Analytics are a data feed designed to provide statistics that can be leveraged into meaningful information as to the success of a project etc. By monitoring the statistics provided by analytics over time, you can view how what effects certain changes have and if they are positive, and if the scale of the effect was as great as anticipated.
Slack offers three sets of analytics, a workspace overview, channel analytics, and user analytics. The channel analytics offer insights into the usage of each public channel in your workspace. While access to the analytics may be restricted to certain users, all workspaces include some basic analytics functionality while many statistics are restricted to paid workspaces.
To be able to access the Slack workspace analytics, you need to first click on the workspace name in the top-right corner. Next, in the dropdown menu, select “Tools”, then “Analytics” to open the workspace overview analytics in a new tab.
To view the channel analytics, switch to the “Channels” tab. Free tier workspaces can see a list of all public channels in the workspace, the date the channel was created, the date of the last activity in the channel, the total number of members in the channel, and the total number of messages posted in the channel.
Tip: The “Messages posted” statistic includes messages from all sources including bots and apps.
Paid workspaces are also able to select extra columns via the “Edit columns” button, including a count of full members in the channel and a count of guest users.
Tip: Guest members are a feature restricted to paid tier workspaces.
Paid workspaces can also view a count of messages specifically posted by members of the channel rather than bots etc. The “Members who posted” statistic displays a count of the number of members that have posted in the channel. “Members who viewed” displays the number of members that read any messages in the channel. “Reactions added” displays the number of reactions that have been added to messages in the channel. “Members who reacted” provides a count of the number of members that used message reactions.
Tip: All stats refer to data in the time frame specified in the dropdown box at the top-right of the list.
The “Change in members who posted” statistic displays the change in the number of members that posted one or more messages in the channel in the last thirty days compared to the previous thirty days.
Analytics can provide insight into usage data and patterns that can let you identify trends and general interests. By following the steps in this guide, you can access the Slack channel analytics and review the statistics on a per-channel basis.
