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The Slack Service App is a branded app you deploy into your customers’ Slack workspaces, so they can raise and follow tickets from Slack.
This is the customer-facing app. For your own service team in your own workspace, use the Slack Companion App instead. A given Slack workspace can hold one or the other, never both.

Before you start: request your branded app

Thread builds the branded Slack experience for you — you can’t self-serve it.
Submit the app request form and select that you plan to deploy Thread to customers using Slack. Allow up to 5 business days; you’ll be notified when your custom app is ready.
It’s also worth testing in a sandbox before you touch a real customer. The customer-facing app cannot be installed in your own company’s Slack workspace.

Deploy to a customer

1

Find the customer in Thread

In the Thread Admin Panel, open Clients and search for the customer.
Searching for a customer in the Clients tab of the Thread Admin Panel
2

Choose Slack

On the Teams/Slack Connect tab, select Slack and click Continue.
Teams and Slack Connect tab with Slack selected
3

Pick how to deploy

Two routes:
  • Email invite: for when you don’t have admin access to the customer’s Slack. Select the contact with Slack admin rights; they get an email and follow the same steps.
  • Magic link: for when you do.
Use a service admin account, not a personal one. The account that adds the app is added to every channel the app creates and keeps the app functioning — if it’s decommissioned, the app breaks.
Contact selector for sending a Slack deployment email invite
Email a customer admin receives to link their Slack workspace
4

Open the magic link

Copy it and paste it into a browser session signed into the target Slack account.
Copy magic link control in the Thread Admin Panel
5

Confirm the workspace and allow

Check it’s the right workspace, then click Allow.
Slack permission screen showing the target workspace with an Allow button
6

Check for the success message

Success confirmation after the Slack app installs
7

Verify in Slack

Open app.slack.com for that workspace and confirm the app is there.
Thread app listed in the apps sidebar of a Slack workspace
If it isn’t listed, go to Add app and search for your custom app’s name to add it manually.
Adding the app manually from the Slack Add app browser

Roll out the welcome message

You control who gets greeted, so you can pilot before announcing to everyone. Once the customer accepts the invite, refresh the Admin Panel and reopen the customer — it now shows Connected. Choose Selected users and pick who to greet. When you have approval to go wide, come back and choose All Users, then save.
Selected users and All Users options for the Slack welcome message in the Admin Panel
The welcome message only reaches everyone once you switch to All Users and save. Leaving it on Selected users is the most common reason a rollout looks like it did nothing.

What customers get notified about

Customers get a Slack notification when a new thread is created or a thread receives a reply. By default a person is notified of replies to threads they replied to or were mentioned in.

Test in a Slack sandbox first

The customer-facing app can’t be installed in your own company’s Slack, so create a free sandbox workspace and deploy there.
1

Sign up for a free Slack account

Go to slack.com and sign up with an email not already tied to a Slack account, a throwaway Gmail is ideal.
Slack sign-up entry point
Slack sign-up email entry field
2

Create the workspace

Choose Create a Workspace, name your fake company, skip step 2, and put anything in step 3.
Naming the sandbox workspace during Slack setup
Final step of Slack workspace creation
Newly created Slack sandbox workspace
3

Set up a test company in your PSA

Create a test company and add a contact with an email address. That forces the company to sync into Inbox so you don’t have to wait.
Its Service Bot field must be empty — you can only deploy one bot per customer.
4

Start the deployment against the test client

In the Admin Panel go to Clients, select your test client, then the Teams/Slack Connect tab. Choose Slack and Continue.
Teams and Slack Connect tab for the test client
5

Copy the magic link

The magic link expires after 15 minutes. If it lapses, go back and generate a new one.
Magic link and email invite options with a copy link control
6

Open it in the sandbox and allow

In a guest browser window signed into your sandbox workspace, paste the magic link and click Allow.
Slack permission prompt for a custom branded app
Slack permission prompt for the default Thread app
Successful deployment confirmation
7

Try it as a customer would

Back in the sandbox, the app should be installed — if not, use Add app and search for it. Then create threads and exercise chat and the bot the way a customer would.
The app installed in the Slack sandbox workspace
Testing the customer chat experience in the Slack sandbox

Next step

Once you’re happy with the experience, work through Deploy to a customer against a real client, then set which ticket updates post to a channel.