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    4. Organise your sidebar with customised sections

Organise your sidebar with customised sections

Who can use this feature?

If you use Slack on a paid subscription, you can organise your channels, direct messages (DMs) and apps into custom sections within your sidebar. Your custom sections are only visible to you and won’t affect what your colleagues see, so set them up however you like.

Note: If you’re using the free version of Slack, read about ways to manage what’s in your sidebar or start a free trial to use custom sections.


Create custom sections

  1. From the   Home tab, click the Channels section in your sidebar. GIF depicting a cursor opening the custom sections modal in the Slack desktop app.
  2. Hover over Create, then click Create section.
  3. Enter a name for your custom section, or choose one of the suggestions.
  4. If you’d like, click the  smiley face icon to select an emoji to display next to your section.
  5. Click Create.
  1. Open a channel or DM that you'd like to create a new section for.
  2. Tap the channel or member name(s) in the conversation header.
  3. Long press the  star icon.
  4. Enter a name for your custom section, or choose one of the suggestions.
  5. If you’d like, tap the  smiley face icon to select an emoji to display next to your section.
  6. Tap Create.

Tip: You can share a sidebar section with others by creating a user group with a shared sidebar section.


Organise your conversations

Move a conversation to a section

You can drag and drop any conversation to a section from your sidebar, or follow the steps below to move a conversation that you're viewing to a section:

  1. Open the channel or DM that you want to move.
  2. Click the channel or member name(s) in the conversation header.
    GIF of a cursor clicking on the channel name in the channel header
  3. Click on the  star icon (or the emoji associated with the customised section) beside the channel or member name(s).
  4. Select a custom section from the list, or click Move to new section to create a new one.
  1. Open the channel or DM that you want to move.
  2. Tap the channel or member name(s) in the conversation header.
  3. Tap and hold the  star icon (or the emoji associated with the customised section) at the top right.
  4. Select a custom section from the list, or tap   Move to new section to create a new one.

Tip: To create new custom sections and move multiple conversations at once, click any section name, then choose Manage > Edit all sections.


Remove a conversation from a section

When you remove a conversation from a custom section, it’ll move back to the Channels or Direct messages section of your sidebar.

  1. Open the channel or DM that you want to remove.
  2. Click the channel or member name(s) in the conversation header.
    GIF of a cursor clicking on the channel name in the channel header
  3. Click on the  star icon (or the emoji associated with the customised section) next to the channel or member name(s).
  4. Select Remove from [section name].
  1. Open the channel or DM that you want to remove.
  2. Tap the channel or member name(s) in the conversation header.
  3. Tap the  star icon (or the emoji associated with the customised section) at the top right.
  4. Tap Remove from [section name].

Note: In an Enterprise organisation, a channel will only appear in a custom section in your sidebar if it’s been added to the workspace that you’re viewing.


Rename or delete custom sections

You can rename a Custom section or update the associated emoji at any time. If you no longer need a customised section, you can delete it.

  1. From the   Home tab, select any custom section name in your sidebar.
  2. Hover over Manage, then select Rename [section name] or Delete [section name].
  1. Tap the   Home tab at the bottom of your screen.
  2. Long press a custom section.
  3. Tap Rename [section name] or Delete [section name].

Note: If you use Slack Connect, new conversations will appear in a Slack Connect section by default. You can’t rename or delete this section, but you can move conversations to other sections if you like.


Manage conversation display

If you’d like to override the display and sorting preferences that you’ve set for your entire sidebar, you can adjust them for each of your custom sections.

  1. From your desktop, click the custom section name in your sidebar.
  2. Hover over Show and Sort, then select your preference.

Tip: Click the   or  arrow icons to collapse or expand individual sections. Press Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows/Linux) and click on any customised section in your sidebar to collapse or expand all sections at once.

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