How to Set Up a Trello-Slack Integration in 2021: Message Your Kanban Board
Integrating your different programs is the best way to speed up your workflow. Join us as we go over the best ways to integrate chat app Slack with project management app Trello.
When using a project management tool like Trello, you often end up spending a lot of time and effort moving cards around and then communicating those changes to your team in Slack. In this article, we’re going to show you how to integrate Trello and Slack so you can automate at least some of these tedious tasks and save time and headaches.
Doing so is pretty easy: if you follow this guide we should have you up and running in just a few minutes. All you need is to have Slack and Trello working in your browser — no coding knowledge required. If you can click a mouse, you’re pretty much good to go.
Key Takeaways:
- Setting up this integration will take less than five minutes and will save you lots of time in the long run as you can send information from one app to the other without any extra hassle.
- Setting up an automation between Slack and Trello can be done both ways; however going from Trello to Slack will consume one power-up, so you can choose to skip it if you’re on Trello’s free plan. Slack to Trello will still work just fine in this case.
- For further options than the built-in integration allows, check out programs like Zapier or Integromat for small scripts that will let you do even more.
If you want to know a little more about Trello before we get started, check out our Trello review. If you like Slack, but want to know what else is out there, we have a piece on Slack alternatives, too.
It’s hard to compare Trello vs Slack as they are very different pieces of software. Slack is a chat app, first and foremost, while Trello is a task management tool.
Trello integrates with pretty much everything, from cloud storage to calendars to other project management tools.
Trello is owned by Atlassian, which is the same company that owns Jira and a number of other task management tools.
Advantages of the Trello-Slack Integration
There are plenty of reasons why you’d want to set up an integration between Slack and Trello. For example, setting it up from Slack to Trello means that you can type specific commands in Slack that will create cards in Trello, add comments to them or even add team members.
Going from Trello to Slack means you can send urgent Trello cards directly into people’s Slack channels or even DMs, meaning there’s no way for them to miss them. You can also set reminders for Trello cards in Slack, which is very handy indeed for the more forgetful among us.
Of course, this is done through a Slack power-up — if you’re on the free plan, you can’t add any more integrations. As such, you could opt to only have the automation work one way, from Slack to Trello.
If you need more options than the ones baked into Trello and Slack, we recommend you give options like Zapier and IFTTT a spin. Both these automation tools have a lot of options to set up links between Trello and Slack. Zapier especially is a great pick — read our full Zapier guide if you need help getting started.
How to Set up the Slack-Trello Integration
There are two ways to set up an integration between Slack and Trello: from Slack to Trello, and from Trello to Slack. To make the most of both programs, it’s best to set the integration up both ways. Make sure you have both Slack and Trello open in your browser before you start, and that you’re signed in to both accounts.
From Slack to Trello
- Find the “Apps” Tab
Go to the “apps” tab in the left-hand bar in Slack. If you can’t see it, it’s hidden under the “more” tab, above “channels.”
- Search for Trello
The Slack app directory will open over your messages. Go to the search bar and type in “trello,” then select Trello from the options by clicking on the “add” button.
- Add Trello to Slack
Next up is a confirmation screen — click on “add to Slack.”
- Confirm the Addition
Next you’ll get an overview of Trello. Once you’re done reading the recap, just click “add to Slack.”
- Allow Trello to Integrate With Slack
The next screen is where you give permission for Slack and Trello to integrate. If you have Trello open and are signed in, all you need to do is hit the “allow” button. If not, you’ll first have to sign in to Trello.
- Invite Trello
You’ll be back in the main screen of Slack now, where you’ll have to “invite” Trello as a user. Go to any Slack channel (not a DM) and type “invite @trello” in the message bar. There’s a chance you’ll have to grant permission all over again — this happened to us for some reason — but Trello will have been added as a member of the Slack board.
You’re pretty much good to go now; note that Trello has been added to the “apps” bracket at the bottom of the left-hand bar. Click on it, and you’ll get an overview of all the commands you need to use the integration. Also, don’t forget that you need to add Trello separately to each Slack channel you want to use it in with the “invite” command.
From Trello to Slack
- Open Trello’s Power-Ups
To go the other way around, first we need to go into Trello’s menu and click on the power-up button.
- Search for Slack and Add It to Trello
This will take you to the power-up screen, where you’re presented with a massive list of options. Use the search bar to find Slack, then click on “add.”
- Open the Settings Menu for Slack
The “add” button will change to a “settings” button. Click on it, and you’ll get a dropdown menu with some options. Choose “edit power-up settings.”
- Choose the Setting You Want to Change
A pop-up will, well, pop up with two options. We went with the Slack alerts for all board notifications, but the one for comments is just as useful.
- Set Triggers
If you choose the alerts, you’ll need to choose the board you want to link to, as well as pick from a long list of triggers that will fire a message to the board. The list was longer than our screen, showing the kind of control Trello and Slack give you here. Hit “done” at the bottom when you’re finished.
- Allow the Integration
If you haven’t yet set up the link from Slack to Trello, this is where you’ll get a permission screen. Just click “allow” until it’s all sorted. If you already took care of that before, you’re done, unless you want to send a specific Trello card to Slack. To do so, go to the main screen of Trello and click a card to see the back of it.
On the back, you’ll see a new button on the right-hand side, under power-ups, that says “Slack.” Click on it, and you’ll get some handy actions that will either remind you or a member of your Slack team that they need to finish a task.
Final Thoughts: Trello vs Slack
Setting up an integration between Trello and Slack is pretty easy and shouldn’t take more than a minute. If you’d like to be able to do more than the standard integration allows, consider checking out Zapier for more options.
Were you able to set up this integration? Let us know if you ran into any issues below. As always, thank you for reading.
