Slash commands should be available in the same place we type messages.
As a power user, I wish to be able to enter slash commands in the same control where I type messages, because the inability to do so goes against more than 30 years of precedent for chat applications. Having to enter them elsewhere is counter intuitive and frustrating.
From an accessibility point of view it makes no sense to force the user to navigate to another control where they still need to type the slash.
IRC has had slash commands for more than 30 years. Slack, Mattermost, Zoom... all have slash commands integrated in the text entry control too.
Integrating slash commands in the search feature is fine too, just don't limit them to being entered there.
Once the / commands are available in the normal way, new slash commands for search can be added:
//search string (global)
/?search string (reverse in channel / chat)

3 comments
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Anonymous commented
This is and would be an INCREDIBLY efficient improvement - and coming from a long-time slack user, one of Slack's best features still. One space to rule them all!!!
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Cam commented
Agreed
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Nick commented
I agree, having to mouse up to the search bar is unnecessary. I realize Teams isn't Slack or Discord, but come on... Give me efficiency! I'm always positioned in the composition pane, so why not allow me to simply /search <string> or /dnd 1 hour where I already am, rather than mouse up to the search bar and then /dnd. This is 2020, let's get with the times.