Why we use it

Twist is a tool specifically created for teams that work and communicate asynchronously. It can be compared to email and Slack, but it improves on the things that make email infuriating and it ditches the things that make Slack suck. 

If you've ever come back to your email inbox to find a conversation thread just 4 emails deep, you know how needlessly difficult it is to see who said what and when they said it. Not to mention the unpleasant formatting and incohesive attachments.

Similarly, if you've returned to Slack to see channels filled with new messages, you know how much time can be burned just to figure out the context each message is referring to. Not to mention the mess of multiple conversations overlapping in the same channel.

Twist adopts the aspects of email and Slack that work for asynchronous communication and collaboration, and excludes the rest. This makes it a great tool for us to use between our synchronous, all-staff days to harness our collective brainpower and keep conversations flowing.

How we use it

Twist has 5, 1-minute videos introducing Twist and it's main features. I would strongly recommend starting there. 

Channels vs Threads vs Messages

Something that's unique to Twist is the relationship between Channels, Threads, and Messages. 

Messages are, in the most basic sense, a private conversation between two or more people. Only those in the message can see what's said. 🤐

Channels and Threads are much more intertwined —  to be specific, Threads live inside Channels. To keep things easy — the fewer Channels we have, the better. Everyone is welcome to jump in and out of channels as they please and only the Channels one has "joined" show up on the left. Channels are kind of an organization system but, if taken too far, they can become a hiding place for lost and forgotten conversations.

Unlike Channels, the more Threads we have, the better. Threads represent actual conversations. Can be started and closed easily, and addressed to everyone in a Channel, or specific people. Like Channels, everyone is welcome to jump in and out of Threads as they please. When a conversation is done, a Thread can be closed. It can always be found at a later date, and even re-opened if desired.

Tag 🏃‍♀️🏃

When writing an email, you enter the recipient in the To field. When writing a Thread, you enter the recipient in the Tag field. By default, a new Thread will be addressed to Everyone in Channel. This means everyone in the Channel will see this new Thread in their Twist inbox.

Future replies to that Thread will be (by default) addressed to Everyone who interacted. This means only those who have previously contributed to that specific Thread will see your reply in their Twist inbox.

These defaults can be changed anytime to Post something — should you want to.

Accessing Twist

Twist can be accessed via the Web, or by using the Desktop and Mobile apps.

Notifications 📣

Notification can be adjusted in Twist, within Settings > Notifications. You can adjust the settings per Desktop, Mobile, and Email. The default is Mentions and 1-on-1 messages only — what does that mean?

• 1-on-1 messages refers Messages that are you and one other — different than messages that are you and many others.

• Mentions refers to when someone specifically types @yourname — whether that me in a Thread, or in a many-person Message.

Going down the list of options means fewer notifications. Going up the list of options means more notifications. Pick your poison. ☠️

This also means that, unless someone changes their settings, you can use an @theirname to send them a notification for something that's urgent.