10 creative ways families can use Slack

The messaging app can help organize everything from family vacations to grocery lists.

Swedish developer and nerd dad supreme, Peter Fjallstrom recently published a list of all the ways his family uses Slack, the integrated messaging system that claims to end email. Fjallstrom uses code hacks to ping his children’s locations and add items to his family’s online grocery order.

But you don’t have to be a hacker to make Slack work for your family.

Here are 10 easy ways parents can use Slack:

1. Calendar coordination

Slack integrates easily with Google Calendar making it easy to view and schedule events for the whole family. You can use Slack shortcuts to add reminders.

2. Photo and video sharing

Slack’s easy file sharing is perfect for family members who want to privately share pictures or videos of a new baby, graduation or birthday. The files are easy to download, should grandma want to print them off. You can also integrate Slack with Google Drive or Dropbox if you want to create a central hub for photos and videos.

3. Grocery lists

Slack channels are an easy way to divide family conversations by topic. Creating a #Grocery channel, allows family members to let you know when they use the last of the milk, eggs or cereal. There is also the To-Do app, which easily adds to-do lists to each channel. You can check off items as they are complete (picked up dry cleaning) and assign them to team members.

4. Video chats

For families that are spread out, Slack integrates with Google Hangouts, so you can start a video chat with cousins around the country. Members of your family can also add their Skype handles to their Slack profile, making it easy to call them that way.