Slack’s new Connect feature aims to replace email by letting you send Slack messages directly to anyone, not just your coworkers. But can that really be done?

The new Slack Connect feature is, Slack says, “designed to replace email outside your company.” Adding a new conversation is easy. You just paste the contact’s email address, write a few words, and send the invite. If accepted, you and the invitee can now converse in a Slack chat, just like you do with your coworkers. It looks great. But email is still involved.

"Many thought email would die, but guess what—it's more popular than ever," online marketer Stephen Montagne told Lifewire via email. "How can Slack replace email if you need the person's email address to DM them? That doesn't seem like a replacement [for email] to me, since the person you're trying to contact still has to use an email address."

Email is great because it’s open. Everyone has an email address, and anyone can email anyone. If email worked like other messaging services, Gmail users would only be able to email other Gmail users, and so on.