Slack is going to add voice and video chat

Communication service Slack will be expanded in the short term with functions for voice and video chat. With this, the service, which is often used for business, wants to compete better with services such as Skype and Hangouts.

Voice chat is coming first to the desktop version of Slack, after which the company will work to make the feature available on all devices and in all apps. Video chatting will be possible when all voice chat functionality is complete. That’s what April Underwood, vice president of Product at Slack, told TechCrunch. A timeline for the release of the new features has not been disclosed.

It is currently already possible to make audio calls with Slack through the Slack integration that Skype offers. By offering voice chat itself, the company probably wants to persuade more companies to use the subscriptions for business use. Voice chat should also make it possible to switch directly from text to voice within a private chat.

In early 2015, Screenhero was acquired by Slack. That company offered a voice and video chat service, as well as a feature to share a computer’s screen with others so that several people could work on something at the same time as if they were in the same room. Slack previously promised to add Screenhero functionality to Slack.

Slack claims to have 2.3 million daily active users, of which 670,000 pay for the service. Slack is often used in business environments. Small teams can use the service for free. Paid accounts offer more functionality for larger groups and start at $6.67 per month per user. The service has a download store for apps, which can extend its functionality. There are now 280 apps available.