Slack Technologies, Inc.

Salesforce, Inc.

Elizabeth Johnston

Myles Grant

Andrew King

Sean Rose

Brenda Jin

Methods, apparatus and computer program product that may include receiving, by one or more servers of a group-based communication platform and from a client of a first user with administrative privileges and associated with a first organization, a request to generate a shared communication channel on the group-based communication platform. A shared communication channel may be generated based on the request. A second request may be received by the one or more servers to provide at least one second user associated with a second organization access to the shared communication channel. Access may be provided to the second user. A message communication may be rendered in a shared communication channel interface associated with the shared communication channel with a graphical indicator that indicates the message communication is associated with the first organization.

Method, apparatus and computer program product for generating externally shared communication channels

Computing systems, apparatuses, computer-implemented methods, and computer program products are disclosed for creating a shared communication channel in a group-based communication platform having a plurality of database shards. An example computer-implemented method includes generating a shared communication channel shard that is assigned a shared communication channel identification, a first set of shared communication channel attributes associated with a first group identification, and a second set of shared communication channel attributes associated with a second group identification. The method further includes generating first and second externally shared group-based shared communication channel interfaces based on the first and second sets of shared communication channel attributes, respectively. The method further includes transmitting the first and second externally shared group-based shared communication channel interfaces to a first client device associated with the first group identification and a second client device associated with the second group identification, respectively.

Methods, apparatus and computer program product for causing a rendering of a graphical icon associated with a message communication, wherein the message communication is received in a shared communication channel in a group-based communication platform. The graphical icon comprises a user avatar associated with a sender of the message communication and a group icon indicating association of the message communication with a group. A computer-implemented method may include receiving, from a first client and in a shared communication channel on the group-based communication platform, a message communication; transmitting, to a plurality of clients associated with the shared communication channel, the message communication; and causing rendering of the message communication with a first graphical icon within a shared communication channel interface associated with the shared communication channel, wherein the first graphical icon comprises (i) a first user avatar indicating that the message communication is associated with the first user, and (ii) a first group icon indicating that the message communication is associated with the first group identification.

Multi-organization shared channels are described. An instruction to create a communication channel on a group-based communication platform can be received. The communication channel can be associated with a first organization that is registered with the group-based communication platform. At least two other organizations can be associated with the communication channel, wherein a first one of the at least two other organizations is associated with a second organization that is different than the first organization and a second one of the at least two other organizations is associated with a third organization that is different than the first organization and the second organization, and wherein based at least in part on associating the at least to other organizations with the communication channel, the communication channel is a shared communication channel that is accessible by one or more users associated with the first organization, the second organization, or the third organization.

Creating a shared communication channel in a group-based communication platform is described. A shared communication channel generation request associated with a first organization identifier and a second organization identifier can be received from a first client associated with the first organization identifier. A shared communication channel acceptance request can be sent to a second client associated with the second organization identifier. Based at least in part on receiving a shared communication channel acceptance notification, wherein the shared communication channel acceptance notification includes an electronic approval to associate the shared communication channel identifier with the first organization identifier and the second organization identifier, transmitting, to each of the first client and the second client, a shared group-based communication channel interface of the shared communication channel.

Methods, apparatus and computer program product for creating an externally shared communication channel in a group-based communication platform are described herein. An externally shared communication channel generation request can be received, which can include a first group identification and a second group identification. In response to determining that a client device is associated with the first group identification and/or the second group identification, an internally shared communication channel list and an externally shared communication channel list can be displayed in the channel list pane of the group-based communication interface. The externally shared communication channel list can be associated with one or more externally shared communication channels. In an example, the channel list pane can further comprise an externally shared communication channel status indicator associated with individual of the one or more externally shared communication channels that indicates that an associated group-based communication channel is externally shared.

Methods, apparatus and computer program product for creating an externally shared communication channel in a group-based communication platform are described herein. The group-based communication platform may have a plurality of database shards. A computer-implemented method may include receiving, from a first client device associated with an initiator group identification, a shared communication channel generation query associated with the initiator group identification and a target group identification; generating, in the group-based communication platform, a shared communication channel shard; transmitting, to a second client device associated with the target group identification, a shared communication channel acceptance request; receiving a shared communication channel acceptance notification; updating, in a main database, a shard referential table based on the initiator group identification, the target group identification, and the shared communication channel identification; and transmitting a shared communication channel interface of the shared communication channel based on the shared communication channel shard.

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Elizabeth Johnston