☀️Summer is officially here, and the Slack developer ecosystem isn’t slowing down.
The 4th of July is this weekend, and whether you’re firing up the grill, hitting the road, or taking advantage of a quieter office to finally tackle that side project, I hope you get a chance to enjoy the long weekend and recharge.
We’ve got a packed issue this month: platform updates, a major announcement about the Slack MCP Client going GA, a few new features worth keeping an eye on, and a handful of resources I think you’ll actually use. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get into it. 🙌
So settle in, and let’s see what 2026 has in store. 💜
Slackbot MCP client is here!
You can now wire up any MCP server – Salesforce, partner-built, or your own – directly to Slackbot. That means your users can take action and search across external tools without leaving their chat window. Responses are rich, interactive, and formatted inline. Setup takes minutes. 🚀
AI-powered apps that users actually trust
What happens when your “delightful” AI makes a critical mistake? Users leave. At Slack Dev Day, Alissa Renz unpacked the reality of building agentic apps: trust is your only true metric. Read the recap to get her playbook on real-world safeguards, transparent design, and building a reliable workflow from day one.
Slack AI: The path to multi-cloud
Serving an LLM at enterprise scale means surviving GPU scarcity, regional outages, and volatile traffic spikes — not just picking a good model. Here’s an inside look at the four-phase evolution of our AI infrastructure: from building an intelligent routing layer to mastering multi-cloud orchestration, and what it actually takes to scale secure, high-performance AI to millions of users.
Agentic Testing: Where agents fit in the E2E testing stack
Are AI agents ready to take over your QA pipeline? Our engineering team put them to the test. The team ran 200+ agentic test executions using Playwright and Claude — and shared the raw data. Reliability, speed, cost, and exactly where agents fit in a modern testing pyramid — it’s all in there.
🎧 Slack Dev Huddles — Episode 7 live on LinkedIn!
Slackbot just became an MCP client — meaning it can now connect directly to your tools and take real action, all from a single conversation. In this episode, we break down what MCP is, show developers how to wire up their own MCP server, and run a live demo where Slackbot triages a ticketing system during a simulated outage. See how handling an incident can all happen without ever leaving Slack.
Watch the recording on LinkedIn
🗞️ Hot off the press
A simpler DM experience for agent apps
Agent apps now show up in the standard Slack DM view. No more separate interfaces. Conversations live right alongside your other messages, and replies happen naturally in threads.
This new agent messaging experience is now the default for new apps. If you’re already using the previous assistant-style experience, you can keep it for now — but migration will be required down the line. If you’ve built an agent app, this is a good moment to revisit your messaging flow and make sure it feels right in a more native, streamlined DM experience.
🚀 Claude Tag just launched on Slack
Tag Claude in a channel like you’d tag a teammate: it reads the conversation, does the work in the open, and shares the output where your whole team can see and build on it. That’s multiplayer AI, and it’s only possible in Slack, the one layer in the AI stack where teams actually work together.
Native HTML and Markdown rendering
Agents are everywhere, and so are their artifacts. Slack now renders .md and .html files natively, so your team sees the actual thing, not a wall of code. Drop an HTML prototype in a channel and get feedback right in thread. Iterate on a Markdown doc without ever leaving Slack. 🙌
💬 MPDM Naming is now available to all users!
You can finally give your group DMs a proper name. ✏️ Just hover over the member list in the header and click the pencil icon to set one, emoji included. The name shows up for everyone in the conversation, and anyone in the group can rename it (Slack Connect MPDM naming is coming soon in July, so stay tuned!) 👀
⬆️ Slackbot just got a serious upgrade
A wave of new features makes it smarter, faster, and more connected to how you actually work:
- 🧠 Memory: Slackbot learns your preferences and projects over time, getting smarter the more you use it
- 🎙️ Voice Dictation: Just talk and Slackbot gets to work, no keyboard required
- 🤖 Slackbot on Any Message: Hover over any message to summarize, explain, or take action without losing your place
- 🏠 Tasks Tab: See all your Scheduled Tasks in one place, easy to find, create, and edit
🎉 Block Kit Builder just got a glow-up!
Sweet upgrades to make building smoother and faster — here’s what’s new:
- 🏗️ Slicker drag & drop: New sway animations, context menus, and the ability to drop blocks from the tray directly into your preview.
- ⏮️ Undo/redo: Explore and iterate stress-free, right from the toolbar.
- 👀 Peek previews: Hover over any block in the tray for a quick sneak peek before you drop it in.
Happy building! 🚀
We’re always blown away by what our community creates—and we want to highlight *you* next! Whether it’s a handy tool, a step-by-step guide, or an insightful article, if you’re proud of it, we want to hear all about it.
📬 Send us a message at technewsletter@slack-corp.com and share what you’ve been working on.
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