An overview of Slack's new design

In August 2023, we launched a new design for Slack to help you focus and be more productive as you work. This is the spot to learn all about the new experience and what’s changed.

What's changed

At first glance, Slack may look quite different from what you’re used to seeing. Here’s where to find the channels, information and tools that you need to get to work.

• Updated sidebar
  Access unreads, drafts and all your conversations from   Home.
• New tabs to organise work
  Use   DMs to view only your direct messages, and go to   Activity for centralised notifications about mentions, reactions, threads and more. Start a new message, huddle, canvas or channel from the   plus icon. 
• Unified view across workspaces (Enterprise Grid)
  A simpler way to work in an organisation with multiple Slack workspaces. You can filter Home by workspace if you’d like to.

FAQ

Can I switch back to the old experience?

It's not possible to revert to the previous version of Slack. To share your feedback on the new design, open the Slack desktop app and click the  question mark icon in the top right. Then, click  Give feedback on the new design below the search field. 

How do I switch between workspaces? 

You can switch between workspaces by clicking the workspace icon in the top-left corner of the Slack desktop app. If you regularly use multiple workspaces, click the  workspace switcher icon (or press ⌘ShiftS on Mac or CtrlShiftS on Windows) to always show each of your workspace icons in the sidebar.  

What's in each of the tabs?

  Home All your conversations in both channels and DMs.
  DMs A list of all DMs that can be searched and filtered.
  Activity All your mentions, reactions, threads and app notifications.
  Later Reminders and saved items that can be marked as in progress, archived or complete.
  More Canvases, files, people and user groups and more.

How do I create a new message?

Click the   plus icon, then select Message. Or use the keyboard shortcut CmdN (Mac) or CtrlN (Windows). The plus icon is also where you can create a new huddle, canvas or channel.

Where did my profile and status go? 

Your profile and preferences menu are located in the bottom-left corner of the Slack desktop app and Slack in a browser.

I’m not seeing all the tabs mentioned above. Where are they?

When you resize your Slack desktop app, we collapse the DMs, Activity and Later tabs into More. You can always access them from More or make your window bigger to see them. To choose which tabs show up in your sidebar, click on your profile picture in the bottom left and select Preferences from the menu. Click on  Navigation, then tick the box next to the tabs that you'd like to see. 

My Slack theme changed with the new design. How can I get it back?

Some legacy themes are no longer available. To choose a new theme, click your profile picture in the bottom left. Select Preferences from the menu, then click Themes. Feeling adventurous? Click   Surprise me for a randomly generated theme. 

Where can I find help?

You can access Slack’s help and learning resources directly in the Slack desktop app or Slack in a browser. Just click the   help icon in the top-right corner (desktop) or bottom-left corner (browser).