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Developer English guide

English for Slack: Phrases and Expressions for Your Remote Team

August 21, 2026

Learn English for Slack: how to say you are busy, ask for help, give updates and communicate in English with your remote development team.

Key Takeaways

  • Always give context in the same message. Do not just say 'Hello?' and wait.
  • EOD = end of day. OOO = out of office. LGTM = looks good to me.
  • Status messages save you from interruptions. Use them every day.
  • Close the loop when you solve a problem yourself. It saves everyone time.
  • In async teams, committing to a response time ('I'll get back to you by EOD') is better than 'I don't know when I'll reply'.

1. Status messages

Your Slack status tells the team where you are and what you are doing without needing to say it in a channel.

“In a meeting”

When to use it:

Set as your Slack status while in a call. Simple and universal.

“In a meeting until 3pm”

When to use it:

Adds a time so teammates know when you will be back.

“Focused — DM me only if urgent”

When to use it:

Signals deep work. The double dash is intentional: it is not an em dash.

“On vacation”

When to use it:

The standard status for holidays and time off.

“Working from home”

When to use it:

Optional if your team is fully remote, but useful in hybrid teams.

“Heads down on a bug. Back in an hour.”

When to use it:

Informal message to the team. Sets expectations without being rude.

2. Asking for help

The key is to give context in the same message. Do not just say 'Hello?' and wait. Explain what you need so the other person can help you when they have time.

“Hey, quick question about X. Is now a good time?”

When to use it:

Polite way to check if someone is available before jumping in.

“Could someone help me with X? I've been stuck for a while.”

When to use it:

Clear, direct, and honest. Specifying how long you've been stuck is helpful.

“I'm blocked on X. Would anyone have 10 minutes to pair on this?”

When to use it:

Asking for a pairing session. Specifying the time (10 minutes) makes it easier to say yes.

“Who owns the auth module? I have a question about the token refresh flow.”

When to use it:

Finding the right person before asking. More efficient than pinging everyone.

“Not urgent, but when you get a chance, could you look at this?”

When to use it:

Signals low priority. Gives the other person control over their time.

“I found the issue. Never mind!”

When to use it:

Always close the loop when you solve it yourself. Saves everyone time.

3. Giving updates

Short, specific updates keep the team informed without meetings. Always include a link or next action when relevant.

“Just pushed the fix. Please pull and let me know if it works on your end.”

When to use it:

Short update after a code change. Ends with a clear action item.

“PR is up for review: [link]”

When to use it:

The standard way to announce a new pull request. Always include the link.

“Done. Closing the ticket.”

When to use it:

Quick update when you finish a task.

“Deployed to staging. Ready for QA.”

When to use it:

Update after deploying. Tells the QA engineer what to do next.

“Still working on it. Should have something by EOD.”

When to use it:

Progress update when work is taking longer than expected.

“Blocked on the design approval. Waiting on @sarah.”

When to use it:

Transparent blocker update. Mentions the person so there is no ambiguity.

4. Thread etiquette

Threads keep channels organized. Use them for long discussions and always follow up if your message got no response.

“Let's take this to a thread.”

When to use it:

Move a long conversation out of the main channel to keep it organized.

“Following up on this.”

When to use it:

Polite way to resurface a message that got no response.

“Circling back to this from last week.”

When to use it:

Referencing an older conversation. Common after a few days of silence.

“This got buried. Bumping for visibility.”

When to use it:

Informal way to bring attention to a message that was missed.

5. Async phrases

Remote teams across timezones work async. These phrases help you communicate clearly when people are not online at the same time.

“No worries, take your time.”

When to use it:

Reassures someone that there is no urgency. Very common in async teams.

“I'll get back to you by EOD.”

When to use it:

EOD = end of day. Commits to a response time without being specific about the hour.

“Async is fine with me. No need to call.”

When to use it:

Explicitly choosing written communication over a meeting.

“I'll review this tomorrow morning. In a different timezone.”

When to use it:

Transparent about timezone differences. Helps set expectations.

“Leaving this here for the record.”

When to use it:

Posting a decision or outcome so it is documented for later.

6. Common acronyms and abbreviations

These short forms appear constantly in Slack. Knowing them saves you from having to Google mid-conversation.

“LGTM”

When to use it:

Looks Good To Me. The most common approval in code reviews and quick chats.

“WDYT?”

When to use it:

What Do You Think? A quick way to ask for someone's opinion.

“TBH”

When to use it:

To Be Honest. Signals that you are about to give a candid opinion.

“FYI”

When to use it:

For Your Information. Sharing information without expecting a response.

“OOO”

When to use it:

Out Of Office. Used in status messages and automatic replies.

Related articles

Vocabulary

Stand-up Phrases: What to Say in Your Daily in English

Guide

Emails in English for Developers: Templates and Phrases

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Roxana Lafuente

Written by

Roxana Lafuente

Lingua-e's founder

Roxana Lafuente is a software engineer with 8+ years of experience. At the beginning of her career, even though she had already passed the First Certificate in English, she still froze every time she had to speak up in the daily standup. That was a gap nobody was fixing. After 2,000+ standups, she figured out what actually builds fluency: practice that looks like your real work. She built Lingua-e so other developers wouldn't have to take the long road to feel confident working in an international development environment.