Slack recently made some significant alterations to its instant messenger application. The new update redesigns the overall look of Slack and adds some functionality that was previously missing from the platform. This new Slack looks to streamline the online-work experience for many, adding new features like the compose-message tool and a fully customizable sidebar, while also cutting back on the number of drop-down menus and interactable features.
Slack has always been designed with the intention of making online workspaces convenient and reliable. It functions similarly to Skype but has specialized itself in being a highly-modifiable digital workspace. The application enables a fast and easy communication method that dodges text messages and email chains.
In terms of what's changed, there's a new navigation bar at the top of the window which will make it easier to search through conversations. Mentions, reactions, files, and other interactions will appear there as well. Previously, the top of the menu was clogged with drop-down menus. Those have been consolidated into the customizable sidebar, cleaning up the menus without losing functionality. Entirely new to Slack is the compose button, now you can write a message before deciding where to send it, drafts will also be saved whenever you leave the page. Slack describes the new update as more straightforward and more organized, “Every person on every team—centrally located or remote, technical or not—should be able to take advantage of the platform and collaborate together,” the service wrote on its blog. The update initially rolled out on March 18, though it is staggered across regions and platforms.
User Feedback Built Slack’s New Update
This new update looks to be the result of user feedback. In the development blog, the company talk about how this iteration of the application came around by noting how new users were more easily able to navigate the new version than the previous one, which has led to an emphasis on right-click functionality in this iteration. Hopefully, when the mobile version of the update launches it will feature similar improvements. In the future, Slack aims to integrate the app with other services to create a more streamlined service that will make the experience more relaxed overall. For instance, users move channels into sections and apply each section with an emoji. An important conversation might have an exclamation mark attached to it, and technical discussions could have wrenches or light bulbs attached.
While the overall message of Slack’s blog post was that the company had smoothed out some of the application’s rough edges, the door has also now been opened for additional apps to be easily accessible. The new update lets people easily create polls with the Simple Poll tool by right-clicking on the window. Slack already has a catalog full of first and third-party applications, so it would be nice to find some of these more conveniently melded into Slack.
Source: Slack