Change how messages are displayed

When using Slack on your desktop, you can adjust how your messages are displayed by choosing a theme and selecting additional display options if you'd like. 

Clean vs. Compact theme

By default, Slack uses the Clean theme. If you’d like to see more messages at once, you can switch to the Compact theme instead.

Clean theme The Clean theme displays member profile photos beside their messages.

Compact theme The Compact theme uses less white space between messages and hides member profile photos.

Change your message display preferences

Desktop

Mobile

1. Click your profile picture.
   
2. Select Preferences.
3. Click Messages & media in the left sidebar.
   
4. Choose either Clean or Compact.

Manage additional options

You can adjust other message-related display settings under Additional options:

• Display information about who is currently typing a message
• Show times with 24-hour clock
• Display color swatches next to hexadecimal values

It's not currently possible to change message display from the Slack mobile apps, but the app display will scale to match the font size you set in your device settings.

Tip: To further customize the appearance of messages, you can change the font in Slack.