Using Groupies in Slack

Install Groupies

A Slack workspace admin clicks Add to Slack and approves the app. That creates your group. Slack workspace admins become group admins automatically; everyone else joins as a member the first time they use it.

Create an event

Group admins create events on the group's calendars, and anyone can create events on a calendar of their own (see Your own calendars). There are three ways, and all of them open the same form.

1. From the Home tab. Open Groupies under Apps in Slack's sidebar and press ＋ New event.
2. From the ⚡ shortcuts menu. Click + in any message box, or the ⚡ button, and choose New Groupies event.
3. With a command. Send /groupies new in any channel.

Fill in the title, when it starts and ends, the location and the slots, pick the channel to post in, and press Create. The event card appears in that channel.

Make an event from a message

Already wrote the plan in a message? Hover over it, open the ⋮ More actions menu and choose Make a Groupies event. The first line becomes the title, the rest becomes the description, and the event is posted in that message's channel. Check the date and time, then press Create.

Slots

Slots are the roles or places people sign up for. Each slot is a row with a Name and a Limit. The name is kept exactly as you type it, numbers included. Leave the limit blank for no limit. The form starts with three rows: press ＋ Add slot for another, or Remove last slot to drop one. Empty rows are ignored. Use a slot's details field (optional, up to 500 characters) to say more about it or add a link. The start shows under the slot's name on the card, and the whole text in View event.

Under the slots, People can sign up for decides whether someone can hold more than one. One slot is the default, for choices like race distances: joining another slot moves the person there, and their note comes with them. If the new slot is full, nothing changes. Pick More than one for things like volunteer shifts. Cards say Pick one or Pick any. Switching an event to One slot keeps everyone's places; the edit form lists anyone in several slots so an admin can remove the extras.

Dates and times

Pick the start date, then type the start time the way you'd say it: 20:30, 8:30pm or 8pm. Type an End time too, and pick an End date if it runs past midnight. Leave the end time blank and the event lasts an hour. Tick All day for an event with no times, and pick an end date if it lasts several days. Times are read in your Slack time zone, which is shown next to the field. Event cards show everyone the time in their own zone. Location is one field, like in a calendar app: an address, a map link, a Zoom or Teams link, or anything else. Links in it can be clicked on the card.

Time zones

Every event keeps the time zone it was created in. The form starts in your Slack time zone; pick another under Time zone and the times you type are read in it. Everyone sees the event in their own zone, and the card also gives the time in the event's zone, like Sat 7 Nov, 20:00 in Europe/Berlin. All-day events stay on their dates wherever you are. In the Home tab, Viewing in chooses the zone times are shown in: Automatic follows your Slack time zone, or pick any zone. If a time doesn't exist because the clocks go forward that night, the form says so. A time that happens twice when the clocks go back is read as the first one.

Repeating events

Set Repeats to every week or every 2 weeks. Tick the days it happens on, or leave them empty to use the date's weekday. If it ends, pick an Until date; with no date, it goes on indefinitely. Groupies posts the first date straight away and the next ones as they come up. When you edit one date, choose Just this event, This and following or All events.

Edit an event

Group admins can change an event after it's posted: open the ⋯ menu on its card and choose Edit event, or open the event in the Home tab with View event, then press Edit event. The form opens with everything filled in. Rename a slot or change its limit in place, and the people in it stay signed up. Press ＋ Add slot for a new row, or clear a row to remove an empty slot. A slot people have signed up for shows how many under its name; it can't be removed or given a limit below that. Pick another Calendar to move the event, then press Save and every posted card updates. If the new calendar is seen by fewer people, cards already posted stay visible in their channels, and Groupies reminds you to delete them there.

Who manages an event (edits, cancels, nudges, and adds or removes people): group admins, on the group's calendars; the calendar's admins; and whoever created the event, for that event. On a member's own calendar, group admins don't manage events, since they can't see inside it.

Browse events without leaving Slack

The Groupies Home tab shows what's coming up. Switch between Agenda view, three weeks grouped by day, and Month view, a calendar with a dot on every day that has events. Pick a day to see its events, then choose View event or Post to channel….

In Month view the whole month is drawn as a picture with your events in each day, coloured by calendar and in your own time zone. Under it, each week is a row of day buttons, like Mon 3, with a dot on days that have events. Tap a day to see its events below. Open the full calendar takes you to the month on the web.

Sign up and leave

Tap a slot's button on the event card to sign up. Tap the same button again to leave. The card updates for everyone, and if a slot is full Groupies tells you.

Maybe, Can't go and RSVP events

Besides the slots, every event has Maybe and Can't go buttons, so everyone can answer. You give one answer per event: answering Maybe or Can't go takes you off your slots (Groupies asks first), joining a slot clears your Maybe or Can't go, and tapping your answer again clears it. Admins can turn the two buttons off with the Maybe / Can't go box in the event form. For an event that's only about who's coming, pick Just who's going (RSVP) as the Type: it has one Going button, with an optional limit. When editing, an event can switch type unless that would take people off a slot.

Notes

Add a short note next to your name, like Section 104 or bringing a friend: open the ⋯ menu on the card and choose Add note, or press Add note under View event in the Home tab. If you're in more than one slot, pick which one. Notes are up to 140 characters; leave it blank to clear yours. Group admins can remove anyone's note with ⋯ → Clear a note.

See who's coming

Each event in the Home tab lists the first few people in every slot, like Tank: 2/4 (Ana, Bo). For everyone, open the event's ⋯ menu and choose Attendees, or press Attendees under View event: it lists every slot's people with their notes, then Maybe and Can't go. Group admins also see who in the event's channels hasn't replied yet. You only see attendees of events on calendars you can see.

Whoever manages the event sees Remove beside each person in Attendees, in every slot and in Maybe and Can't go. Slack asks first, then the person is taken off, the cards and channel calendars update, and they get a direct message from Groupies saying an admin removed them, with a link to the event. Members still leave on their own with the slot's button, or by tapping their answer again. On the website, the same Remove is beside each name on the event's page.

They also get ＋ Add someone: pick anyone in the workspace and a slot, or Maybe or Can't go. The usual rules apply: a full slot is refused, on a one-slot event they're moved, and they must be able to see the event's calendar. They get a direct message saying who added them, and can leave any time. On the website, use Add someone under each slot.

Who hasn't replied

Event cards show No reply yet with how many people in the event's channels haven't signed up or answered Maybe or Can't go. Bots don't count, and nor do people who left Slack. Group admins can see who they are: in the Home tab, open an event's ⋯ menu and choose Who hasn't replied…. Nudge sends each of them a direct message with the event, so they can answer in one tap. You can nudge once per event every 12 hours. Groupies needs permission to see channel members for this; workspaces that installed it earlier need a workspace admin to reinstall it.

Event photos

With Event photos on, reply with photos in the thread under an event's card and they go to its gallery. Groupies replies only to you with a link to the gallery, and says so in the thread the first time. Only photos posted there are read; other messages are ignored.

Groupies joins each public channel it posts a card in, so this works without inviting it. For a private channel, invite it with /invite @Groupies.

For photos elsewhere, hover over the message, open the ⋮ More actions menu and choose Add to event photos, then pick the event. Groupies takes up to 10 photos from one message.

Paid events

Prices and how they're paid are set in the event editor on the web; Slack's edit form keeps them. Tapping a priced slot replies, only to you, with a Pay to join link for a card payment, or with the organizer's Venmo, PayPal, Cash App or Zelle links and an I've paid button. Your spot is held while you pay by card. Group admins set up payments in Settings → Payments on the web.

Add to your calendar

Press Add to calendar on an event card for a Google Calendar link or an .ics file for Apple Calendar and Outlook. To get every event automatically, press Subscribe in your calendar in the Home tab and Groupies sends you a personal subscription link. Keep it to yourself: it shows the calendars you can see.

Groupies on the web

Your group also has a website with a full calendar, a page for every event, and the group's settings. In Slack, event titles and calendar names are links to it: on cards, in the Home tab, in /groupies list and in the channel calendar. The Home tab has Open in browser, the event window has Open on the web, and admins find Settings on the web in the admin section. Links only lead to calendars you can see. If your Slack account is linked to a web login, links in messages only you can see open signed in; each works once, for a week.

Calendars and who can see them

Every group has a main calendar. Admins can add more, say one for raids and one for officers, and choose who sees each: all members, only certain circles, or anyone with the link. Events on a calendar you can't see never show up for you. When a group has more than one calendar, the event form asks which one to use, and the Home tab can show one calendar at a time.

Calendar admins manage one calendar without being group admins: they edit it and its events, and add or remove people. Whoever makes a calendar is its first admin. In the calendar's Edit form, pick more people, or whole circles, under Calendar admins. An admin who can't see the calendar (say, after leaving its channel) has no admin powers until they can again. A calendar always keeps at least one admin, and people taken off the group lose theirs at once.

Your own calendars

Anyone in the group can make a calendar of their own, to plan a hike or a dinner with just the people they choose. Press ＋ New calendar in the Home tab (or New calendar in the sidebar on the web), give it a name and choose who can see it:

• Only me: nobody else sees it or its events, group admins included. Its events are never posted in a channel.
• People in a channel: whoever is in the Slack channel you pick can see it and sign up, as people join and leave. Its events are posted only in that channel. Groupies has to be able to read the channel: for a private channel, invite it first with /invite @Groupies. People without a Slack account in your workspace can't see it.
• Everyone in the group: like the group's main calendar.

Then choose Who can add events: Only me, or Anyone who can see it. Whoever adds an event can edit and cancel it while they can still add to the calendar.

You're your calendar's first admin, so you manage it without being a group admin: rename it, change who can see it, delete it, and edit, cancel and nudge its events. Add other admins, people or circles, in its Edit form. In Slack, use Edit under Your calendars in the Home tab; on the web, use the ⋯ menu next to the calendar for Rename, Settings and Delete.

Group admins can see that your calendar exists, who made it and its channel, and can delete it, but they can't see its events or who signed up unless they're in the channel. These calendars aren't shown on Discord.

Admin tools

Group admins get an admin section at the bottom of the Home tab.

• Members & roles: make people admins or members. Only owners can make other owners.
• Circles: name sets of people, like Officers, to decide who sees a calendar.
• Calendars: add, rename or delete the group's calendars and choose who can see each one. Members' own calendars are listed too, with their creator and channel, so you can delete one that shouldn't be there; you can't see what's on them.
• Group settings: the group's time zone, used for new events when the creator's own isn't known, and the day weeks start on (Sunday or Monday) in month views. Changing the time zone doesn't move existing events.

Command reference

Troubleshooting

The event was created but didn't show up in a private channel

Groupies can only post in private channels it's been invited to. In that channel, send /invite @Groupies, then use /groupies list to post the event.

It says “Only group admins can add events to the group’s calendars”

Creating events is for group admins. Ask an admin to create it, or to make you an admin under Members & roles in the Home tab. Slack workspace admins are group admins automatically.

Event times look wrong

Times you type are read in the zone shown under Time zone in the form, which starts as your Slack time zone. Check your time zone in Slack's preferences, and Viewing in at the top of the Home tab, which sets the zone the Home tab shows.