NWS News:

The National Weather Service in Albuquerque (NWS) announces the  agency-wide transition to a new NWS Chat platform on Slack.

The agency is moving away from NWS Chat Live web interface or chat client based platform to using the Slack platform to power NWS Chat 2.0.

When is this all happening? The goal is to have all state, media, county/city partners and other partners up to speed by the middle/end of July.

Aug. 1 will be the official transition to NWS Chat 2.0 on Slack. The legacy NWS Chat 1.0 system will be shut off July 31. There will not be a transition period in August where both platforms will be active. NWS is posting to both platforms now but will most likely use the new Slack platform exclusively closer to July 31.

The biggest benefit to Slack is the overall ease of the user interface, although NWS will be providing some training webinars. Dates are yet to be determined for these webinars but likely the end of July.

NWS encourages viewers to sign up for an account to start learning Slack ASAP.

It is very much like any other chat program but has features like uploading images, videos, etc. There is also a desktop app and apps for mobile devices like phones or tablets. This allows for better communication for deployments and any activations.

Sign up for an account on Slack – https://nwschat.nws.noaa.gov/partners/. Once at the website – select Partner Registration highlighted in blue – follow the instructions to sign up for an account.