Get your work done from the Activity view
Activity is the best place to view everything you need to pay attention to in Slack. From Activity, you can quickly reply to messages without bouncing between all of the channels, direct messages (DMs), and canvases where you’re working.
Note: A new version of Activity is rolling out gradually. If this guide doesn’t reflect your experience, check out the legacy Activity article instead.
Activity overview
- When you open Activity, you’ll see a feed of all your recent messages and notifications.
- Switch between dense view to scan lots of messages at once or detailed view for extra context.
- Choose a filter to view only certain notifications (like mentions, DMs, and reminders) and create your own saved views to customize your feed.
- Mark notifications as read so it’s easy to see what you’ve already looked at, or clear them to keep things tidy.
Switch between detailed and dense layouts
There are two views available to you when working from Activity in Slack on desktop — detailed and dense. Detailed layout gives you more context for each notification in the feed, while Dense offers a more traditional inbox-style layout where you can see more entries at once.
- From your desktop, click Activity in the sidebar.
- Select View as detailed or View as dense in the top right corner.
Filter Activity
Each type of notification that appears in Activity has its own filter so you can view only certain items. From the All view on desktop, click Filters to see a complete list:
-
Unreads
All messages and notifications you haven’t read yet. -
DMs
Any direct messages you receive. -
Mentions
Messages where you’ve been mentioned. -
Threads
Replies to threads you’re following and threads you’ve been mentioned in. -
Channels
Messages in channels where your notification preference is set to All new posts. -
Reactions
Messages people reacted to with an emoji. -
Invitations
Notifications about channels you’re added to and new Slack Connect invitations. -
Apps
Notifications from apps, ex. Google Calendar invitations or updates from Jira. -
Reminders
All of your personal reminders. -
VIP
Notifications from your VIPs. Only available on paid plans. -
Cleared notifications
Any notifications you’ve cleared. -
Specific channel or section
Notifications from certain channels or sidebar sections. Only available on paid plans.
Work from Activity
Reply to messages and threads
Reply to any message or thread from Activity. Messages you reply to will automatically be marked as read, or you can clear the notification from your feed.
Desktop
Mobile
- Click Activity in the sidebar.
- Select a message to reply, or hover over a message and click the
three dots icon to view additional options like opening it in a channel or DM, setting a reminder, or turning off thread reply notifications.
- Tap Activity at the bottom of the screen.
- Tap a message to reply, or long press a message to view additional options like setting a reminder or turning off thread reply notifications.
Clear notifications
To keep Activity organized, you can clear any notifications you no longer need in your feed.
Desktop
Mobile
- Click Activity in the sidebar.
- Hover over a message, then click Clear notification.
- To clear in bulk, check the box next to multiple notifications and select Clear selected notifications.
- Tap Activity at the bottom of the screen.
- Swipe left on a message to clear it.
Tip: On desktop, check the box at the top of your feed to select and clear or mark all notifications as read.
Create and manage custom views
Saved views let you personalize how Activity is organized by preserving custom combinations of filters you can access from tabs at the top of your feed anytime. While you can only create saved views on desktop, you can also access them on mobile.
Create a custom view
- From your desktop, click Activity in the sidebar.
- Click the plus icon at the top of the screen and select Create a custom view.
- Enter a title for your view.
- Choose between detailed or dense layout.
- Click the toggle to only show unreads in your view, then check the box next to the notifications you'd like to include.
- Select specific channnels or sections from the drop-down menu if you'd like.
- Click Save.
Edit a custom view
- From your desktop, click Activity in the sidebar.
- Click the plus icon at the top of the screen and select Edit views.
- Select the view you want to edit, and check or uncheck the boxes for your preferred filters.
- Click Save.
Delete a custom view
- From your desktop, click Activity in the sidebar.
- Right-click on a custom view and select Delete view.
- Click Delete.
Tip: Drag and drop tabs at the top of Activity to re-order them.
Who can use this feature?
- All members and guests
- Available on all plans