Slack is getting a new look to help teams be more organised and focused, according to the company’s CPO, Noah Weiss.
Slack, the Salesforce-owned workplace messaging platform, is today (9 August) beginning to introduce a gradual redesign of its interface. The company claims the design tweaks will better enable users to remain productive and focused while using Slack.
Among the main features of the new design will be a more streamlined Home page for users to see all of their channels in one place. The idea behind this change is that workers are more productive when using centralised platforms where they can access various communications and tasks in one place. Teams that use Slack on Enterprise Grid accounts will now have the ability to view channels from every workspace all in Home. They won’t have to toggle between different workspaces.
There will also be more features that allow users to prioritise various aspects of their work on Slack. There will be an Activity tab for teams to get up to speed on work that is already happening so they can see what is going on and how it applies to their role. There is also an option to save non-urgent messages or tasks to the Later tab so they can return to them at another time. They can set a reminder to make sure they don’t forget to return to the task or message.
The new Home page. Image: Slack
And Slack is adding quicker access to canvases, workflows and apps through a More button, which will reduce the amount of time users need to spend moving between various channels. Finally, a Create button will be added to enable users to add new chats, huddles, canvases and messages.
“We know millions of people start and end their workday in Slack, so we took great care to ensure these improvements make it a more productive and pleasant home. The new experience helps teams stay better organised, focus on what’s important and quickly access a growing set of tools in Slack,” said Noah Weiss, the company’s chief product officer.
The new user experience will begin rolling out to new teams from today and will reach existing users over the coming months. Slack has previously released new tools aimed at hybrid and remote workers. The availability of these new features depends on what kind of plan – paid or free – users are on.
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