I am trying to send a direct message as one of my steps. This message contains a link to a public slack channel. I’ve included it as <#NAME_OF_CHANNEL>. When the message sends, it has a link, but the link is greyed out because it comes through as a private channel. The channel is set to public!
Answer
Send Direct Message in Slack - linking public channel
- Beginner
Best answer by SamB
Sorry to hear that,
Perhaps there’s some difference in how the direct messages are received by the older Slack accounts. 🤔
I wonder, if formatting it like a link but putting the ID for the channel in would work? So you’d use this format: <#CHANNELID|Channel Name>
For example:
You can find the Channel ID in Slack when you open up the channel’s details. Just right-click on the channel in the Slack sidebar and select the View Channel Details option.
Could you give that a go and keep us posted on whether that does the trick?
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+11- Community Manager
Hi
Ah, I don’t think those (<) and (>) angled brackets are required for channel mentions. Can you try just entering the channel name as it appears in Slack e.g. #name-of-the-channel
For example:
Please give that a try and let me know if that does the trick? Keen to ensure you’re all set here! 🙂
- Beginner
Unfortunatey, that does not solve the issue. If I remove the brackets, it comes up as just regular text. I have “Link Usernames and Channel Names?” marked as Yes. Here you can see the two different version 1. with brackets and it comes up as a private channel and 2. with brackets removed.
- Beginner
I am also having issues sending direct messages to users using their IDs. It says “Slack Channel” not found. This seems to be happening to all Slack users that have been on the platform since 2021. Newer members, I can send direct messages to without a problem.
+11- Community Manager
- Answer
Sorry to hear that,
Perhaps there’s some difference in how the direct messages are received by the older Slack accounts. 🤔
I wonder, if formatting it like a link but putting the ID for the channel in would work? So you’d use this format: <#CHANNELID|Channel Name>
For example:
You can find the Channel ID in Slack when you open up the channel’s details. Just right-click on the channel in the Slack sidebar and select the View Channel Details option.
Could you give that a go and keep us posted on whether that does the trick?
+11- Community Manager
Yay! I’m so pleased that workaround did the trick
I do wonder why just using the #name-of-the-channel is only working for the more recently created Slack accounts. It’s very odd indeed! So I’d recommend also flagging this issue up with our Support Team so it can be investigated further. As it could well be a bug of some kind. You can contact them here: https://zapier.com/app/get-help
In the meantime, happy Zapping! ⚡
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