Slack Message Shortcuts
Slack message shortcuts provide quick actions directly from any message in your workspace. Simply hover over a message, click the three dots (⋯), and access Chat Aid's powerful features.
Available Shortcuts
1. Ask Question
Get Chat Aid to answer a specific message or question.
When to use:
- Someone asks a question in a channel
- You want to get an answer without @mentioning Chat Aid
- You want to quickly look up information from a specific message
How to use:
- Hover over the message
- Click the three dots (⋯) menu
- Select Ask Question (Chat Aid)
- Chat Aid will provide an answer based on your trained knowledge
Example:
Original message: "What's our return policy for enterprise customers?"
→ Use "Ask Question" shortcut
→ Chat Aid responds with answer from your documentation
2. Summarize Thread
Generate a concise summary of a Slack thread conversation.
When to use:
- Long thread with many replies
- Catching up on a discussion you missed
- Need a quick overview before jumping in
- Creating meeting notes from async discussions
How to use:
- Hover over any message in the thread (parent or reply)
- Click the three dots (⋯) menu
- Select Summarize Thread (Chat Aid)
- Chat Aid will analyze the entire thread and provide a summary
Example:
Thread: 47 messages discussing Q4 product roadmap
→ Use "Summarize Thread" shortcut
→ Chat Aid provides: "Discussion covered three main topics:
1. Feature X launch timeline...
2. Resource allocation for...
3. Customer feedback on..."
tip
Summaries are posted as ephemeral messages (only visible to you). If you want to share the summary, you'll need to copy and repost it.
3. Generate Wiki Answer
Create a comprehensive answer from your knowledge base about a specific topic.
When to use:
- Need a detailed explanation from your documentation
- Want to create standardized answers for common questions
- Building FAQ or help documentation
- Onboarding new team members
How to use:
- Hover over the message containing the question/topic
- Click the three dots (⋯) menu
- Select Generate Wiki Answer (Chat Aid)
- Chat Aid will search your knowledge base and provide a detailed response
What makes this different from "Ask Question"?
- Focuses specifically on your trained company data (wiki, docs, knowledge base)
- More comprehensive and detailed responses
- Better for internal knowledge and documentation
4. Mark Important
Save individual Slack messages as important knowledge to train Chat Aid on.
When to use:
- Someone shares valuable information in a message
- Expert knowledge that should be preserved
- Answers to frequently asked questions
- Important announcements or decisions
- Tribal knowledge that isn't documented elsewhere
How to use:
- Hover over the message you want to save
- Click the three dots (⋯) menu
- Select Mark Important (Chat Aid)
- Choose which team/knowledge base to save it to
- The message (and its thread, if any) will be indexed
Important notes:
- ⚠️ Admin/Team Admin only - Only admins and team admins can mark messages as important
- ✅ Preserves context - Includes the full thread for better context
- ✅ Searchable - Marked messages become part of Chat Aid's knowledge base
- ✅ Manage in dashboard - View and manage marked messages in Integrations > Slack > Messages
Example workflow:
Sales team member: "For enterprise deals over $100k, we offer custom SLAs..."
Team lead: → Uses "Mark Important" shortcut
→ Saves to "Sales Playbook" team
→ Now Chat Aid can answer questions about enterprise deal structure
Best Practices for Marking Important
- Mark messages that contain answers, not just questions
- Include full context (let threads complete before marking)
- Regularly review marked messages for accuracy
- Don't over-mark—focus on genuinely valuable knowledge
Accessing Message Shortcuts
Requirements
- Chat Aid must be installed in your Slack workspace
- You must have an active Chat Aid account
- For "Mark Important": You must be an Admin or Team Admin
Keyboard Shortcuts
While Slack doesn't provide custom keyboard shortcuts for these actions, you can speed up your workflow:
- Hover over message → ⋮ (or click the three dots)
- Type to filter → shortcuts appear at the top
- Press Enter to select
Mobile Access
Message shortcuts are available on Slack's mobile apps:
- Long press on a message
- Select "More actions"
- Find Chat Aid shortcuts in the list
Shortcut Permissions
| Shortcut | Who Can Use | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Ask Question | All users | Chat Aid account |
| Summarize Thread | All users | Chat Aid account |
| Generate Wiki Answer | All users | Chat Aid account, trained data |
| Mark Important | Admin/Team Admin only | Admin permissions |
Training on Marked Messages
Messages marked as "important" become a special type of data source in Chat Aid:
Viewing Marked Messages
- Go to Integrations > Slack
- Switch source type to Messages (dropdown at top)
- View all marked messages
- See who marked them and when
Managing Marked Messages
- Retrain - Update the indexed content
- Remove - Stop training on specific messages
- Bulk actions - Select multiple messages to manage
- Search - Find specific marked messages
How Marked Messages Are Used
When Chat Aid answers questions:
- Marked messages are given high priority in search results
- They're labeled as "marked as important during training"
- Source citations link back to the original Slack message
- Thread context is preserved for better answers
Troubleshooting
Shortcut Not Appearing
If you don't see Chat Aid shortcuts:
- Check installation - Ensure Chat Aid is installed in your workspace
- Refresh Slack - Sometimes requires a refresh (Cmd/Ctrl + R)
- Permissions - Verify you have access to Chat Aid
- Contact admin - Your workspace may have restricted app permissions
"Mark Important" Grayed Out
If you can't use "Mark Important":
- You need to be an Admin or Team Admin
- Ask your Chat Aid administrator for elevated permissions
- This shortcut is intentionally restricted to prevent knowledge base pollution
Shortcut Fails or Times Out
If a shortcut fails:
- Check training - Ensure Chat Aid has been trained on data
- Network issues - Check your internet connection
- Try again - Sometimes temporary glitches occur
- Contact support - If persists, reach out to support@chataid.com
Summary Not Helpful
If thread summaries aren't useful:
- Thread too short - Summaries work best with 5+ messages
- Low quality content - Casual chat may not summarize well
- Context needed - Provide feedback to help improve
Best Practices
For "Ask Question"
- Use on messages that contain clear, answerable questions
- Works best when Chat Aid has relevant training data
- Try rephrasing if the first answer isn't helpful
For "Summarize Thread"
- Best for threads with 5+ substantive messages
- Let discussions complete before summarizing
- Use for decision tracking and meeting notes
For "Generate Wiki Answer"
- Great for creating documentation from Slack knowledge
- Use when you need detailed, sourced responses
- Perfect for building FAQs and help docs
For "Mark Important"
- Focus on quality over quantity
- Mark complete answers, not questions
- Review regularly and remove outdated content
- Organize marked messages into appropriate teams
Related Topics
- Slack Integration Overview
- Training on Slack Channels
- Data Sources Management
- Teams & Knowledge Bases