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Slack App Store Spotlight
October 23rd, 2018
by David Bell
CEO at Gummicube, Inc.
Slack is a team collaboration app designed to help companies and employees communicate online. Yet while it helps bring coworkers together, does it have an App Store Optimization strategy that can bring users to its app? This week, we shine a spotlight on Slack to see if its ASO is working hard or slacking off.
iOS
On the Apple App Store, Slack is the 13th highest app in the Business category. It’s the in the top 3 of search results for search terms like “business chat,” “business technology” and “communication,” as well as the top ten for “share chat app,” “team share” and “message share.” Its ratings get a bit lower for terms like “messaging tool,” where it’s the 26 highest app, or “office apps,” where it’s the 27th, but overall it ranks highly for many relevant and important keywords. Creatives The first thing users see when they go to Slack’s App Store page is a video showing the app in action. It quickly demonstrates how the app can be used to chat and communicate in a business environment, showing off multiple features in the process. Apple’s video guidelines require videos to only show in-app content, which can make creating a proper video difficult for several apps, but Slack still manages. 
The following screenshots all show off different aspects of the app, while using callout text to highlight what each one is demonstrating. The design is a little basic, with just plain text above the image, but it still works. Out of the ten screenshots Apple allows, Slack uses six, including the video. It has room for more, so it could show off additional functions of the app or dive more in its already-displayed features. Title & Subtitle Slack’s app is simply titled “Slack.” Out of the 30 characters allowed for the title, it just uses five, leaving 25 characters worth of keywords and metadata empty. Title tags are vital to how and where an app ranks for phrases. Using a title such as
“Slack – Business Communication” could help it expand its overall keyword reach. Similarly, its subtitle is “Business Communication.” This also leaves eight empty characters, it’s missing out on space that could be used for additional metadata. Description Slack’s description is efficient in the information it details but is not optimized for the Apple App Store in its formatting. The app description’s introduction is a single paragraph, composed of three sentences. When viewed on an iPhone device, this forms a large chunk of text that users will typically skip due to its perceived size. What Slack could instead do is split it into multiple smaller lines, which would be easier to read at a glance. Similarly, the features list is a single set of bullet points. ASO best practices recommend using multiple feature sets with bullet lists going into the features, so users can get the idea of the feature from the header then quickly look over what it provides.
Google Play
On Google Play, Slack ranks in the top 5 for terms like “collaboration” and “message room,” as well as in the top 10 for “work chat,” “collaborate” and “communication apps.” It falls a little bit to the 13th highest app for “team chat” and 28th for “business tool,” as well as 45th for “group messaging.” Creatives Slack’s creatives on Google Play are similar to those on iOS, but not always identical. The first major difference is the video – while the Apple App Store video shows Slack in action, the Google Play video includes little animations and narrative text to show how the app works. It’s no less effective, although certainly different. One other thing worth noting is that the video is designed for phones held vertically, although the screen itself is horizontal. While this isn’t a problem on phones, which the user can simply rotate to view it properly, it does make the video sideways on computers. 
The five screenshots that follow are the same as those on the Apple App Store and serve the same purpose. The Google Play page does have a new screenshot, using a wider screen view to show more of the app in action. This one does not include callout text, so it simply provides a view of the chat app. Metadata & Description Slack’s description is the same on both Google Play and iOS. While the larger block paragraph is more acceptable on Google Play, it does need reformatting to make the most of Google’s keyword algorithm. As Google crawls the description from front to end, starting off lines and sentences with relevant keywords will index the app for them. With Slack’s description, it will index for useful terms like “communicate with your team,” “message or call any person” and “share and edit documents,” but also for irrelevant terms like “scientifically proven” or “check off your to-do list.” Similarly, Slack just has one feature list, with bullet points covering everything it has to offer. While bulleted lists are good, it could also stand to break the list into separate sections, each with keyword-focused features and lists.
Overall
Slack’s App Store Optimization has a solid foundation but could stand to improve. Its use of videos is effective on both stores and it clearly displays the features and uses of the app throughout its screenshots and descriptions. On iOS it has room to include more keywords in its title and subtitle, while its description could be formatted better for the App Store. Similarly, the Google Play page could be formatted differently to better integrate keywords in a way that Google’s algorithm will index it for. Doing so could help improve its rankings within its keywords and terms as well as build relevancy for Search Ads. Even the most useful and popular of apps can still benefit from ASO. If Slack wants to improve its rankings within the App Stores, a solid App Store Optimization strategy is the way to go. Want more information regarding App Store Optimization? Contact Gummicube and we’ll help get your strategy started.
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