When using Slack on your desktop, you can adjust how your messages are displayed by choosing a theme and selecting additional display options if you like.
Clean vs. compact theme
By default, Slack uses the Clean theme. If you’d like to see more messages at once, you can switch to the compact theme instead.
Clean themeThe clean theme displays member profile photos beside their messages.
Compact themeThe compact theme uses less white space between messages and hides member profile photos.
Tip: You can change the colour of your teammates' display names when using the Compact theme. Try typing /colour @displayname 3EB890 – or any six-digit HTML colour value. 🎨
Change your message display preferences
Desktop
Mobile
From your desktop, click on your profile picture in the top right.
Select Preferences from the menu.
Click Messages & media in the left sidebar.
Choose either Clean or Compact.
Manage additional options
You can adjust other message-related display settings under Additional options:
Display information about who is currently typing a message
Show times with 24-hour clock
Display colour swatches next to hexadecimal values
It's not currently possible to change message display from the Slack mobile apps, but the app display will scale to match the font size that you set in your device settings.
Want to change your font size? You can adjust your zoom level in Slack to increase or decrease the size of your text. However, it's not possible to change the font.
A word on accessibility: We’re committed to making Slack inclusive for everyone. We’re working to improve accessibility, so stay tuned! Send us a note if you have questions.
The clean theme displays member profile photos beside their messages.
The compact theme uses less white space between messages and hides member profile photos.