Introducing a speedier, more efficient Slack desktop experience

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It’s a story we hear more and more: what started off as a small group of teammates using Slack has grown to entire departments and organisations relying on it to get work done. For some of our largest customers, including IBM and Oracle, that means upwards of 90,000 people collaborating in Slack channels at any given time. 

As more conversations, information and apps run through Slack, the underlying technology that supports it needs to scale up too. That’s why we’ve rebuilt Slack’s desktop experience to run more quickly and reliably across a growing number of workspaces and channels. This latest desktop release makes it easier to stay responsive and collaborate efficiently across teams, whether you’re an organisation of 10 or 10,000.

This update is rolling out gradually over the next few weeks. Here are a few improvements you can expect:

Less waiting, more doing

 

The Slack desktop app now launches 33% more quickly,* so you can jump straight into your work. Calls in Slack are also speedier, so you can join an incoming call with teammates up to 10 times more quickly.* That could mean the difference making it to a meeting or not. These moments saved can quickly add up, giving you more time to focus on the tasks at hand.

You work hard, but your computer doesn’t have to

This desktop release processes information more efficiently, using up to 50% less memory* than before. For users who check multiple workspaces a day – and toggle between many channels every hour – your minute-by-minute interactions are going to feel a whole lot smoother. For everyone else, the way you work in Slack will feel as smooth as ever (even if it’s technically better). 

Read uninterrupted, even with a patchy connection

If you find yourself with a patchy internet connection, the latest desktop release will allow you to launch Slack and view channels and conversations you’ve previously opened. Gone are the connection error messages that bring work to a standstill. Instead you’ll be able to look back over messages from your session, even if your signal drops in and out. 

This update is rolling out gradually to users over the next few weeks and an in-app notification will let you know once you’re running this latest version. (If you don’t have the desktop app yet, you can download it here.) In the meantime, keep an eye on our change log so you don’t miss any other changes to Slack – big or small.

*Claims depend on network configuration and factors such as the size of your workspace and age of your device. Actual results will vary.