3 Ways to Automatically Message Slack About New Activity in Motion.io Client Portals

Slack is a messaging app that helps teams and organizations communicate and collaborate more efficiently. Using Zapier, you can connect Slack to Motion.io.

This article will provide step-by-step instructions for three different Zapier workflows you can set up to automatically message a specific channel or team member in Slack when new activity occurs in one of your Motion.io client portals.

3 Ways to Automatically Message Slack About New Activity in Motion.io Client Portals

Before discussing the three ways to connect Slack to Motion.io, it’s important to mention that you’ll need to sign up for a Zapier account and connect it to Motion.io. If you’re unfamiliar with Zapier, it’s a no-code automation platform that enables you to build workflows between Motion.io and 2,000+ other web services.

Message a Slack Channel About Task Updates in Motion.io

Motion.io’s “Task Status Change” trigger allows you to send an update to Slack when the status of a task changes in one of your portals or projects.

The instructions below will explain how to set up a workflow that connects Slack to Motion.io and automatically informs team members in Slack about task status updates.

Step 1: Select Motion.io’s “Task Status Change” Trigger

When creating a Zap, you must always add a “Trigger” as the first step.

To specify your trigger event, click the “Trigger” box, search for “Motion.io” in the modal, and select “Task Status Change” from the “Trigger event” dropdown.

(Optional) Step 2: Add a Filter Action

By default, Motion.io’s “Task Status Change” trigger will fire for any task status update in any portal. If you want to limit Slack messages to only being sent for specific types of projects or task status changes, you can do so by adding a “Filter” action.

To do this, select Zapier’s built-in “Filter by Zapier” action and specify the conditions for which you’d like the workflow to continue. The image above shows an example of a filter action setup that only allows future workflow steps to execute if the status of the task that triggers it is “Complete.”

Step 3: Add a Slack Action

Next, add an action and search for “Slack” in the open modal. Under “Action Events” on the “Setup” tab, Slack’s Zapier integration provides several options for sending messages.

The most common action events we see Motion.io users select are “Send Channel Message” (which sends a message that anyone invited to the channel will see) and “Send Direct Message” (which sends a message to a specific team member). The image above shows an example of a Slack action that uses the “Send Channel Message” option.

Step 4: Configure the Slack Action

Once you select an event on the “Setup” tab of your Slack action, clicking “Continue” will bring you to the “Configure” tab. At the top of this tab, specify the channel or individual to whom the message should be sent and navigate to the “Message Text” field.

On this tab, you’ll configure the information in the message Zapier sends to Slack. Clicking the “+” icon on the right side allows you to add fields from the trigger event which will populate dynamically each time your workflow runs. You can also enter plain text to include it as written in each message.

The image above shows an example configuration of a message that will automatically send a message to the Slack channel, which includes the client name, completed task name, and project name.

Message a Slack Channel About New Chat Activity in Motion.io

When enabled in your client portals, Motion.io’s built-in chat integration provides clients with an easy way to send messages, upload files, and communicate with your team throughout your work together. Using Zapier, you can automatically message a Slack channel about new chat activity in your Motion.io Client Portals.

Step 1: Select Motion.io’s “Client Chat Message” Trigger

Create a new Zap, search for “Motion.io,” select “Client Chat Message” from the “Trigger event” dropdown, and click “Continue” to test the trigger.

(Optional) Step 2: Add a Filter

Similar to the trigger action used in the previous workflow covered in this guide, the “Client Chat Message” trigger used to set up this workflow fires for all new chat activity in all Motion.io projects and portals by default. While optional, you can use a filter step to restrict the conditions in which subsequent steps of your Zap will fire.

In the image shown above, the filter is configured only to allow future steps to run if Zapier detects the trigger event that occurs is related to a project of which a specific team member is the owner.

Step 3: Add a Slack Action

Next, search for “Slack” in the modal, and choose your action event.

The example shown above uses the “Send Direct Message” action event to send a direct message to a specific project owner about new chat activity in any projects they are assigned.

Step 4: Configure the Slack Action

After selecting your Slack action event, click “Continue” to specify the team member (or channel, if using the “Send Channel Message” option) and configure the “Message Text” to pull in the information you’d like to include from the trigger event each time the Zapier workflow executes.

The image above shows an example of the “Message Text” field configured to auto-populate the project name, client name, and message each time Zapier sends the message to Slack.

Message a Slack Channel About New Form Submissions in Motion.io

Using Motion.io’s drag-and-drop form builder, you create custom forms and attach them to tasks to streamline your process of collecting client files and information.

Using Zapier, you can automatically update your team in Slack whenever a client submits a form in one of your Motion.io projects and portals.

Step 1: Select Motion.io’s “Form Submission” Trigger Action

Create a new Zap, search for “Motion.io,” select “Form Submission” from the “Trigger event” dropdown, and click “Continue” to test the trigger.

Step 2: Configure the Motion.io Trigger Action

After clicking “Continue” on the “Setup” tab of your trigger, you’ll be brought to the “Configure” tab, where you can specify the Motion.io form, which when submitted, will trigger your Zapier workflow.

It’s important to note that while you can implement a filter step, unlike the other two workflows covered in this guide, it’s frequently not needed for this workflow.

Step 3: Add a Slack Action

Create a new action, search for “Slack” in the modal, and select the “Send Channel Message” Slack event (alternatively, you can choose “Send Direct Message” if you want to notify a specific team member).

Step 4: Configure the Slack Action

After clicking “Continue” select the channel or team you want to send a Slack message to each time the form you specified in the trigger event is submitted. As with the other two workflows covered in this guide, clicking the “+” icon on the right side allows you to add fields from the trigger event which will populate dynamically each time your workflow runs.

The image above shows an example configuration of an action that will automatically send a message to the Slack channel with the Motion.io project name and the name of the completed form.

Final Thoughts

And that does it!

Hopefully, this article provided all the information you need to set up Zapier workflows that allow you to automatically and seamlessly send updates about new activity in your Motion.io projects and portals to your company’s Slack account.

If you don’t yet have a Motion.io account, sign up for a trial and see why we are the best client portal & onboarding software out there. Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you run into any issues while setting up these integrations; we’re happy to help!