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Best answer

Send Direct Message in Slack - linking public channel

  • 8 June 2023
  • 6 replies
  • 45 views
jgorson
Userlevel 1

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!

icon

Best answer by SamB 8 June 2023, 16:57

View original
This post has been closed for comments. Please create a new post if you need help or have a question about this topic.

6 replies

SamB
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Hi @jgorson, welcome to the Community!

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:

f7f78ba950141a7210831a8a3f3103c7.png

Please give that a try and let me know if that does the trick? Keen to ensure you’re all set here! 🙂

jgorson
Userlevel 1

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.

 

 

jgorson
Userlevel 1

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.

SamB
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Sorry to hear that, @jgorson. That’s very strange indeed!

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: 

4026a52d4be7999a17c6bf85fc135af1.png
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? 

jgorson
Userlevel 1

That did the trick 😍

 

Thank you thank you!

SamB
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Yay! I’m so pleased that workaround did the trick @jgorson! 😁🎉

 

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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