diff --git a/backend/danswer/bots/slack/handlers/handle_message.py b/backend/danswer/bots/slack/handlers/handle_message.py
index 0403687b1..f778c6cea 100644
--- a/backend/danswer/bots/slack/handlers/handle_message.py
+++ b/backend/danswer/bots/slack/handlers/handle_message.py
@@ -15,9 +15,7 @@ from danswer.configs.app_configs import DANSWER_BOT_ANSWER_GENERATION_TIMEOUT
 from danswer.configs.app_configs import DANSWER_BOT_DISABLE_DOCS_ONLY_ANSWER
 from danswer.configs.app_configs import DANSWER_BOT_DISPLAY_ERROR_MSGS
 from danswer.configs.app_configs import DANSWER_BOT_NUM_RETRIES
-from danswer.configs.app_configs import (
-    DANSWER_BOT_ONLY_ANSWER_WHEN_SLACK_BOT_CONFIG_IS_PRESENT,
-)
+from danswer.configs.app_configs import DANSWER_BOT_RESPOND_EVERY_CHANNEL
 from danswer.configs.app_configs import DOCUMENT_INDEX_NAME
 from danswer.configs.app_configs import ENABLE_DANSWERBOT_REFLEXION
 from danswer.configs.constants import DOCUMENT_SETS
@@ -40,7 +38,7 @@ def handle_message(
     answer_generation_timeout: int = DANSWER_BOT_ANSWER_GENERATION_TIMEOUT,
     should_respond_with_error_msgs: bool = DANSWER_BOT_DISPLAY_ERROR_MSGS,
     disable_docs_only_answer: bool = DANSWER_BOT_DISABLE_DOCS_ONLY_ANSWER,
-    only_answer_when_config_is_present: bool = DANSWER_BOT_ONLY_ANSWER_WHEN_SLACK_BOT_CONFIG_IS_PRESENT,
+    respond_every_channel: bool = DANSWER_BOT_RESPOND_EVERY_CHANNEL,
 ) -> None:
     engine = get_sqlalchemy_engine()
     with Session(engine) as db_session:
@@ -48,7 +46,7 @@ def handle_message(
         slack_bot_config = get_slack_bot_config_for_channel(
             channel_name=channel_name, db_session=db_session
         )
-        if slack_bot_config is None and only_answer_when_config_is_present:
+        if slack_bot_config is None and not respond_every_channel:
             logger.info(
                 "Skipping message since the channel is not configured to use DanswerBot"
             )
diff --git a/backend/danswer/configs/app_configs.py b/backend/danswer/configs/app_configs.py
index 2025722d2..a0f571487 100644
--- a/backend/danswer/configs/app_configs.py
+++ b/backend/danswer/configs/app_configs.py
@@ -230,12 +230,12 @@ DANSWER_BOT_DISPLAY_ERROR_MSGS = os.environ.get(
 DANSWER_BOT_DISABLE_DOCS_ONLY_ANSWER = os.environ.get(
     "DANSWER_BOT_DISABLE_DOCS_ONLY_ANSWER", ""
 ).lower() not in ["false", ""]
-DANSWER_BOT_ONLY_ANSWER_WHEN_SLACK_BOT_CONFIG_IS_PRESENT = (
-    os.environ.get(
-        "DANSWER_BOT_ONLY_ANSWER_WHEN_SLACK_BOT_CONFIG_IS_PRESENT", ""
-    ).lower()
-    == "true"
+
+# Default is only respond in channels that are included by a slack config set in the UI
+DANSWER_BOT_RESPOND_EVERY_CHANNEL = (
+    os.environ.get("DANSWER_BOT_RESPOND_EVERY_CHANNEL", "").lower() == "true"
 )
+
 # Add a second LLM call post Answer to verify if the Answer is valid
 # Throws out answers that don't directly or fully answer the user query
 # This is the default for all DanswerBot channels unless the bot is configured individually
diff --git a/deployment/docker_compose/docker-compose.dev.yml b/deployment/docker_compose/docker-compose.dev.yml
index ef8346ef1..388870818 100644
--- a/deployment/docker_compose/docker-compose.dev.yml
+++ b/deployment/docker_compose/docker-compose.dev.yml
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ services:
       - DANSWER_BOT_SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=${DANSWER_BOT_SLACK_BOT_TOKEN:-}
       - DANSWER_BOT_DISABLE_DOCS_ONLY_ANSWER=${DANSWER_BOT_DISABLE_DOCS_ONLY_ANSWER:-}
       - DANSWER_BOT_DISPLAY_ERROR_MSGS=${DANSWER_BOT_DISPLAY_ERROR_MSGS:-}
-      - DANSWER_BOT_ONLY_ANSWER_WHEN_SLACK_BOT_CONFIG_IS_PRESENT=${DANSWER_BOT_ONLY_ANSWER_WHEN_SLACK_BOT_CONFIG_IS_PRESENT:-}
+      - DANSWER_BOT_RESPOND_EVERY_CHANNEL=${DANSWER_BOT_RESPOND_EVERY_CHANNEL:-}
       # Don't change the NLP model configs unless you know what you're doing
       - DOCUMENT_ENCODER_MODEL=${DOCUMENT_ENCODER_MODEL:-}
       - NORMALIZE_EMBEDDINGS=${NORMALIZE_EMBEDDINGS:-}