Configure your Slack notifications
Notifications in Slack keep you informed about the work that you care about, whether you’re at your desk or on the move. Use the steps below to customise your desktop, mobile and email notifications.
Tip: If you’re having issues with notifications, visit Troubleshoot Slack notifications for help.
Adjust your notification triggers
By default, only direct messages (DMs), mentions and keywords will trigger notifications in Slack. You can change your preference to either be notified about all new messages sent in conversations that you’re part of, or nothing at all.
Desktop
iOS
Android
- Click your profile picture in the sidebar.
- Select Preferences from the menu to open your notification preferences.
- Under Notify me about, choose your notification triggers.
- To use different triggers for your mobile notifications, tick the box next to Use different settings for my mobile devices, then select your preference from the drop-down menu.
- To disable notifications for threads, untick the box next to Notify me about replies to threads I’m following.
To receive mobile notifications, download the Slack app to your mobile device and sign in to your workspace. Then follow these steps to configure your notification triggers:
- Tap your profile picture at the top of your screen.
- Tap Notifications.
- Select your notification preference below On mobile, notify me about.
To receive mobile notifications, download the Slack app to your mobile device and sign in to your workspace. Then follow these steps to configure your notification triggers:
- Tap your profile picture at the top of your screen.
- Tap Notifications.
- Tap On mobile, notify me about to select your notification preference.
Set up keyword notifications
You can set keywords to trigger notifications about topics that are important to you. Whenever someone uses one of your keywords in a channel that you’ve joined, you’ll receive a notification and see the keyword highlighted in yellow.
Desktop
iOS
Android
- Click your profile picture in the sidebar.
- Select Preferences.
- Under My keywords, enter the words or phrases that you’d like to be notified about.
- Tap your profile picture at the top of your screen.
- Tap Notifications.
- Select My keywords.
- Enter the words or phrases that you’d like to be notified about.
- Tap your profile picture at the top of your screen.
- Tap Notifications.
- Select My keywords.
- Enter the words or phrases that you’d like to be notified about.
- Tap Save.
Note: Keywords are not case-sensitive, but only exact matches will trigger notifications. Keywords in messages from some apps won’t trigger notifications, but will appear highlighted in Slack. Keywords in messages sent in threads won’t trigger a notification.
Set a notification schedule
If you only want to receive notifications during certain hours or on certain days, you can set a notification schedule. Outside the days and hours that you set for your schedule, your notifications will be paused.
Tip: You can pause your notifications at any time to focus or take a break from work.
Adjust notification sound and appearance
You can choose whether or not to display message previews in banner notifications and select the notification sound that alerts you to:
- New messages
- Huddles
- Sending a DM
- Receiving a DM while in the conversation
Desktop
iOS
Android
- Click your profile picture in the sidebar.
- Select Preferences.
- Scroll down to Sound & appearance.
- If you like, tick the box next to Include a preview of the message in each notification or Mute all sounds from Slack.
- Select an option from the drop-down menus for each notification type.
- Tap your profile picture at the top of your screen.
- Tap Notifications.
- Tap Sound.
- Select your preference.
- Tap your profile picture at the top of your screen.
- Tap Notifications.
- Tap System options.
- Tap Sound.
- Select your preference, then tap Save.
Note: Selecting notification sound and appearance preferences is not available on Huawei devices.
Set your badge notification preference
When you have an unread notification, you’ll see a badge in the top-right corner of the Slack app icon on your desktop. Depending on your device, there are a few ways to adjust this preference:
Mac
Windows
Linux
- Click your profile picture in the sidebar.
- Select Preferences.
- Under Sound & appearance, tick or untick Show a badge • on Slack’s icon to indicate new activity.
Tip: If you're a member of multiple workspaces, you can pick and choose the ones that you'd like to see badge notifications for.
On Windows, you'll see badge notifications in two places: in your taskbar and in your notifications area.
Taskbar
By default, the Slack icon will flash once when receiving a notification if your computer has been idle for ten seconds. You can choose to have the icon flash when you're active:
- Click your profile picture in the sidebar.
- Select Preferences.
- Scroll down to Flash window when a notification is received and select Always.
Tip: Selecting the preference Always will also keep the Slack icon in the taskbar when the app window is closed.
Notifications area
By default, the Slack app will run in the notifications area even when the window is closed. Choosing not to leave the app running will remove the Slack icon and badges from your notifications area. Here's how to keep the app from running in the notifications area when the window is closed:
- Click your profile picture in the sidebar.
- Select Preferences.
- Click Advanced.
- Below Other Options, untick the box next to Leave app running in notification area when the window is closed.
By default, the Slack app will run in the notifications area even when the window is closed. Choosing not to leave the app running will remove the Slack icon and badges from your notifications area. Here's how to keep the app from running in the notifications area when the window is closed:
- Click your profile picture in the sidebar.
- Select Preferences.
- Click Advanced.
- Below Other options, untick the box next to Leave app running in notification area when the window is closed.
Note: New activity for direct messages, keywords, mentions, app notifications, thread replies, Slack Connect invitations and overdue reminders will show a badge notification. If you’d like, you can exclude thread replies that don’t mention you.
Choose mobile notification timing
By default, you’ll receive mobile notifications one minute after locking your desktop screen or 10 minutes after Slack stops detecting cursor activity. You can choose to receive mobile notifications as soon as they’re sent, as soon as you’re inactive or after an additional delay.
Desktop
iOS
Android
- Click your profile picture in the sidebar.
- Select Preferences.
- Scroll down to When I'm not active on desktop and choose your timing.
Tip: If you want to receive notifications on your desktop and mobile devices at the same time, select this preference: immediately, even if I'm active.
- Tap your profile picture at the top of your screen.
- Tap Notifications.
- Tap Notify me on mobile.
- Choose your mobile notification timing.
- Tap your profile picture at the top of your screen.
- Tap Notifications.
- Tap Notify me on mobile.
- Choose your mobile notification timing.
- Tap Save.
Configure email notifications
You can choose what you get notified about and how often you receive notifications by email. Email notifications are bundled and can be delivered every 15 minutes or once per hour.
- Click your profile picture in the sidebar.
- Select Preferences.
- Under When I’m not active on desktop, tick or untick the box next to Send me email notifications for mentions and direct messages. If ticked, choose how often you’d like notifications to be delivered.
Note: To change which emails you receive about Slack news and updates, you can manage your Slack email subscriptions.
Manage channel-specific notifications
If you want to change what messages you're notified about in specific channels or direct messages, you can configure conversation-specific notifications. If you'd rather not receive notifications about any messages in a particular channel or direct message, you can mute the conversation.
Tip: You can review all of your conversation-specific notification settings from your preferences.