Slack adds command for ordering a Lyft car

Slack is a messaging app, but it has been working steadily to be more than just a messaging app. As part of its efforts, the company introduced on Tuesday "vastly improved slash commands," something that is itself a followup to the "Add to Slack" button introduced back in late August. With the Add to Slack button, one could simply hit the button within an app or service to start getting notifications from it/them within Slack. This newest announcement takes that to a whole new level.

This time around, Slack has unveiled Slash Commands that it says are installed through the aforementioned Add to Slack button. Once a Slack user has the Slash Command installed, he or she can type a message within the platform and choose from different command options. To best show what that means, there's Lyft.

Says Slack, those with the Lyft Slash Command installed can use a "/lyft" command to pull up various things, such as an estimate for how long it would take a car to get to your present address. If you want a car, you can type "/lyft gohome", for example, and you can ETAs on where that car is by typing "/lyft eta".

Lyft has a cheat sheet of commands, as well as instructions, on its website.

Lyft isn't the only company that's on board with this, however. Foursquare also has some commands available, such as "/foursquare sports bar *address*" to see a list of nearby places. Dribble likewise has its own command for pulling up images. Slack teases that more Slash Commands are inbound, with some launching today.

SOURCE: SlackHQ