Slack has started rolling out a brand new design. The new design focuses on two aspects: making the interface simple and more personal. With this approach, the company behind the popular business chat service tries to solve the problems that the 12 million users encounter daily.
The first thing to notice is that the sidebar has had the most changes. You will soon be able to merge conversations, channels and applications within a self-created group. So if you often work in projects, you can now make it clearer for yourself by bringing everything together. In addition, you can pick up and drag the elements to the intended location. Unfortunately, for the time being, these changes are only accessible to paying users.
Changes to Slack’s interface
At the bottom of the desktop application there is now a large compose button. This will be a universal way of sending messages. You can start tapping and decide where to leave that message afterwards. Whether in a channel or private conversation, Slack loads the history that applies at the time.
We also find two new parts in the sidebar: people and mentions & comments. Here you will find what to expect: the people you can chat with in the area, and of course the mentions and comments that you leave behind. The latter is especially useful, because the current interface can sometimes make a mess. You can also adjust the width and color of the bar; later there will also be eleven themes to choose from.
At the top we find a new navigation bar. There you can quickly switch between the search function and the channels. In addition, there will be support for various shortcuts, which you can operate with your keyboard. The same goes for your mouse. Such shortcuts will soon be comparable to shortcuts that you also use in your browser.
The latest changes have to do with the user interface in general. For example, various pages within Slack, as well as the menus and your preferences, are displayed more neatly, so that the general user experience must also improve.
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Slack for mobile devices
The above changes apply initially to the desktop version of Slack. That does not mean that the mobile application is skipped. Those users will also be able to count on a new design in the near future.
For example, the application has a navigation bar at the bottom, where you will find buttons for a renewed home screen, private conversations and entries. The classic sidebar will continue to exist in the app.
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