# What is X-Pack Watcher's Slack action "recipient" for? **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Tags:** elastic-stack-alerting\ **Created:** [December 2, 2018, 3:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-x-pack-watchers-slack-action-recipient-for/159020 "2018-12-02T03:46:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![arisbanach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f07891/32.png) [@arisbanach](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/arisbanach)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2018, 3:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-x-pack-watchers-slack-action-recipient-for/159020/1 "2018-12-02T03:46:07Z")
I can't seem to find any documentation on this. I configured the Slack app with a webhook to a certain channel. From what I can tell, with Slack it is one channel per webhook, so I'm not sure what the point of the "recipient" field is when creating a Watcher. It doesn't seem to do anything for me and always just goes to the channel the webhook is for. ---
**Author:** ![spinscale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/spinscale/32/25011_2.png) [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 9:47am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-x-pack-watchers-slack-action-recipient-for/159020/2 "2018-12-03T09:47:19Z")
Hey, are you referring to the `to` field in the slack action? See [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elastic-stack-overview/6.5/actions-slack.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elastic-stack-overview/6.5/actions-slack.html) If so, you . can control whom want to send a message as well. Just try it out 🙂 Hope that makes sense. --Alex ---
**Author:** ![arisbanach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f07891/32.png) [@arisbanach](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/arisbanach)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 12:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-x-pack-watchers-slack-action-recipient-for/159020/4 "2018-12-03T12:04:41Z")
Nope, I mean this section of the Watcher UI in Kibana: ![Screenshot_2018-12-03%20Kibana](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/c/a/caf0abfe94c905dbf8aabe9eb767da2f5fabb833.png) ---
**Author:** ![spinscale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/spinscale/32/25011_2.png) [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 4:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-x-pack-watchers-slack-action-recipient-for/159020/5 "2018-12-03T16:58:47Z")
oh I see. This is the `to` field and can be a user or a channel (optionally). ---
**Author:** ![arisbanach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f07891/32.png) [@arisbanach](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/arisbanach)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 5:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-x-pack-watchers-slack-action-recipient-for/159020/6 "2018-12-03T17:23:31Z")
Which is what I'm confused about. I created a Slack app and a webhook for that app. The X-Pack Slack settings takes a `url` setting that I put that webhook url into. That webhook in Slack is what is set to send messages to a particular channel / user. So I added a webhook for a set channel, and because that webhook is only for that one Slack channel, setting `to` or `recipient` on the Kibana / Elasticsearch side of things doesn't change anything for me. It always just send to that one Slack channel. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2018, 5:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-x-pack-watchers-slack-action-recipient-for/159020/7 "2018-12-31T17:23:36Z")
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