DMs are where a lot of the most important Slack conversations happen, and they're also where the most requests go unanswered.
You send someone a message asking them to do something — book time, fill something out, confirm a detail — and what they get is plain text. To act on it, they need to click a link, open a browser, find the page, and come back. That's four steps before they've even started. Most people mean to get to it. Then something else comes up. Then you're following up on the follow-up.
This isn't a people problem. Leaving an app to do a thing is just inconvenient, and inconvenient things get pushed down the list.
How /sendmessage works
Type /sendmessage in any Slack window — a channel, an existing DM, anywhere — and Threadly opens a compose window in your sidebar. You write your message, attach a button, form, or scheduling link, pick who you're sending to, and send. That's it.
On the receiving end, the person gets a normal-looking Slack DM. If there's a form, they click the button and it opens right there in their sidebar. If there's a booking link, they see available slots and confirm. Nothing opens in a browser. They never leave Slack. The person you're DMing doesn't need Threadly installed — it all works natively for them.
That shift — from "here's a link to go do the thing" to "the thing is right here" — is what actually moves response rates.
Where it makes the biggest difference
Broadcast messaging is the obvious use case for interactive Slack messages, but 1:1 DMs might be where it matters more. Think about what most direct messages actually are: a request with a specific action attached. "Can you send me your availability?" "Do you have 20 minutes?" "I need your flight details before the offsite." Each one has a natural next step that, in a standard DM, lives somewhere outside Slack.
Onboarding is a good example. When a new customer or teammate joins, a welcome DM with a "Book your kickoff call" button gets answered in the moment they open it. The same message with a Calendly link gets bookmarked and forgotten. The content is identical — the difference is whether acting on it requires leaving the conversation.
It's the same dynamic in sales. When a Slack Connect conversation reaches the point where you want to move it forward, momentum matters. A scheduling button in the message lets the other person book while they're already engaged. A plain "let's find time" message kicks off a back-and-forth that can take days to resolve — if it resolves at all.
Pre-event logistics are another place where this removes a lot of manual work. Gathering flight details, dietary restrictions, or check-in times from a group of people normally involves a shared spreadsheet that half the team ignores, or a Google Form link buried in a mass message. Sending a /sendmessage DM with a structured form to each person means responses come in through Slack automatically, in one place, without anyone having to chase.
Visibility after you send
Every message sent through /sendmessage shows up in your Threadly logs. You can see whether someone clicked a button, submitted a form, or opened a scheduling flow — and when. For onboarding or follow-up sequences, that visibility is useful: you know exactly who's engaged and who still needs a nudge, rather than guessing based on whether they replied.
Getting started
If Threadly is installed in your workspace, /sendmessage is already available. Type it in any Slack input, build your message, and send. A good first test: take one DM you've been meaning to send this week — a follow-up, a logistics request, an onboarding note — and send it with a button or form instead of plain text. See what happens to the response rate.
Header image courtesy of Slack.
