop screen)，以便与其他团队成员实时聊天。
提供每月 18 美元的付费计划，增加了(paid plan)更高分辨率的屏幕(higher-resolution screen)共享，以及多达 150 位用户的大规模视频会议。(mass video)
自动化可以解决企业中许多耗时的工作。作为市场上最好的 IFTTT 替代品(best IFTTT alternatives)之一，Zapier可以被认为是必备品，它允许您将数千种不同的服务组合在一起。通过Slack 集成(Slack integration)，Zapier允许您直接从Slack本身控制这些服务。
Zapier带有超过 2,000 种不同的应用程序，您可以与Slack结合使用。您可以编辑Trello看板、发送电子邮件、安排通话、发布通知——Zapier(post notifications—Zapier)强大但易于使用的工作流系统(workflow system)意味着您可以为主要服务设置触发器和操作，而无需了解任何一行代码。
Zapier 允许您在一个月内免费自动执行 100 个任务，最多可跨越五个“zaps”（任务）。如果您需要更多的自动化，对于大型组织来说，每月的费用从 19.99 美元到近 600 美元不等。
使用 Slack 建立更好的团队(Building Better Teams With Slack)
Slack是每个团队都需要的远程办公环境。(office environment)安装了一些最好的Slack 机器人(Slack bots)后，您可以将Slack变成您的第二个大脑，让您和您的团队在一个地方保持井井有条。
当然，Slack 并不是(Slack isn)唯一的协作平台(collaboration platform)。您可能想考虑使用Microsoft Teams ，在(Microsoft Teams)Microsoft Teams 与 Slack的辩论中要考虑很多优点和缺点。
哪个平台是您组织中必不可少的，哪些Slack机器人是您不能没有的？请在下面的评论中告诉我们。
The 7 Best Slack Bots For Your Slack Channel
Thanks to an almost-unriνaled set of features tо help collaborаtion, Slack has becоme a must-have for remotе оffices worldwide. Іt makes communicatіon with team members sіmple and effective, thanks (in part) to a very simple and easy-to-use interface on mobіle and desktop.
It also comes with a feature that can smash your productivity targets out of the park—Slack bots (also called Slack apps). These bots help integrate other services within the Slack interface, letting you do everything from team planning to video calling and more. Here are seven of the best Slack bots for you to try on your Slack channel.
If you’re tired of answering the same questions again and again, think about installing askSpoke to your Slack channel. This slack bot is part chatbot, part ticketing desk. The bot automatically responds with clear answers to common questions while saving the trickier ones into a queue that you can respond to personally.
You’ll need to add resources to askSpoke first, so there’s a little bit of a setup process. Once saved, these common questions can be answered without any human interaction, saving time and money (while keeping your co-workers happy).
askSpoke isn’t free, however, with pricing starting at $4 per month, per employee.
Teams on a budget may not be able to afford to pay for a Slack bot, but there are free Slack bots out there to try. One of the best Slack bots for teams is Google Calendar for Team Events which, as the name suggests, integrates your team Google calendar with your Slack channel to keep track of your team’s schedule.
Summaries of weekly or daily events are passed through as a notification in Slack itself, along with custom alerts for upcoming events. Any changes to your events (for instance, a canceled meeting) will be passed through to Slack, too, to make sure you don’t miss anything.
This slack bot is totally free to install and use. Google Calendar—one of the best online calendar services—is free to use, too.
Remote workers can’t exactly raise their hands during a team meeting. To be able to quiz your staff, you’ll need a polling bot like Polly for your Slack channel. Polly comes with pre-made templates that you can edit for basic or complex questions. You can also design your own to save time over a longer period.
Polly is a powerful option for larger businesses, in particular. With advanced workflows, you can monitor new employees with a built-in onboarding system that automates regular check-ins and questions to help you keep on top of potential issues.
It’s also flexible, allowing you to use it to handle any potential IT issues as a mini-helpdesk, for instance. You can try Polly out with a free 14-day trial, with plans starting at $29 a month for up to 20 employees or users.
If you’re a smaller organization, you might find Polly’s features to be a little too complex for your needs. That’s where Simple Poll comes in, offering a basic straw poll bot to ask quick questions to your employees.
The name doesn’t lie, as it’s pretty simple to use—just type /poll followed by your question and potential options. For example, /poll “Do you like cheese?” “Yes” “No” would show a simple yes-no question, asking your users whether or not they liked cheese.
Simple Poll is free to use with some limitations on the number of votes and polls that can be made. The paid version has fewer limits, with anonymous responses and response limits to gain clearer answers, costing $49 a month.
Remote workers can sometimes find it hard to build the same kind of team atmosphere that develops automatically in an office environment. Simple things, like bringing in cakes for a co-worker’s birthday, can be forgotten. You’ll never forget to celebrate those important dates again with the BirthdayBot installed.
BirthdayBot keeps a track of the birthdays in your team. Your users can share wishlists with BirthdayBot, making it easier to pick the best gifts, as well as allowing managers to send birthday gift-cards to employees automatically.
It’s customizable, allowing you to set hints for upcoming birthdays, too. When the special day comes, you can set BirthdayBot to begin a celebration in certain channels. BirthdayBot starts at $0.75 a month for each user, with a 14-day free trial available.
Slack is primarily a text chatting platform, but there comes a time when text and emojis just aren’t enough to solve a problem. One of the best Slack bots for remote workers who need to share their screens and communicate over voice and video chats is Dead Simple Screen Sharing.
Dead Simple Screen Sharing requires a Chrome extension installed on your PC to be able to share your screen, although this isn’t required for Firefox users. Its features are straightforward—it allows you to share your webcam and mic feeds, as well as your desktop screen, to chat with other team members in real-time.
A paid plan at $18 a month is available, adding higher-resolution screen sharing, as well as mass video conferences for up to 150 users.
Automation can solve many of the time-consuming jobs in a business. As one of the best IFTTT alternatives in the market, Zapier can be considered a must-have, allowing you to combine thousands of different services together. With Slack integration, Zapier allows you to control these services directly from Slack itself.
Zapier comes with over 2,000 different apps you can combine with Slack. You can edit Trello boards, send emails, schedule calls, post notifications—Zapier’s powerful but easy-to-use workflow system means you can set triggers and actions for major services without needing to know a single line of code.
Zapier allows you to automate 100 tasks in a month for free, across up to five “zaps” (tasks). If you require more automation, it’ll cost you from $19.99 a month up to nearly $600 a month for the biggest organizations.
Building Better Teams With Slack
Slack is the remote office environment that every team needs. With some of these best Slack bots installed, you can turn Slack into your second brain, keeping you and your team organized in one place.
Of course, Slack isn’t the only collaboration platform out there. You might want to consider Microsoft Teams instead, with plenty of pros and cons to consider in the Microsoft Teams vs Slack debate.
Which platform is a must-have in your organization, and which Slack bots can’t you live without? Let us know in the comments below.
