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Deep linking into Slack

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Your application might live outside of Slack. Perhaps it includes a website, or a mobile application. Ever wish you could send a user back to a meaningful location in Slack?

You can do so with slack://!

Swiftly send users back to work during the installation process by redirecting them to a conversation with your app or bot using an app_redirect URL.

Opening a direct message with your app or bot​

Slack apps with bot users or workspace apps can send users right into a conversation with your app.

Combine this feature with channel creation or installation and provide a guided onboarding experience.

Whether you want to send users to a conversation directly after you receive an access token using OAuth, or you want to link from your website or from within a message, send them to a URL like this:

https://slack.com/app_redirect?app=A123ABC456

When linking to a direct message, the app_redirect URL accepts two parameters:

  • app - your application's unique ID, such as A123ABC456. If invalid, users will be sent to the Slack Marketplace instead. Find your Slack app's ID by preserving the app_id field received when using oauth.token. It can also be found while managing your app by inspecting the URL and looking for the alphanumeric ID beginning with A, like A123ABC456.
  • team - the team ID belonging to a target workspace. Useful when you know which workspace the user should be sent to. When no team is provided or the user is not signed in, users will be sent to their default team or asked to sign in. Use the team.info method to obtain the ID of the workspace your app is currently installed in.

If your app is marked for distribution but not installed yet, users will be directed to your app's profile in the Slack Marketplace.

If your app is not marked for distribution and not yet installed, users will be sent to the Slack Marketplace.

If your app is installed, users will be sent directly to a conversation with your bot user or workspace app.

Opening a channel by name or ID​

Send users to a specific channel or conversation , whether you know it only by name or have its authentic ID.

We'll handle addressing permissions however you present the request. When a channel is private or otherwise privileged, the logged in user must be a member of that conversation.

If the user does not have access to the channel or the channel does not exist, users will be presented with a HTTP 404 page.

Sending users to a known channel by ID:

https://slack.com/app_redirect?channel=C123ABC456

Sending users to a channel by name:

https://slack.com/app_redirect?channel=release-notes

When linking to a direct message, the app_redirect URL accepts two parameters:

  • channel - The destination channel ID or channel name to send a user to. If invalid or inaccessible, users will receive a 404.
  • team - the team ID belonging to a target workspace. Useful when you know which workspace the user should be sent to. When no team is provided or the user is not signed in, users will be sent to their default team or asked to sign in.

Deep linking with slack://​

Use the slack:// URI scheme to deep link into a user's native Slack client on the following operating systems:

Desktop clients​

  • Macintosh

  • Windows

Mobile clients​

  • iPhone

  • Android

Supported URIs​

Send a user to Slack by linking users to these URI templates.

To make the best use of these URL patterns, make sure you're keeping tabs on team IDs, channel IDs, user IDs, and file IDs — these schemes do not support workspace subdomains, channel names, or user names. Not even filenames.

For best results, properly URL-encode your query parameters. Unrecognized paths will fall back to slack://open.

Open Slack​

slack://open

Open the native Slack client on behalf of the user's default workspace.

slack://open?team={TEAM_ID}

Open Slack and switch workspaces to the specified team. The provided TEAM_ID should be a string, the ID of your Slack workspace, like T12345.

Open an App Home​

slack://app?team={TEAM_ID}&id={APP_ID}

Opens the App Home belonging to the app specified by the APP_ID in the id field, like A123ABC456. You should specify team with a TEAM_ID, using the ID of your Slack workspace.

You can also deep-link directly to a specific tab within an App Home:

slack://app?team={TEAM_ID}&id={APP_ID}&tab=home

The value of tab should be one of:

  • home - opens the Home tab of the app specified by id within the Slack workspace specified by team.
  • about - opens the About tab of the app specified by id within the Slack workspace specified by team.
  • messages - opens the Messages tab of the app specified by id within the Slack workspace specified by team.

Open a channel​

slack://channel?team={TEAM_ID}&id={CHANNEL_ID}

Open the channel specified by the CHANNEL_ID provided in the id field, like C123ABC456. You must also specify the team with a TEAM_ID, using the ID of your Slack workspace.

Open a direct message​

slack://user?team={TEAM_ID}&id={USER_ID}

Open a direct message with the presented USER_ID value of the id field. You must also specify a team with a TEAM_ID, using the ID of your Slack workspace.

Open a file​

slack://file?team={TEAM_ID}&id={FILE_ID}

Open the file specified by FILE_ID value of the id field. Don't forget to also specify a team with a TEAM_ID, using the ID of your Slack workspace.

Share a file​

slack://share-file?team={TEAM_ID}&id={FILE_ID}

Open the share file dialog to share file specified by FILE_ID value of the id field. Don't forget to also specify a team with a TEAM_ID, using the ID of your Slack workspace.

Easily generate a permalink URL for any message using chat.getPermalink. All you need is the channel/conversation ID and the message's ts.

Example workflows​

  • Your company's internal wiki includes a "getting started" guide for new employees. Encourage them to easily join the right channels by linking with slack://channel.
  • Your app's conversational UI lives in Slack, so you use slack://user to open your ongoing direct message correspondence with your user.
  • Send users directly back to Slack after app installation, by sending them to a conversation with your app.