Slack buys company to integrate e-mail into chat app
Slack has bought the company Astro in order to be able to integrate e-mail better in its service in the future. The intention is that employees of companies will manage their mail via channels in the chat program.
Astro has announced that its apps will stop working in a few weeks and users of the service will have to look for other ways to read e-mail. Astro has clients for smartphones with iOS and Android, but also has applications for the Mac, for Amazon Alexa and an Astrobot in Slack. The latter will also stop working
Slack buys Astro because it wants to integrate the technology into its chat program. Astro is an e-mail program that uses algorithms to filter important e-mails and show them prominently. In addition, Astro can easily unsubscribe users from newsletters.
According to the chat program, it is the intention that employees with Slack will no longer have to use e-mail thanks to the integration. Slack admits that although the chat program now has an integration with e-mail, employees still need two programs. How much Slack pays for the American company is not known. Astro is located near Los Angeles and has 28 employees.
