Slack communities are becoming increasingly popular with business professionals. They are like Facebook groups for like-minded individuals in the same industry to discuss their work and share ideas. Except they are much more organized than Facebook groups. Each Slack community features different Slack Channels with their own purpose. Some are used to discuss subsets of a particular field, others are used to keep job postings all in one place for community members to browse, some are simply dedicated to sharing announcements or asking questions.
Developers have quickly flocked to these communities for networking, feedback, and information sharing. Below are the top 15 Slack Communities for Developers.
- DevChat: DevChat is a generalist Slack community for developers to ask questions and share information. They have 19000+ members and have 43 public slack channels covering the major programming languages and other relevant topics for developers. Their biggest channels include #python, #javascript, #java, and #webdev. They accept everyone including those with no programming experience and students. They also have a #jobs channel for job seekers and employers.
- DevOps: DevOps is a Slack community of developers with over 18,000 members. Their most popular channels include #Aws, #docker, #chatops (a channel focused on chatbots), and #networking. They also feature two channels for job opportunities; #jobs and #jobs_remote, making it easier to search out remote opportunities specifically. To join, you simply need to fill out their form and provide your first name, last name, and email address. You can also choose to signup for their weekly newsletter when you join.
- iOS Developers: iOS Developers is a Slack community for developers working with Apple’s iOS mobile operating system. They are a free public community with 30,000+ members. They state that their goals are to help one another and share information.
- AndroidChat: Android chat is an open community for Android developers and enthusiasts to ask questions, share resources, and celebrate their successes. It is a very beginner-friendly community and even has a dedicated channel called #beginners for those new to Android to get help from more experienced developers. They are at almost 9,000 members and currently have 16 different channels.
- Android United: Android United is another community targeted towards Android developers. This one is focused more heavily on professional developers, while Android Chat is open to beginners, developers, and entrepreneurs. You do need to fill out a request form via Google Doc to join, but it is brief. There is also no fee to join. They currently have 12,000+ members and 130 channels. Their most popular channels include #design-ui-views, #libs, #hire, #architecture, and #news-links.
- FEDs on Slack: FEDS is a Slack community for Front End Developers. The FEDS discuss a wide array of topics, including JavaScript, general front end development topics, CSS, angular, and have an #offtopic channel to get to know one another and share memes or GIFS. They currently have over 7,000 members. This Slack community is, however, a private community. So you’ll need to fill out an application to be approved.
- Microsoft Developer Chat: This Slack community welcomes all developers that work with Microsoft Technologies. Their stated goal is to bring people working with Microsoft technologies together so that they can all learn from one another.
- Bot Developer Hangout: This is a Slack community for Slack Bot developers. They are 14,000+ members strong and have a whopping 713 channels. Their most popular channels include #botkit, #jobs, #events, #slack-api, and #facebook (a channel for discussing bots for Facebook messenger). This is a free public Slack channel with no application process to join, simply provide your email to request an invite!
- Ruby on Rails Link: This community is made up of 14,000 Ruby on Rails developers from all over the world. They state that their community includes avid OSS contributors, full-stack engineers, startup founders, backend engineers, and Ruby on Rails beginners. The community features 25 Slack channels including #frontend, #coding, and #work-offers. They do have an application, but only the name and email fields are required. You can also add links to your GitHub, LinkedIn, and website, share your location, enter how you found out about their community, and share a blurb about yourself. They state that the extra fields are to deter spammers and that in the future they may use the information you enter to build out better member profiles.
- PySlackers: PySlackers is a community of 32,000+ Python developers and enthusiasts. They welcome Python beginners and professionals. They come together to share information and resources, work on community projects, and network.
- Elixir: Elixir is a Slack community for the Elixir programming language. They have over 25,000 members and 601 public channels. Some of their notable channels include #phoenix, #ecto, #jobs, #beginners, and #absinthe-graphql. There is no application process or fee to join and it is beginner-friendly.
- Elm: Elm is a Slack Community for developers and others that use the Elm programming language or wish to learn about it. It is a free public community. They have 19,000+ users and 255 channels. Some of their most popular channels include #beginners, #jobs, #core-coordination, and #elm-ui.
- Slash Rocket: Slashrocket is a community of developers of all backgrounds. Their stated goal is to work together to create projects as a group, discuss development, and provide a friendly and inclusive home on the internet for all developers.
- UX Guide: UX Developers this one is for you! UX Guide is a Slack Community designed to help users learn and share information about all things user experience! They currently have 5,000+ members and 5 channels; #i-made-this, #careers, #ux-chat, #tech-triangle, and #silicon-valley.
- Online Geniuses: The Online Geniuses Slack Community is a community of over 25,000 members where marketing professionals can share information, find job opportunities, and get feedback from other skilled marketers. The community also hosts biweekly AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions with prominent and knowledgeable figures in the field of marketing and executives from large companies like Uber, Red Bull, and Petco. It is free to join the basic membership level, though there is a premium level featuring advanced features such as weekly mastermind calls, promoted listings in our Talent Network, and a fully upgraded Slack with full chat history.
