Tips for Formatting Slack Messages

You can format Slack messages in Zaps to add styling, user mentions, and channel and workspace notifications.

Text

  • Bold text: wrap your text with asterisks (*).
    *bold*
  • Italic text: wrap your text with underscores (_).
    _italic_
  • Strikethrough text: wrap your text with tildes (~).
    ~strikethrough~

Inline code and blockquotes

  • Inline code blocks that are a single word or line: wrap your text with a single backtick (`).
    inline code block
  • For inline code blocks that are a block of text: wrap your text with three backticks.
    inline code block text block
  • For blockquotes: start the blockquote with a closing angle bracket (>).
    >blockquote

Lists

  • Ordered lists: type the number, a period (.), and a space before your text.
    1. ordered list

It's not possible to format bulleted lists in the same way it's done directly on Slack (using asterisks). However, you can mimic the formatting using the bullet point symbol () and a space before your text.
• bulleted list

Links

URL links are automatically hyperlinked in Slack without additional formatting.

To display link text instead of the URL:

  • Type an open angle bracket (<), your URL link, a pipe character (|), your link text, and a closing angle bracket.
    <https://zapier.com|Link text>
ratingStar icon Tip

Link text will include spaces between words.

New lines

No special formatting is required. To add a new line, use the return (enter) key on your keyboard.

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You can enter only enter a single new line between lines of text. Two or more consecutive new lines are not supported.

Emoji

  • Wrap the name of the emoji in colons (:).
    :heart_eyes:

Mentions and notifications

  • User mentions: type an open angle bracket, the at symbol (@), the user’s Slack member ID (see below how to find the member ID), and a closing angle bracket.
    <@UG1234567>
  • “Everyone” notification (notifies everyone in your workspace in the #general channel): type an open angle bracket, an exclamation point (!), “everyone”, and a closing angle bracket.
    <!everyone>
  • “Here” notification (notifies active members in a specific channel): type an open angle bracket, an exclamation point (!), “here”, and a closing angle bracket.
    <!here>
  • “User group” notification (notifies all members of a user group): type an open angle bracket, an exclamation point (!), type in “subteam” , a caret symbol (^), the user group ID (see below how to find the group ID), and a closing angle bracket.
    <!subteam^abcde123456>
ratingStar icon Tip

To find a user’s Slack member ID:

  • Select the user’s Slack profile.
  • Click More.
  • Copy the member ID by clicking Copy member ID and paste it into your Zap.

To find a user group ID:

  • Open Slack in your web browser.
  • Select People & user groups from the left-hand menu.
  • In the People window, select the User groups tab.
  • Select the user group you want to mention.
  • In the web page URL, copy the alphanumeric ID that follows /user_groups/. This is the user group ID.
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Your workspace may disable notifications or usage of @here and @everyone. Contact your Slack administrator to verify if notifications are enabled.

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