Adjust your sidebar preferences
Your left sidebar in Slack is an access point for different parts of your workspace. There are a number of preferences that you can set to tailor how your sidebar is organised.
Customise the top of your sidebar
At the top of your sidebar is a list of items to help you quickly browse your Slack workspace. You can customise this list from your preferences:
- From your desktop, click on your profile picture in the top right.
- Select Preferences from the menu.
- Click on Sidebar in the left-hand column.
- Under Always show in the sidebar, tick or untick the boxes next to the sidebar items that you’d like to show or hide.
Note: Items at the top of your sidebar are revealed as you interact with different features in Slack, so if you're brand new, you may not see all of them straight away. Click More to see any hidden options.
Re-order sidebar sections
By default, your sidebar will be divided into the following sections: Channels, Starred, Direct Messages, Apps and Connections. To rearrange these sections in your sidebar, click the section header, and drag it to your desired location in the sidebar.
Tip: On paid subscriptions, you can add custom sections to your sidebar.
Choose which conversations to show
Once you belong to 30 or more channels, your sidebar preference will default to Unread messages only. You can adjust which conversations to show in your sidebar:
-
Unread messages only
Conversations with unread messages will appear in bold in their sections. Muted and read messages will be automatically collapsed into the section header. To see the read channels in the section, click the section header. -
Mentions only
Conversations where you’ve been mentioned will show a badge and appear in bold in the section. All other conversations will be collapsed into the section header. -
All your conversations
Every conversation you belong to will appear in its section.
Here’s how to adjust your sidebar preferences:
- From your desktop, click on your profile picture in the top right.
- Select Preferences from the menu.
- Click on Sidebar in the left-hand column.
- Under Show, choose which conversations to show.
Tip: On paid subscriptions, you can adjust which conversations are shown for each section in your sidebar.
Sort your conversations
Desktop
iOS
Android
Sort conversations in your sidebar alphabetically or by recent activity. On paid subscriptions, you can also sort your conversations by priority to list the ones that you use most at the top.
- From your desktop, click on your profile picture in the top right.
- Select Preferences from the menu.
- Click on Sidebar in the left-hand column.
- Under Sort, choose your sorting preference.
Tip: On paid subscriptions, you can adjust how conversations are sorted for each section in your sidebar.
The Home tab contains a list of your conversations, similar to the sidebar on your desktop. By default, these will be sorted alphabetically or by section if you use customised sections. You can choose to sort these conversations by recent activity instead.
- From the Home tab, tap the list icon in the top right.
- Select a sorting option from the list.
The Home tab contains a list of your conversations, similar to the sidebar on your desktop. By default, these will be sorted alphabetically or by section if you use customised sections. You can choose to sort these conversations by recent activity instead.
- From the Home tab, tap the list icon in the top right.
- Select a sorting option from the list.
Show or hide profile photos
By default, peoples’ profile photos will appear next to direct messages (DMs) in your sidebar. If you like, you can adjust this preference:
- From your desktop, click on your profile picture in the top right.
- Select Preferences from the menu.
- Click on Sidebar in the left-hand column.
- Tick or untick the box next to Show profile photos next to DMs.
List private channels separately
By default, all channels will be listed together in your sidebar. If you like, you can choose to list private channels separately from public channels:
- From your desktop, click on your profile picture in the top right.
- Select Preferences from the menu.
- Click on Sidebar in the left-hand column.
- Tick or untick the box next to Separate private channels from public ones in sidebar.
List direct messages and apps separately
When channels, direct messages and apps all belong to the same section, you can choose to list direct messages and apps below the channels within that section:
- From your desktop, click on your profile picture in the top right.
- Select Preferences from the menu.
- Click on Sidebar in the left-hand column.
- Tick or untick the box next to Separate direct messages and apps from channels in sidebar.
List mentions at the top of sections
When channels, direct messages and apps all belong to the same section, you can choose to list direct messages and apps below the channels within that section:
- From your desktop, click on your profile picture in the top right.
- Select Preferences from the menu.
- Click on Sidebar in the left-hand column.
- Tick or untick the box next to Move items with unread mentions 1 to top of sections.
Adjust your sidebar width
You can adjust the width of your sidebar to make it wider or narrower or collapse it:
- Click and drag the edge of your sidebar to adjust it to your preferred width.
- Press ⌘ShiftD (Mac) or CtrlShiftD (Windows/Linux) to collapse or reopen the sidebar.
By default, the sidebar will collapse based on window size. If you like, you can adjust this preference:
- From your desktop, click on your profile picture in the top right.
- Select Preferences from the menu.
- Click on Sidebar in the left-hand column.
- Tick or untick the box next to Automatically close sidebar based on window size.
- All members
- Available on all subscriptions