Message formatting

Customize your messages with markup formatting and @mentions.

  • Written by Piotr Bakker
    Updated on June 28, 2021

You can customize your onboarding messages with a range of text formatting styles available on Slack, including emoji. For a personal touch, you can also include @mentions of both the incoming and existing members of your workspace.

  • GreetBot
    Hello @jamie 👋

    Hope you are having a very good great day!

    As a certain wise teddy bear once said:

    A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside.
    — Winnie the Pooh

    So come make some new friends in #intros, we look forward to meeting you!

    P.S. Tell @sammy if you need a hand with anything. He knows it all 🤓

Message GreetBot...

A message formatted with text styles available on Slack.

Formatting options

Your messages need to be typed in plain text and formatted with markup. You can use the following options:

  • *bold*
  • _italic_
  • ~strikethrough~
  • > blockquote
  • `inline code`
  • ```code block```
  • <https://domain.com|This is a Link>
  • :emoji:

Note: Formatting text with markup on Slack has some limitations. For example, Slack’s markup doesn’t support formatting bullet lists with asterisks * and you cannot automatically format numbered lists.

Channel links

To include a link to a #channel follow these steps:

  1. On Slack right-click on a #channel in the sidebar and select “Copy link.”
  2. Paste your link into the message editor.
  3. Remove the link address except for the channel ID: C#########
  4. Place the channel ID between angle brackets and insert a hash symbol, like this: <#C123456789>
  5. Click on “Save message” to apply your changes.

When your message is delivered Slack will automatically convert channel IDs formatted this way into channel links, like #general or #random.

Mentions

You can use the keyword {{Joiner}} to @mention the new joiner. GreetBot will automatically replace this keyword with the @username of each new member, helping you make the onboarding experience more personal. To mention an existing member type the @-symbol and use auto-complete to select the specific @username you want to include in your message. You can also use Slack’s native mentions like @here, @channel and @everyone.