@channel and @here (Slack)

@channel and @here are Slack's broadcast mentions — special keywords that notify many people in a channel at once instead of a single person. They are how you flag something urgent to a whole team, and how notification noise gets created when overused.

Who gets notified

• @here notifies only the members who are currently active in the channel. It skips anyone set to away, so it is the gentler option for things that only matter to people online right now.
• @channel notifies every member of the channel — active or away — triggering a desktop or mobile notification for all of them.
• @everyone is reserved for the default #general channel and notifies all workspace members.

None of these override paused notifications, and Slack does not send them for mentions used inside a thread.

Guardrails

In a channel with six or more members, Slack asks you to confirm before sending a message that contains @channel, @here, or @everyone. Workspace owners and admins can turn that warning off, and can restrict which members are allowed to use these mentions at all — a common control in large workspaces where an accidental @channel can ping thousands of people.

Using them in alerts

Broadcast mentions are most useful for genuinely time-sensitive events. Automations that post to Slack — via an incoming webhook, Workflow Builder, or a dedicated app — can prepend @channel so a critical message actually interrupts the team.

ChargeBell applies this deliberately: its critical alerts — a failed payment or a new dispute — can add an @channel prefix and bypass quiet hours, while routine wins stay quiet. That way the broadcast mention signals something that truly needs attention rather than adding to the noise.