The sidebar contains your various conversations, tools, and settings in Slack. You can customize your sidebar to prioritize what matters most to you.
Components of the sidebar
To learn about the components that make up your sidebar, review the descriptions below.
Component
Definition
1. View options
Click this icon to show or hide the workspace switcher.
2. Workspace switcher
If you’re signed into more than one workspace, use the workspace switcher to easily switch between them. The workspace switcher can appear on the outside of your sidebar, or be collapsed into a single workspace icon at the top of the navigation bar.
3. Navigation bar
The navigation bar holds tools, like canvases and lists, and tabs used to navigate Slack, like Home, Activity, and Later.
4. Sidebar
When using Slack in the Home tab, you'll find your channels and direct messages (DMs) listed in the sidebar, divided into sections.
Tip: Click and drag the edge of your sidebar to adjust it to your preferred width.
Customize the navigation bar
You can customize the navigation bar to include the tools and tabs you use most.
Click your profile picture in the sidebar.
Select Preferences from the menu.
Click Navigation.
Under Show these tabs in the navigation bar, check or uncheck the boxes next to the items you’d like to show or hide. Items you leave unchecked will appear when you hover over More in the sidebar.
You can customize the sidebar in the Home tab by choosing what appears at the top, which conversations are shown and how they're sorted, as well as some additional customization options. Here's how:
Click your profile picture in the sidebar.
Select Preferences from the menu.
Click Home.
Select from the available settings to customize the appearance of your sidebar.
Tip: The conversations in your sidebar are organized into default sections that you can click and drag to reorder. On paid plans, you can also create custom sections.
Filter your sidebar
You can quickly filter your sidebar to narrow down the conversations to what's most relevant to you.
From the Home tab, click your organization name in the sidebar.
Hover over Filter sidebar in the menu.
Choose whether you'd like to filter your conversations by Activity, People, or Workspaces (Enterprise Grid plans only), then hover over your selection to see the filtering options.
