Slack, depending on how you use it, could be either a great communication tool for a workforce spread across multiple locations, or a tremendous distraction. Starting today, though, the company is rolling out a new tool in a push to become more of the former.
The new look might take a little getting used to for power users of the office tool. The left side of the tool, for instance, now collapses all of your workspaces into a single tile, eliminating the need to toggle back and forth. And direct messages will now be brought together, showing the most recent message from each chat — and giving you the option to only see unread 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,” said Noah Weiss, chief product officer at Slack in a blog post. “The new experience helps teams stay better organized, focus on what’s important, and quickly access a growing set of tools in Slack.”
Other changes include an activity feed, a single place for things the demand your attention, including mentions, threads, reactions and notifications. There’s also a place to stash conversations you want to come back to later (called, conveniently, Later) and quicker access to tools such as canvas and workflows.
“Moving quickly on routine actions is a small but powerful way to give you time back in your day for more meaningful work,” the site said. “Now you’ll see a new “create” button that allows you to start not only new messages but also channels, canvases and huddles.”
One thing you won’t find just yet? Widespread AI integration.
The new look for Slack will initially roll out to new teams. Existing members will start to see the change in the coming months, the company says.