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We use the Slack:Send a Message automation to send new messages to channels.


Is it possible to reply to an existing message? I’ve been able to capture the Slack Message Identifier (permalink), but I’ve not found any options in the AirTable automation that would allow a reply.


Use Case / Details:



  1. AirTable

    1a) Form Submission

    1b) automation: NEW Slack Message “Confirmation of Form Submission” (includes AT record id)

  2. Zapier

    2a) monitors channel for new bot messages

    2b) Zapier formatter to extract the AT record id

    2c) update AirTable record with ‘slack permalink’

  3. AirTable

    3a) Record status “complete”

    3b) automation: use the permalink to REPLY TO (1b) - “Request has been completed”


I could use Zapier for step 3, but would prefer to use AirTable if at all possible. thanks!


p.s.

this is the format of the permalink, but I can capture channel ID (cid) , timestamp (ts) if that will help develop the action:

https://xxxxxxxxx.slack.com/archives/xxxxxxx/xxxxxx?thread_ts=1663343544.273199&cid=C03V8TG41L2

Hi @Steve_Kiwi,

You will need to use a 3rd party application like Zapier or Make.com to monitor your Slack messages.

You would need to do that using Make’s Slack integrations and Make’s Airtable integrations.

It is very easy to use Make to reply to a specific thread in Slack. Please see screenshot below from Make.

You’ll basically be using the exact same module as posting a normal message, but you just need to add the “thread_ts” parameter (i.e. Slack’s thread timestamp value) for the “previous message” that you are replying to.

So when the very first message is created, grab that “thread_ts” value and store it in Airtable, so you know which “thread_ts” value you want to reply to in the future.

You can read Slack’s API documentation on this topic here:
https://api.slack.com/messaging/sending#threading

By the way, some people try to do this with Zapier, but I would strongly recommend against using Zapier.

Make is INFINITELY more powerful & customizable than Zapier, yet it is SIGNIFICANTLY CHEAPER than Zapier. I wrote an entire post here comparing Make vs. Zapier.

If you’ve never used Make before, I’ve assembled a bunch of Make training resources in this thread. For example, here is one of the ways that you could instantly trigger a Make automation from Airtable. 

I also give live demonstrations of how to use Make in many of my Airtable podcast appearances. For example, in this video, I show how to work with Airtable arrays in Make.

Hope this helps!

If you have a budget and you’d like to hire the best Airtable consultant to help you with this or anything else that is Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld

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