Slack is one of the most well-known and loved of all team messaging apps. There are plenty of alternatives to Slack, but this app made significant headway in adoption early in its life. Once Slack found its legs, a healthy marketing push didn't hurt either. According to CNBC, the company spent $104 million on marketing in fiscal year 2017, and the figure has doubled since then. Aside from getting the word out early, Slack also became something of a darling because it was so different from email. It embraced playfulness with emoji, reacji (emoji used as a reaction to a post), and animated GIFs. The app has also continued to add value by growing its feature list. If you're familiar with Slack, you might remember when it added customizable status alerts, threaded messages, or the ability to forward emails into the app. Plus, Slack integrates well with dozens of other online apps and services. If you need to get alerts about activity from another app, chances are you can get them in Slack. Of course, not everyone adores Slack. Some find it too busy, too noisy, and visually overstimulating. There are a few settings and options to make Slack less distracting, however, and can improve your experience with it.