Post Replies Back to Channel
- Matt Birtch
Important Links
Introduction
Users have requested the ability to make sure a reply within a thread gets visibility in the channel for those who may not be following the thread. This proposal adds a new checkbox to the reply input that, when selected, will surface the reply back in the channel (similar in appearance to a permalink preview message).
User’s who have experience with Slack are also expecting this feature and are missing it.
Sending a reply to the channel in one action
New checkbox under the reply input box
When CRT is ON, a new checkbox is added just below the reply input in the thread view.
This feature enables users to have their reply posted back to the channel to ensure it gets visibility to others who may not be following the thread yet.
This checkbox will display in the Thread RHS view and in the Threads view.
When CRT is OFF, this feature is not available.
Direct Messages and Group Messages
The text for this checkbox should read differently as follows:
For Direct Messages: “Also send as a direct message”
For Group Messages: “Also send to the group”
Default OFF
This checkbox is always unchecked by default
Interactions
Clicking the label or the checkbox
The label or the checkbox can be clicked to enable/disable the setting.
Tooltip
When hovering over the checkbox, a tooltip displays after the standard tooltip delay
How replies display when sent back to the channel
When a reply is posted to the channel, an indication is displayed above the message with a linked preview of the root post of the thread. As well, the reply is displayed as a permalink preview.
The linked preview text opens the RHS with the thread scrolled to the reply message that was posted back to the channel.
This is basically an exception for CRT that shows a reply in a specific scenario and has some extra styling and meta information attached to it.
View thread button
For posts sent back to the channel, a ‘View thread’ button appears at the bottom of the message preview (Rather than the “Originally posted by…” line that is used in permalink previews.
Reactions
The preview of the post should include reactions and the ability add new reactions
Message actions for messages sent back to channel
All actions remain for these messages, but actions should be applied to the original reply message.
In the channel context, Delete is replaced with “Remove from channel”. Removing from the channel will hide it from the channel and remove the “Also sent to channel” indicator from the reply post.
Prevent forked replies to the message sent back to the channel
When users click on this message it will open the original thread
Similarly, if users choose ‘reply’ from the post hover menu, or the ••• menu, it will open the original thread rather than creating a thread on the broadcasted message.
Indicator on replies also sent to channel in the thread view
When viewing a thread that has a reply that was sent back to the channel an indicator displays under username stating Also sent to {Channel name}
User is typing indicator
Because this checkbox displays below the input where “User is typing” message currently shows, we need to move the ‘User is typing’ message lower and allow space for it.
Bolding and badging behavior in LHS
When a message is broadcasted from a thread to the channel, it will bold/badge the channel item in the LHS and the Threads item in the LHS if the user is following the thread. If the user is not following the thread, only the channel will be bolded/badged.
Notifications
The push/desktop/email notification should not be altered. Clicking a notification for a message posted back to the channel should still only open the thread.
Mobile experience