Slack unveils major design overhaul

(Image credit: Slack)

Working from home may have got a little easier after Slack revealed a major redesign.

The online collaboration platform is having a design overhaul as it looks to offer, ‘a simpler, more organised Slack’.

The changes, which Slack describes as the biggest since it launched, will start rolling out immediately, with users set to see the changes at some point over the next few weeks.

Slack redesign

Slack says that its average paid user spends more than nine hours each workday connected to the platform, including around 90 minutes of active use, adding up to more than five billion actions being taken each week.

"Altogether, these improvements make it easier for anyone to use Slack, adapt it to how they work and access essential tool," the company wrote in a blog post.

Among the new inclusions are a new navigation bar that will let users move across channels and search across their entire business, meaning no need to add in multiple keystrokes to move across conversations.

All key information is now stored neatly atop your sidebar, including mentions, reactions to your messages, files, people and apps all in one place.

Starting a conversation is also more straightforward, with a dedicated 'compose' button now allowing you to draft a message before sending it to a specific channel or contact. Drafts can be saved to come back to later on, or sent out immediately.

Users on paid plans will be also now be able to organize their Slack channels, direct messages and apps into customizable sections within their sidebar, allowing users to prioritise the chats that they use the most. This includes grouping chats into specific sections, which can be named, dragged and dropped to make sure updates aren't ever missed.

Mike Moore
Deputy Editor, TechRadar Pro

Mike Moore is Deputy Editor at TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a B2B and B2C tech journalist for nearly a decade, including at one of the UK's leading national newspapers and fellow Future title ITProPortal, and when he's not keeping track of all the latest enterprise and workplace trends, can most likely be found watching, following or taking part in some kind of sport.