How to Integrate Asana and Slack Together

What are Asana and Slack?

Asana is a task and project management software that many teams and individuals use for collaboration. It offers a variety of features to help you better manage tasks and projects.

Slack is a popular real-time chat application. A lot of teams use Slack for internal instant messaging.

Why use both Asana and Slack?

Both tools are useful, and they both come with great features. However, they are designed to do different things. Asana lets you track work, while Slack is a space where you can chat with your coworkers and friends in real-time.

Asana and Slack do not replace each other; they are complementary applications. You can combine them to improve your workflow and productivity.

1. Slack is synchronous so that you can message anyone at your company in real-time.
2. Asana is asynchronous, so you can streamline communication and organize projects by tasks, lists, priorities, etc.

Simply put, using both Asana and Slack means using a project management and communication app together.

Why integrate Asana and Slack?

You can use each app separately and still find both apps useful. However, many teams who integrate Asana and Slack through Asana's plugin or Hyperinbox for both Slack and Asana say connecting data and workflow between the two tools is key to enhanced productivity.

The main use case with integrating Asana and Slack is removing the need to switch between the two tools whenever needed.

Often Slack messages need to turn into tasks. A good example is a quick ask from your coworker or a new project after a lengthy discussion thread in Slack. To track them, you'll need to open Asana, find the relevant workspace, then project, and then start adding tasks with some description.

With good integrations, you can remove the need to do all of this and instead simply create new Asana tasks and follow up in Slack.

This use case also works oppositely.

Since Asana does not have a real-time chatting feature, if you want to brainstorm ideas or hash out the details on a task/project, you'll have to open Slack, tag relevant people, and start discussing.

With Asana + Slack integration through apps like Hyperinbox, you can actually route any Asana task to any Slack messages/threads and let discussions naturally continue in Slack.

Another use case with the integration is updating/editing existing messages in Slack or Asana.

• Update an ongoing task and share current status with the team in Slack.
• Like the task that you follow in Asana
• Change the deadline

Lastly, getting notifications for tasks you follow in Asana.

• When a task is assigned or unassigned from you
• When a task is completed
• When a deadline changes in a task you follow
• When you are added as a follower to a task
• When a new comment is added to a task you follow

How to configure Asana and Slack integration

There are several ways to integrate Slack and Asana and use them together effectively.

One is installing the traditional Slack and Asana integration. The traditional integration will allow you to do the following:

• Create a new task, assign it to yourself or a teammate, and add it to an existing project
• View Asana data (e.g., tasks, milestones, projects, etc.)
• Comment/reply on a task
• Mark a task complete
• List all tasks in your workspace or organization
• Receive updates on task creation, completion, or comments

How to install Asana integration for Slack (traditional integration)

1. Sign up for a Slack account and an Asana account to get started.
2. Visit Slack for instructions to install Asana for Slack and authenticate your account.
3. Install by following the instructions. You can use the slash command /asana in Slack to configure your tasks or projects.

This is the most basic way to start integrating Slack and Asana. However, there are some limitations with traditional integration.

Limitations with the traditional Asana plugin

First of all, the traditional integration is a plugin made by Asana for Slack, intended to be used in Slack channels. There isn't a plugin for the other way around; Asana does not have a plugin made by Slack for Asana.

This means you cannot bring Slack messaging to Asana platform. The current version of Asana for Slack plugin only lets you to remotely control specific tasks from Slack.

Here's the list of what Asana for Slack plugin can and cannot do:

Asana for Slack plugin can:

• Create a new task from a Slack message, assign it to yourself or a teammate, and add it to an existing project
• Reply comment to a task
• Get updates on existing tasks, projects, milestones, etc.
• Mark a task complete

Asana for Slack plugin cannot:

• Organize Asana notifications by projects, labels, tasks, etc.
• Reply to Slack messages in Asana
• Link between Slack messages and Asana tasks in Asana.
• Connect Asana tasks with multiple Slack messages and threads in Slack.
• Discuss real-time with your teammates in Slack while viewing Asana

Furthermore, if you're a heavy Asana user, Asana for Slack plugin can get super noisy. Asana will send a message every time there's an update to any task linked to Slack channels. There is no way to manage incoming Asana notifications in Slack effectively. There's a way to make all of the limitations with traditional integrations work – Hyperinbox for Asana + Slack!

Connect Hyperinbox with Slack and Asana for much better workflow

Hyperinbox is a unified inbox software with powerful workflows for both Slack and Asana. It is an enhanced version to the traditional version and you don't have to stop using Asana and Slack to utilize Hyperinbox.

It is an addition without sacrificing your current workflow/tool stack. Hyperinbox can:

• Do everything Asana for Slack plugin does. Plus:
• Organize Asana notifications by projects, labels, tasks, etc.
• Reply to Slack messages in Asana
• Link between Slack messages and Asana tasks in Asana.
• Connect Asana tasks with multiple Slack messages and threads in Slack.
• Discuss real-time with your teammates in Slack while viewing Asana

Hyperinbox is currently in private beta. If you'd like to join the beta program and get early access, sign up here.