Find external people on Slack

Slack Connect makes it possible to search for people outside of your organisation by email address and connect with them in Slack. Use the steps below to find external people that you know and invite them to start a direct message conversation. 

Note: Set your Slack Connect discoverability preference or manage discoverability for your workspace if you’re a workspace owner or admin.


Search for people by email

  1. From your desktop, hover over   More.
    An image of a cursor over the More icon in the Slack desktop app.
  2. Click  External connections.
  3. Enter someone's email into the search field and press Enter
  4. Click on their profile to see if they use Slack.
  5. To invite them to start a direct message, select Start Conversation or Invite to Join Slack.

Note: An external person must accept your invitation before you can send each other direct messages in Slack, and they’ll only have access to your conversation.

Who can use this feature?
  • All members
  • Available on the ProBusiness+ and Enterprise Grid subscriptions