Thank you for all the questions submitted in Slido (we had over 300)! We've done our best to consolidate duplicate questions and provide as many answers here as we can, but more to come soon. For our next event we'll streamline the questions even more - thanks for bearing with us as we try new things and figure out the best way to answer as many questions as we can!
Q: Could we get some sort of regular updates on what's being worked on, what bug was fixed, what new feature (from GH Discussions) is being considered, similar to what Mason used to post on GH on the Slash Commands Master List (almost) every week?
A: Yes, this is at the top of our list of things we want to deliver as soon as we can. Some of you may remember at the beginning of the year when we launched Slash Commands in public beta, we collated all your feedback and sorted it into what's going to happen and what's unlikely to happen. It worked well for us then, and while it's hard to do that for every feature we roll out, we do want to streamline this and make it more of an ongoing list that's updated at a regular cadence rather than a one-off exercise for big features. We are looking into ways to communicate these timelines better and more transparently to all of you, and not just 'here's a big list of things coming' - we want to share both small and big things that have happened, too. Lastly, as an FYI for those who don't know about it: the master list that was originally on GitHub was moved to discussions, and API discussions is updated regularly, so check there for the time-being.
Q: Is a text input component currently planned? If not, why? And are there plans for alternative ways of asking the user something and getting a text answer, other than using another command or replying?
A: Right now yes, it's planned. We'd like to do it because we know it will cover a bunch of use cases, but it won't happen before other features like permissions (which is a more pressing priority). The way to get follow-up information from a user is using another command, replying, or through DMs. We do want to offer something better.
Q: Have you thought about permissions for buttons? Sometimes it would be helpful to have buttons enabled/disabled depending on permissions
A: Great question! Right now buttons are intentionally straightforward because we want to leave them open and see what people did with them. They aren't tied to Slash Command permissions, because in many places where they're used like for reaction roles, we want people to be able to use them even if they don't have permission to send messages. However we do want to hear more about use cases for this and ephemeral messages and so on. So if we hear that there is a big need for it, keep the feedback coming!
Q: Is there any reason why you guys take so long to complete anything? Like seriously, you made a road map a month and a half ago but manage to complete like 5 little things on the list.
A: Not all bullet points are created equal! That list includes a lot of different kinds of things, from improving developer support (which requires hiring) to small API changes (limiting CHANNEL types) to much larger projects like permissions and multi-line input (which actually is really hard to do on mobile).
Sometimes making those changes requires a lot of unexpected work as well. For example, improving the behavior/UX of slash commands led to the entire upgrade and rewrite of our text editor so that we could get Slate's new features.
You also don't see all of the work in progress pieces - which we should be communicating better! Most of the items on that roadmap are well underway, and just haven't been shipped yet. You saw a few of them last week: permissions, autocomplete, and attachments.
Q: What updates and plans are there for slash commands on Android, since there are bugs which make some slash commands difficult to use?
A: Lots. Our desktop and iOS codebases share a lot of frontend code; Android does not. That means that when we test, build, or fix things first on Desktop, it often works "for free" on iOS. Not true on Android, unfortunately, which means we have to reimplement everything for that platform. So all the improvements, fixes, and features that have come to the other platforms are coming to Android! If there are platform-specific bugs, make sure you open an issue on our GitHub tracker if you don't already see them logged there.
Q: When will bots have the ability to create menus/forms to allow for easier setup of bots commands?