Share messages in Slack
Sharing messages in Slack helps to keep conversations on your team organized:
- Follow up on older conversations.
- Share the context of a discussion with members in other channels.
- Loop other team members into a conversation that matters to them.
Go ahead — give it a try!
Sharing vs. quoting
Both sharing and quoting messages can help you spread information in Slack, but there are a few key differences between them.
Sharing
By sharing a message, you can quickly forward it to another channel or direct message in a few simple steps. You’ll have the option to add more context to a shared message with an optional note. You can also choose exactly where the message is shared — whether that be in another channel or a direct message.
Here’s how a shared message in Slack appears:
Quoting
By quoting a message, you can manually copy a message link from one channel and paste it to another channel or direct message. A quoted message will expand below its link, just like when you share a link in Slack.
Here’s what a quoted message looks like:
To share or quote?
Short on time? Sharing a message requires a lot less work from you compared to quoting — no manual copying and pasting here! If you want to share a message quickly and add more context at the same time, the share feature is your best option.
Composing a long message with lots of references from Slack? In this case, quoting a message is the better option. You can compose one new message and manually add the quoted Slack messages to help illustrate your point.
Share a message
Desktop
iOS
Android
Windows Phone
- On your desktop, hover over the message you’d like to the share and click the Share message… icon on the right.
- Add a note, if you'd like, and use the drop-down menu to choose where you'd like to share the message.
- Click Share to see the message expand.
- Touch and hold on the message you'd like to share and select Share Message.
- Choose where you’d like to share the message.
- Add an optional note, if you’d like.
- Tap Share.
- Touch and hold on the message you’d like to share and select Share message.
- Tap the #channel name and choose where you’d like to share the message.
- Add an optional note, if you’d like.
- Tap the paper plane icon to share.
Our apologies, but sharing a message isn't currently available for Windows Phones. Stay tuned for updates! 📻
A message from a public channel can be shared anywhere in Slack, but a message from a private channel or direct message can only be shared in the same location.
Tip: Clicking the light gray text at the bottom of a shared message will jump to the original message.
Quote a message
Desktop
iOS
Android
Windows Phone
- Hover over the message you’d like to quote.
- Click the Show message actions icon and choose Copy link.
- Paste the link into the message box and add text of your own if you’d like. Press Enter to send. The copied link will expand to display the message you're quoting.
Tip: You can also right-click the timestamp next to any message to copy the link. ✨
- Touch and hold on the message you’d like to share.
- Tap Copy Archive Link.
- Paste the link in a channel or direct message and tap Send. The copied link will expand to display the message you're quoting.
- Long press on the message you’d like to share.
- Tap Copy link to message.
- Paste the link in a channel or direct message and tap the paper plane icon to send.
Our apologies, but quoting a message isn't currently available for Windows Phones. Stay tuned for updates! 📻
- All members and Guests can use this feature.
- Available to teams on free and paid plans.