Slack trivia bot for teams: what to look for

How a trivia bot works in Slack

Every Slack trivia bot is built from the same three Slack primitives, and knowing them makes the comparison easier.

• Slash command. Someone types a command — in Hijinks, /hijinks — to start a round, open the settings, or check the leaderboard. Admins can also put rounds on a schedule so nobody has to remember.
• Channel posts. The bot posts the question into the channel. In a live round the answer buttons are right under the question and everyone has 30 seconds by default (adjustable from 15 to 60); the next question follows when the clock runs out.
• DM answers for async. In an async round the channel gets the announcement and a deadline, and each player answers privately in a DM with the bot. Nobody can copy the fast typist, and people in other time zones get a fair shot. When the deadline passes, the results and leaderboard post back to the channel.

What to compare

Pricing model

This is the biggest practical difference between apps. Some charge per active user, some by participant tier, some flat per workspace. Per-user pricing is cheap for five people and uncomfortable for fifty. Work out the monthly cost for your actual headcount, and check whether the free plan is a tier you can stay on or a trial that expires.

Async vs live

Distributed teams usually want async rounds (answer by Friday); co-located teams often prefer a live ten-minute burst. Ideally the bot does both, and lets you schedule either one to recur.

Question quality and variety

Ask where questions come from, how often they repeat, whether categories are gated behind higher plans, and whether you can add your own. A bot with a thin bank gets stale within a quarter.

Admin controls

Who can start a round, which channels it posts to, how often, how loud. The difference between a beloved ritual and a muted bot is usually the notification settings.

How Hijinks does each

• Pricing. Flat per organization, no per-user pricing. Free $0 (10 games a day, 10 players per game), Pro $5 a month (unlimited games, 50 players per game), Team $15 a month (unlimited games, 200 players per game, word games). Annual billing gives two months free. No category paywalls on Free.
• Async and live. Both, plus scheduled recurring rounds and a trivia of the day on Pro and Team. Live rounds give 30 seconds per question by default, adjustable from 15 to 60; async rounds take answers in DM until a deadline you set.
• Questions. A shared question bank, with True/False and Rebus rounds for variety. New questions on current events are added daily; they pass an automated sensitivity screen, and any it flags wait for human review. Custom questions with CSV import on Pro and Team.
• Admin controls. Channels, schedules and settings from Slack or the dashboard at app.hijinks.team. Leaderboards weekly, monthly and all-time, with category champions.
• Beyond trivia. Icebreakers (Would You Rather, Hot Takes, Most Likely To), Small Talk prompts, word games on the Team plan (Wordle, Anagram, Hangman), Charades, Pictionary, Celebrations, Virtual Coffee 1:1 intros and Know Your Team. See the full icebreaker question bank.
• Privacy. EU-hosted; the bot does not read message content.

Hijinks also runs on Discord and Telegram, with Microsoft Teams planned after launch, so a company on Slack and a community on Discord can use the same bot. For a team spread across time zones, the guide to trivia for remote teams covers async rounds, cadence and keeping it opt-in.

Comparing specific apps

We keep factual side-by-side pages for the apps teams most often ask about, and one table with all of them: Water Cooler Trivia, Ricotta and Trivia by Heron HR.