Slack for Mac (beta) – release notes

Slack 4.28.182

20 September 2022

Security guidance

This release includes significant security improvements. Updating is strongly recommended.

Slack 4.28.171

24 August 2022

What’s new

On Sept. 1, we’ll be deprecating support for some older operating systems and outdated versions of Slack. Please visit our Help Center to get all the details: https://slack.com/help/articles/115002037526-System-requirements-for-using-Slack.

Bug fixes

Trying to capture your screen with a third-party app while also sharing your screen in Slack may have resulted in the non-Slack app crashing. We’d like to say that this was because the idea of “capture” is antithetical to “sharing,” but in truth it was just a “bug.”

Security guidance

This release includes minor security improvements. Updating is beneficial.

Slack 4.28.163

10 August 2022

Bug fixes

Trying to capture your screen with a third-party app while also sharing your screen in Slack may have resulted in the non-Slack app crashing. We’d like to say that this was because the idea of “capture” is antithetical to “sharing,” but in truth it was just a “bug.”

Security guidance

This release includes minor security improvements. Updating is beneficial.

Coming soon

Heads-up: We’ll be deprecating certain older versions of Slack on Sept. 1 in order to continue supporting newer operating systems. Please visit the Help Center for more information: https://slack.com/help/articles/115002037526-System-requirements-for-using-Slack.

Slack 4.27.154

14 June 2022

What’s new

You may have noticed that with this release there’s a new, larger number at the end of the version string. Going forward, while you’ll still see the numbers laid out in a sequence, the “Build” numbers will now correspond to specific builds on our end as opposed to a small sequential number. TL;DR: A few more numbers for you, a bit more specificity for everyone.
We’ve added the most common Apple and Microsoft file extensions to our approved list so you won’t be asked to confirm each time you open a Word doc or Keynote presentation. Are you sure you’d like one less approval? YES/NO

Bug fixes

If you’re in a locale that does not use the default system string encoding on Mac, opening certain file types would cause a crash in a native dependency that tries to interpret a string passed to it as the system default string encoding. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, well don’t worry because we fixed it.

Security guidance

This release includes minor security improvements. Updating is beneficial.

Slack 4.27.150

2 June 2022

What’s new

You may have noticed that with this release there’s a new, larger number at the end of the version string. Going forward, while you’ll still see the numbers laid out in a sequence, the “Build” numbers will now correspond to specific builds on our end as opposed to a small sequential number. TL;DR: A few more numbers for you, a bit more specificity for everyone.
We’ve added the most common Apple and Microsoft file extensions to our approved list so you won’t be asked to confirm each time you open a Word doc or Keynote presentation. Are you sure you’d like one less approval? YES/NO

Bug fixes

If you’re in a locale that does not use the default system string encoding on Mac, opening certain file types would cause a crash in a native dependency that tries to interpret a string passed to it as the system default string encoding. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, well don’t worry because we fixed it.

Security guidance

This release includes minor security improvements. Updating is beneficial.

Slack 4.26.1

4 May 2022

Bug fixes

We’ve tuned the engine and given the interior a thorough clean. Everything is now running smoothly again.

Slack 4.26.0

25 April 2022

Bug fixes

If you tried to re-download a file that was already present in your Downloads folder, the app would pretend to download it again without actually producing a new file. Duplicitous duplication was never part of the plan—sorry about that.

Security guidance

This release includes minor security improvements. Updating is beneficial.

Slack 4.26.0-beta2

11 April 2022

Bug fixes

We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The app is now better than it was.

Slack 4.26.0-beta1

1 April 2022

Bug fixes

If you tried to re-download a file that was already present in your Downloads folder, the app would pretend to download it again without actually producing a new file. Duplicitous duplication was never part of the plan—sorry about that.

Slack 4.25.0

24 March 2022

What’s new

Starting today, you’ll see a confirmation pop-up when a link in Slack is prompting another program to open. If you don’t want to see these each time because you enjoy living on the edge, just check the box “Always open files of this type.”

Bug fixes

We discovered that under very specific circumstances (stars being aligned, barometric pressure being just so, looking in a mirror and saying “Slackbot” 3 times), Active Directory users were ending up with a backslash in their Home directory, which was preventing the app from launching. However it happened, all slashes are welcome at the party, so Slack will run as expected now.

Slack 4.25.0-beta1

16 March 2022

What’s new

Starting today, you’ll see a confirmation pop-up when a link in Slack is prompting another program to open. If you don’t want to see these each time because you enjoy living on the edge, just check the box “Always open files of this type.”

Slack 4.24.1

10 March 2022

What’s new

If you've been wanting to use a virtual camera on a video call in Slack, well, now you can! Plug in a custom video feed from your computer, or use a fancy digital camera for crystal clear picture. Daguerreotypes and hand-cranked movie cameras are not supported as input sources at this time.

Bug fixes

We discovered that when an update to the app failed, people were still being notified that the update was a success. There is a time and place for “fake it ‘til you make it,” but this was not one of them.

Security guidance

This release includes minor security improvements. Updating is beneficial.

Slack 4.24.0-beta1

3 February 2022

What’s new

If you've been wanting to use a virtual camera on a video call in Slack, well, now you can! Plug in a custom video feed from your computer, or use a fancy digital camera for crystal clear picture. Daguerreotypes and hand-cranked movie cameras are not supported as input sources at this time.

Bug fixes

We discovered that when an update to the app failed, people were still being notified that the update was a success. There is a time and place for “fake it ‘til you make it,” but this was not one of them.

Security guidance

This release includes minor security improvements. Updating is beneficial.

Slack 4.23.1-beta1

12 January 2022

Bug fixes

We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The app is now better than it was.

Slack 4.23.0

7 December 2021

Bug fixes

Those on MacOS 12 reported that notification sounds were still coming through despite Notification Sounds being set to “None.” We have updated the internal logic to the more explicit “None, not under any circumstances, not even if it’s very important, never, not once, nil, absolutely not.” We hope it takes the hint.
Some external URLs were occasionally launching within the Slack app window, but will now load in your default web browser, as is proper. Slack cannot have a little web page, even as a treat.

Security guidance

This release includes security improvements. Updating is recommended.

Slack 4.23.0-beta1

22 November 2021

Bug fixes

We tweaked some things too small to notice or too difficult to explain. We’ll return you to your regular, more interesting types of release next time (we hope).

Security guidance

This release includes security improvements. Updating is recommended.

Slack 4.22.0

8 November 2021

Security guidance

This release includes security improvements. Updating is recommended.

Slack 4.22.0-beta1

28 October 2021

Security guidance

This release includes security improvements. Updating is recommended.

Slack 4.21.1

25 October 2021

Bug fixes

We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The app is now better than it was.

Slack 4.21.0

20 October 2021

Bug fixes

We were occasionally displaying a message letting you know you had been removed from the desktop beta. However, some of you had never been part of the beta in the first place. We will no longer remind you of things that you are not, or when it is not your birthday, or when there is no update to the app.

Security guidance

This release includes minor security improvements. Updating is beneficial.

Slack 4.21.0-beta1

23 September 2021

Bug fixes

We were occasionally displaying a message letting you know you had been removed from the desktop beta. However, some of you had never been part of the beta in the first place. We will no longer remind you of things that you are not, or when it is not your birthday, or when there is no update to the app.

Security guidance

This release includes minor security improvements. Updating is beneficial.

Slack 4.20.0

20 September 2021

What’s new

When opening SSH, FTP, SFTP or SMB links, you’ll now see the option to allow all future URLs from just that same domain instead of the whole wide world. A little more secure for us, a little more peace of mind for you.

Bug fixes

Certain versions of the app were not correctly changing availability to “Away” after 10 minutes of inactivity. While this has been fixed, we’d like to remind you that you can use your Custom Status to let your teammates know your whereabouts beyond simply Active or Away. Examples include: walking the dog, catching up after PTO, taking a mental break, or tweeting nice things to the Slack social media team.

Security guidance

This release includes security improvements. Updating is recommended.

Slack 4.20.0-beta1

7 September 2021

What’s new

When opening SSH, FTP, SFTP or SMB links, you’ll now see the option to allow all future URLs from just that same domain instead of the whole wide world. A little more secure for us, a little more peace of mind for you.

Bug fixes

Certain versions of the app were not correctly changing availability to “Away” after 10 minutes of inactivity. While this has been fixed, we’d like to remind you that you can use your Custom Status to let your teammates know your whereabouts beyond simply Active or Away. Examples include: walking the dog, catching up after PTO, taking a mental break, or tweeting nice things to the Slack social media team.

Security guidance

This release includes security improvements. Updating is recommended.

Slack 4.19.0

11 August 2021

Security guidance

This release includes significant security improvements. Updating is strongly recommended.

Slack 4.19.0-beta1

29 July 2021

Bug fixes

We’ve tuned the engine and given the interior a thorough clean. Everything is now running smoothly again.

Slack 4.18.0

14 July 2021

Bug fixes

Certain menus were not being properly translated when switching languages in the app. You know what they say about menus — they’re most helpful when you can read them.
When the app was told to launch on login but remain hidden, it took those instructions a little too seriously, playing hide-and-seek when it should not. That which was hidden was sought, and the app window will now politely reveal itself when you want.

Slack 4.18.0-beta3

8 July 2021

Bug fixes

We’ve tuned the engine and given the interior a thorough clean. Everything is now running smoothly again.

Slack 4.18.0-beta1

22 June 2021

Bug fixes

Certain menus were not being properly translated when switching languages in the app. You know what they say about menus — they’re most helpful when you can read them.
When the app was told to launch on login but remain hidden, it took those instructions a little too seriously, playing hide-and-seek when it should not. That which was hidden was sought, and the app window will now politely reveal itself when you want.

Slack 4.17.0

3 June 2021

What’s new

Bigger is better, or rather, closer is clearer. We now support additional zoom levels up to 200% to reduce the strain on your precious peepers.

Security guidance

This release includes security improvements. Updating is recommended.

Slack 4.17.0-beta1

26 May 2021

What’s new

Bigger is better, or rather, closer is clearer. We now support additional zoom levels up to 200% to reduce the strain on your precious peepers.

Security guidance

This release includes security improvements. Updating is recommended.

Slack 4.16.0

4 May 2021

Bug fixes

Depending on your zoom level, we weren’t always showing the password field when authorizing the use of a proxy. This, by proxy, made for an unpleasant overall experience within Slack.
Images and notifications were sometimes sharing real estate...inelegantly. We have given them both a talking-to, and they have agreed to joint custody of that section of the screen.

Security guidance

This release includes security improvements. Updating is recommended.

Slack 4.16.0-beta1

25 April 2021

Bug fixes

We tweaked some things too small to notice or too difficult to explain. We’ll return you to your regular, more interesting types of release next time (we hope).

Security guidance

This release includes security improvements. Updating is recommended.

Slack 4.15.0

12 April 2021

Bug fixes

In the Mac app, certain error screens made it very hard to find the part of the window that allowed you to click and drag. To be fair, entire genres of computer games have been built around hard-to-find click targets. Slack, however, is not a game of this genre — so we’ve made the clickable area a bit wider.

Security guidance

This release includes minor security improvements. Updating is beneficial.

Slack 4.15.0-beta1

6 April 2021

Bug fixes

In the Mac app, certain error screens made it very hard to find the part of the window that allowed you to click and drag. To be fair, entire genres of computer games have been built around hard-to-find click targets. Slack, however, is not a game of this genre — so we’ve made the clickable area a bit wider.

Security guidance

This release includes minor security improvements. Updating is beneficial.

Slack 4.14.0-beta3

11 March 2021

What’s new

Did you update your Mac to Big Sur? Of course you did, you upstanding citizen. You’ll be rewarded with a freshly-updated Slack icon.

Bug fixes

We improved the restart experience when you’ve gone offline or are having loading issues.
We all have to sign out sometimes. If you sign out of all of your workspaces, you should have an easier time signing back in.
Hopefully you’ll be able to ask “Can you see my screen?” a little less these days. The green border that lets you know you’re screen sharing is back.

Security guidance

This release includes minor security improvements. Updating is beneficial.

Slack 4.14.0-beta1

1 March 2021

What’s new

New Slack app icon with the Big Sur look!

Bug fixes

We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The app is now better than it was.

Slack 4.13.0-beta5

9 February 2021

Bug fixes

We tweaked some things too small to notice or too difficult to explain. We’ll return you to your regular, more interesting types of release next time (we hope).

Slack 4.13.0-beta3

2 February 2021

Bug fixes

When you move or resize Slack, we assume you are indeed trying to move or resize it — and so the crash that was regularly happening, instead, was unwelcome. We’ve fixed this. Here’s to properly-sized screens!
We’ve fixed several accessibility issues. Making Slack more accessible is a continuous journey, and we’re quite grateful that you’re along for the ride!

Slack 4.13.0-beta2

8 January 2021

Bug fixes

We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The app is now better than it was.

Slack 4.13.0-beta1

5 January 2021

Bug fixes

We’ve tuned the engine and given the interior a thorough clean. Everything is now running smoothly again.

Slack 4.12.0-beta1

30 November 2020

Bug fixes

We tweaked some things too small to notice or too difficult to explain. We’ll return you to your regular, more interesting types of release next time (we hope).

Slack 4.11.0-beta2

4 November 2020

Bug fixes

We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The app is now better than it was.

Slack 4.11.0-beta1

27 October 2020

Bug fixes

We’ve tuned the engine and given the interior a thorough clean. Everything is now running smoothly again.

Slack 4.10.0-beta2

23 September 2020

Bug fixes

We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The app is now better than it was.

Slack 4.9.0-beta3

25 August 2020

Bug fixes

We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The app is now better than it was.

Slack 4.9.0-beta2

13 August 2020

Bug fixes

We tweaked some things too small to notice or too difficult to explain. We’ll return you to your regular, more interesting types of release next time (we hope).

Slack 4.9.0-beta1

11 August 2020

Bug fixes

We’ve tuned the engine and given the interior a thorough clean. Everything is now running smoothly again.

Slack 4.8.0-beta1

10 July 2020

Bug fixes

We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The app is now better than it was.

Slack 4.7.0-beta1

3 June 2020

What’s new

We’ve upgraded all the backend stuff that the apps run on, resulting in better performance and fewer bugs.

Slack 4.6.0-beta1

11 May 2020

What’s new

Batten the hatches! The app sandbox is now enabled for all web content. This is a fancy way of saying we’ve dialed up the security of the app. It wasn’t unsafe before, but it’s double safe now.
A preference that allows you to choose a unique save location per download, instead of choosing a folder for all of them. For the choosy types.

Bug fixes

Downloading app updates is less prone to timing out on slow networks, as we’ve extended the timeout to something reasonable.
The Close button has returned to its rightful place on notifications, for all your dismissing needs.
If you found yourself, in some distant past, trying to start a song on Spotify with your keyboard’s play button, and it did not respond to your command while Slack was front and center, pesky hardware media keys were the problem. And this version is the cure.
The app should be less spicy to your CPU when you’re viewing certain network error pages.
When a download completes, we’ll show an in-app prompt rather than a bothersome system notification.

Slack 4.5.0-beta3

8 April 2020

Bug fixes

We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The app is now better than it was.

Slack 4.5.0-beta2

26 March 2020

What’s new

We’ve upgraded all the backend stuff that the apps run on, resulting in better performance and fewer bugs.
Our spell checker has been swapped out for a newer model that’s faster, leaner, and capable of fixing your typos in… wait, can this be right? “Multiple languages at the same time”! Open the “Language & Region” preferences to choose your languages. And for whoever it is out there requires that functionality: our hats are off to you. We can barely type in one language right now.

Slack 4.4.1-beta1

20 March 2020

Bug fixes

We tweaked some things too small to notice or too difficult to explain. We’ll return you to your regular, more interesting types of release next time (we hope).

Slack 4.4.0-beta3

28 February 2020

Bug fixes

We’ve tuned the engine and given the interior a thorough clean. Everything is now running smoothly again.

Slack 4.3.3-beta1

31 January 2020

Bug fixes

We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The app is now better than it was.

Slack 4.3.2-beta2

14 January 2020

Bug fixes

We tweaked some things too small to notice or too difficult to explain. We’ll return you to your regular, more interesting types of release next time (we hope).

Slack 4.3.0-beta1

6 December 2019

Bug fixes

We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The app is now better than it was.

Slack 4.2.0-beta2

15 November 2019

What’s new

Our newest, fastest, best-performing, shiniest, most nutritious and delicious version of Slack is now fully rolled out, so that’s the one you’re now using. Brilliant.
Like zooming in and out? Use a numpad? Great news. You can now do these things, on that.

Bug fixes

Notifications looked weird if your workspace name was long. Now, no matter your team name, notifications look lovely.
Some messages were being marked as read when Slack was hidden behind applications, or not visible on screen. Now we won’t mark it as read until you’ve actually seen it. Which seems fair.
Using three finger swipes to navigate channel history on touchpad now works again. And for those who never knew it could work in the first place: it does!

Slack 4.1.2-beta1

15 October 2019

Bug fixes

Long workspace names now no longer appear as incredibly long in menus.
Spellchecker stopped working for a small count of users, leading to a shorp uptick in avoidabull erratz. With spellcheck now fully back online for those users, any remaining typos are officially not our fault.
Slack menus should now be showing up at the right language (meaning the one that is right for you).

Slack 4.1.0-beta5

11 September 2019

Bug fixes

We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The app is now better than it was.

Slack 4.1.0-beta3

2 September 2019

What’s new

Thanks to a few tweaks to the engine, a polish of the pistons, and recalibrated valves, the app should be running smoother and faster, than before.
Spellcheck, revamped, is now a much better version of its old self (and back on Linux, to boot) — now it supports Greek, Portuguese and British English. So now spelling correctly should come more naturally to us all (which is good, because “correctly” can be a difacult word to spell).

Bug fixes

After uploading a video into Slack some found it would give an infinite circle of loading, but not play, which was never our plan. Now: it works! It plays; no more circle! Because, it turned out, all circ and no play made Slack a null ‘ploy.

Slack 4.0.3-beta2

22 August 2019

Bug fixes

We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The app is now better than it was.

Slack 4.0.2-beta1

24 July 2019

What’s new

A pesky leak involving in-channel videos has been plugged.

Slack 4.0.1-beta2

18 July 2019

Bug fixes

We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The app is now better than it was.

Slack 4.0.0-beta2

17 June 2019

What’s new

Slack is now a little faster, thanks to a few small but important changes.
Admins now have a more stable mechanism to stay in control of when and how the app updates.

Bug fixes

Dragging and dropping now drops less frequently, and is consequently less of a drag.
Resetting the app data now works better (should that be something you need to do).
For those in multiple workspaces, the sidebar is now neater, with your icons in a more pleasing line.
Hardware acceleration can now be turned off without foregrounding Slack. If that means something to you, you'll know it's good. If it doesn't — it's still good (and thank you for reading).
We'll no longer bounce the the icon in dock if DND is enabled. DND means DND.
We now are better at explaining why we ask for permissions to update Slack… though having improved stability, we should also now ask less frequently.
Notifications sounds on mac used to not play all the time. They now do. All of them. But not at once.
Your customized Slack shortcuts on macOS now work as you expected. Apologies that they ever did not.

Slack 3.4.2-beta4

21 May 2019

What’s new

Just as day follows night and winter gives way to spring, so have we updated Electron to 4.2.1

Bug fixes

The push notification time between desktop and mobile has been changed for the better.
Like stability? Us too. So we tweaked things, and now everything is more stable. In our app.

Slack 3.4.1-beta3

18 April 2019

Bug fixes

We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The app is now better than it was.

Slack 3.4.0-beta1

28 March 2019

Bug fixes

Launch (and Hide) on Login now works better than once it did. Where by "once" we mean "five minutes ago before you updated your version of Slack".
Our Slack app icon was missing smaller icon sizes, which was both problematic and aesthetically bad. It now renders as it should.
Slack would occasionally crash while you were restarting your computer. We looked at the bug causing this, turned it off and on again, and now it works. Technology!
Some people were seeing sidebar icons from other teams they were signed into instead of the icons they were expecting. They will now show correctly.
Any keyboard and cursor actions you may have experienced behaving badly have been shown the error of their ways.

Slack 3.3.8

4 March 2019

Bug fixes

We’ve made some additional tweaks to our new sign-in and sign-out flows.

Slack 3.3.8-beta1

12 February 2019

What’s new

In a slight change to the way you sign in on desktop, you'll now sign in in the browser rather than directly inside the app.

Bug fixes

The new app icon was looking a little fuzzy on some docks, which simply wouldn't do. It should be much crisper now.
Equally, the new loading animation was looking a little stretched, or a little squished, depending on how you looked it. It's now practically perfect in every way.
If you have had problems logging in using SSO (single sign-on), you should no longer encounter those problems.
We fixed a problem wherein the "Open the Slack App" button in the browser did not, in fact, open the app. Honestly: it had *one* job. It now performs that job.

Slack 3.3.7

16 January 2019

What’s new

From today, you'll notice a shiny new app button that matches our new logo. You can read more about it on our blog at SlackHQ.com. Change! Everyone loves it. (Having said that, nothing about Slack or how you use it has changed. Just the button.)

Slack 3.3.4

10 January 2019

Bug fixes

Users signing in with Single Sign-On would see the same message twice when logging in.
Users signing in with Single Sign-On would see the same message twice when logging in. This will not happen any more.
When trying to select a portion of a code-formatted block of text (text formatted with ` or ``` at either end), some characters were proving slippery and hard to select. Please copy and paste to your heart's content.
Several crashes — occurring rarely, and seemingly randomly, on launch and at other times — have been eliminated. More random and rare crashes inevitably exist, of course, and as soon as we know what they are, we'll eliminate those too.
When downloading particular audio or video files from Slack, the download window will no longer misbehave or look weird.
If you were running macOS Mojave, we sometimes wouldn’t ask you for permissions for microphone and video even though we needed to, which meant we couldn’t use them. We now will and can (with your blessing, of course).

Slack 3.3.4-beta3

12 December 2018

Bug fixes

Notification sounds, which are meant to make a sound when you have a notification, were not doing that. They now are, once more.

Slack 3.3.4-beta2

16 November 2018

Bug fixes

A few connectivity issues caused by PAC (proxy auto-configuration) files, are issues no longer. Because we fixed them! Hurrah. Now on to the next million things.

Slack 3.3.4

16 October 2018

Bug fixes

Users signing in with Single Sign-On would see the same message twice when logging in. This will not happen any more.
When trying to select a portion of a code-formatted block of text (text formatted with ` or ``` at either end), some characters were proving slippery and hard to select. Please copy and paste to your heart's content.
Several crashes — occurring rarely, and seemingly randomly, on launch and at other times — have been eliminated. More random and rare crashes inevitably exist, of course, and as soon as we know what they are, we'll eliminate those too.
When downloading particular audio or video files from Slack, the download window will no longer misbehave or look weird.
If you were running macOS Mojave, we sometimes wouldn’t ask you for permissions for microphone and video even though we needed to. We now will.

Slack 3.3.3

1 October 2018

Bug fixes

All updates are important, of course. This one contains security updates, and as we know, they’re the most important kind of all.

Slack 3.3.0

31 July 2018

What’s new

If you’re having graphics issues, you can now use the “Disable hardware acceleration” option in preferences to make things better.

Bug fixes

The overall stability of the app has been improved, thanks to a bevy of bug fixes.
We appreciate it when you report issues – so we’ve improved the diagnostic reporting tools so that we can analyse and fix them faster.
Having multiple windows open sometimes led to you getting duplicate notifications at once. Whatever the message, it should now just be one ping per tool for you lot and one click to find them.
Colour profiles being slightly different in 3.2.0 may have caused a little flicker, which should now have been extinguished.
The spellcheck, having had its logic tweaked to be better at spellchecking, is now a lot bitter at chicken for erroneous spilling ersatz. In Slack.
When you download something, we’re now better at telling you so.
In fact, notifications in general are noticeably more reliable now too.
One particular bug causing the app to crash upon launch has been squashed. There might be more, so when we find them, we’ll fix those too.

Slack 3.2.0

26 April 2018

What’s new

Myriad improvements for the people of Enterprise Grid, including quicker Quick Switching, better proxy support, and direct message draft syncing across multiple workspaces (meaning that whichever workspace you started typing that message in, you can finish in another.)

Bug fixes

Unread badges were occasionally unreliable or inconsistent, so we tweaked a few doohickeys to improve them. It worked.
Smoothed some wrinkles in the loading of Slack calls and boosted general under-the-hood call performance while we were in there.
We tinkered with the workspace sign-in flow, updating how we handle errors and improving magic link support.
Copying email links now does what you’d expect (as long as you were expecting it to copy the email link. If you were expecting it to do something like file your taxes for you, you are still out of luck).
Slack will no longer interrupt macOS when restarting or shutting down.
After changing displays, pinch-to-zoom gestures will no longer insist on continuing to zoom the app when you pinch.
Twelve crashes have been fixed. Yes. 12. If you were unlucky enough to experience the full dozen, please accept a) this imaginary medal and b) our sincere apologies.

Slack 3.1.1

6 April 2018

Bug fixes

We got so excited about your emoji we kept requesting them, particularly at the moment you switched channels. This caused all manner of slowness. We've since bottled our enthusiasm, and now request emoji exactly one (1) time.

Slack 3.1.0

15 February 2018

What’s new

We’re using a new font for Japanese. It’s clearer, more legible, and goes well with aubergine. (Which is is the default color of your sidebar. As well as a vegetable.)
Sometimes Slack takes too long to start up. If that happens, you’ll now see a link with some helpful troubleshooting ideas.
When a file’s done downloading, a new notification will dutifully let you know.
If you’ve asked Slack to launch right when your computer turns on, Slack now does so much more quietly — with less fanfare, and fewer loading screens.

Bug fixes

Badges about unread messages would linger on the dock icon, even after said messages had been read. These badges will linger no more.
Slack would occasionally crash when it wasn’t allowed to put files in the Temp folder. Now, it will simply use the Downloads folder, instead.
Some users who clicked on a magic link were not taken to their workspace. We have set our cauldrons to a slow simmer and magic links should now work as expected.
When trying to connect via a proxy, Slack simply refused to load. No longer!
Now you can download a file from Slack, delete it, and then download it again. If that seems like the way the Slack should’ve always worked, well, you aren’t wrong. But now it actually does.
Right clicking “something” and choosing “Search with Google” had a tendency to search for “so”, “me”, or “thing.” It will now search for the entire text. So if you really do want to Google “something” (or something else), we’ll have your back.
While operating in the background, Slack would sometimes keep notifications to itself. Sharing is caring, and you should now receive notifications as normal.
Quitting Slack while the app is full screen will no longer vanish the title bar.
Too many text substitutions would cause Slack to perform poorly. You can now use text replacement to your heart’s content.
Interacting with a notification will cause it to disappear, and not hang around indefinitely.
A subtle gray border on the right edge of the window has been replaced with a subtler, invisible gray border.

Slack 3.0.5

15 January 2018

Bug fixes

An important security update. Security updates are always important. This is one of those.

Slack 3.0.2

19 December 2017

Bug fixes

We undid changes that have been causing some people to occasionally miss notifications with 3.0.0. You will now miss nothing. Unless you want to.
Clicking on and replying to notifications is now also more reliable.
macOS 10.13 High Sierra has a bug that impacts some 2012-2013 MacBook Pros, causing display problems with Slack. We have a temporary fix for these devices that may make performance slightly worse, but will at least avoid flickering and graphics glitches. Performant AND non-glitchy is the next step.

Slack 3.0.0

27 October 2017

What’s new

When you’re in a lot of workspaces, the app now uses much less memory, and starting up is faster, to boot.
And flipping between those workspaces is now faster. Not super-sonic, but certainly somewhere between a jiffy and lickety-split.
We shunted the sign-in page out of the app — it's now rerouted to a new window, for reasons of reliability.
A new-fangled lock badge subtly lets you know which workspaces you're currently signed out of. Or of which you're currently signed out. Either way.
Our start up screen, spruced-up and slimmed-down, is worth a gander — as is the helpful way that dates now stick to the top of a channel while scrolling through messages. Though if you don't notice them, but quietly feel a little bit happier for reasons you can't put your finger on, that's cool too.

Bug fixes

It’s been a long time coming but brings us joy to say: 100% less reloading during drag and drop. How much? 100%. That's all the percents, people. Sorry about the previous frustration.
For those encountering a screen claiming "Something’s not working", it turns out the main thing not working was this screen: it is no more.
If you kept the app running for a long time, you might be on the receiving end of two consecutive updates. Now good things come to those who wait, one-at-a-time, as is proper.
The sidebar now scoots considerately out of the way when viewing full-screen video.
We fixed exiting full-screen video when pressing the aptly-named “Escape” key.
The blackout caused by a window being closed while full-screen, with one request confoundingly eclipsing the other, has been sunsetted.
Found: One missing Ctrl-1 / Cmd-1 hotkey. Please call 1-800-SLACKME to claim. Don't actually call that. It doesn't do anything. Unlike the hotkey (now).
Should you forget what app you’re using, the About Slack window is all new and loads much faster than before.
Scrolling through messages is flicker-free.
There are now no more crashes in High Sierra when starting up the app.
Composing text in an IME (for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean customers) no longer inserts zero-width spaces; in other words, it’s blank-box-free.
The diacritics menu – the place where the alphabet goes to try on different hats and accents – no longer adds a duplicate letter to your input once you've chosen the one you want. We've said it before, but this time we really mëean it.
Pinch-to-zoom gestures could, sometimes, tragically, irreversibly zoom. You can now make things on your screen smaller again without resorting to moving your computer far away.
The popup that appears when you look up the definition of a word has been realigned to make more sense.
And finally, sometimes selecting text in the search box would move the window around. You could say… it was a bit of a drag.
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Slack 2.8.0

6 September 2017

What’s new

Support for a top secret, very hush-hush, highly classified and very exciting new feature that we wish we could call by name, but we cannot.
All mentions of “team” have been changed to “workspace” when referring to the app, though not when referring to the people in it. You create a workspace. You invite people from your team. Simple!

Bug fixes

Fixed: A few rare crashes when making a call and/or screen sharing on a call are now, we believe, on the brink of extinction - or possibly, we hope, gone forever.
Fixed: An issue where the app would hang if your OS reported that you were in certain timezones
Fixed: You may have been running into a Something's Not Working screen when waking your computer from sleep. Turns out the thing not working was that. So we fixed it.

Slack 2.7.1

15 August 2017

Bug fixes

You're nearly finished signing in when suddenly – bonk – you're brought back to the first page. Hey, what gives? Please accept our apologies and, in this version, 100% less bonking.
Entering characters from the accent menu no longer inserts an extra character. Voilà señorita: that souffleé is now an (edible) soufflé.

Slack 2.7.0

24 July 2017

What’s new

The app now stores some login information on the keychain. So if a passerby requests permission (a dialog, not a stranger), do try and approve it.
File downloads are now pausable and – in perhaps a master stroke of matchmaking – resumable too.
A bevy of changes to make the app more keyboard navigable.
We’ve adjusted the app icon, but just a skosh. Putting our best foot forward.
Should the worst happen and the app fail to load, you'll see a less dreadful error page and perhaps even a code you can share.

Bug fixes

Like an electrically-motivated vampire was Slack to your laptop’s battery. Put down the garlic; leave the stakes at home: we’ve done the slaying on our end.
If you’ve set the app to start hidden in your system login items, it will listen to you.
In a similar vein, if you send a reply from an alert-style notification, your teammates will hear you.
We spliced some wires we shouldn’t have, causing a loading screen to flash briefly after signing into a team. Now it’s as it should be.
The team sidebar is no longer touch-challenged. Tap, flick, and drag teams to your heart’s content.
Cancelling a running download is 38% less crashy. For when you decide you didn’t need that third gif after all.

Slack 2.6.3

2 June 2017

Bug fixes

Sometimes if you changed networks, we used to rouse from sleep in a bit of a daze, greeting you with a blank screen. Now, we awaken bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Or at the very least, with your team displayed.
Where, in rare cases, some external links didn't end up pointing to the right place when you clicked them, they now do.
Video playback should now be much smoother, and nicer to your network.
On certain keyboard layouts, hitting backspace didn't actually delete the last character, which was a surprise, but a surprise of the lesser kind - there is now one fewer lesser surprise.

Slack 2.6.2

17 May 2017

Bug fixes

Unexplainably, context menus and spell-check stopped working in some teams. OK: we have an explanation but we'd rather not discuss it. It's embarrassing. Rest easy knowing that it's fixed here.
We found – and cast out – the culprit behind high resource usage while the app's sitting idle.

Slack 2.6.1

1 May 2017

Bug fixes

If you were experiencing issues making calls on macOS 10.10, you should no longer. Update and keep calling.

Slack 2.6.0

20 April 2017

What’s new

We revamped video calls, making the experience more intuitive, and more attractive. As a bonus, they're more resource efficient and now let you change audio devices during a call. If that's the kind of thing you need to do.

Bug fixes

We paved over a series of potholes that were strewn about the app, making crashes far less likely.
Should you ever wish to say goodbye to one of your teams, a right-click > Remove from the sidebar will do the trick now more reliably than before.
Switching teams using the numbered shortcuts is noticeably faster. We would say "37%" if we were forced to put a number on it. Fortunately, we aren't, and we won't.
Opening a context menu won't freeze videos or gifs playing in the app.
We dusted off the cobwebs in the app menu and composted a few menu items that weren't useful when signed into one team.
The default window size is a smidgen larger. You won't notice, because your window will keep being the same size it's always been. That's just the way it is, and we don't want it to change.
Our spellchecker would occasionally mark correctly spelled words as incorrect. It had ONE job. It now performs it.

Slack 2.5.2

9 March 2017

Bug fixes

We made the act of signing in more reliable for teams using SSO.
For the times when Slack just... doesn't: try Help > Clear Cache and Restart. It has all the nougaty goodness of Reset App Data, without the stale aftertaste of losing your teams.

Slack 2.5.1

14 February 2017

What’s new

The way we load teams you don’t view often has been changed to improve the memory footprint of the app. One day, it will be a pitter patter of tiny footprints. For now, it’s a tad slower, a little less hefty, and a lot more attractive. Think “brontosaurus in a nice hat.”
Folks consistently unable to load the app will now be greeted by a troubleshooting page that offers suggestions on making their situation better. (Spoiler: it's usually to do with over-zealous antivirus software).
Those pasting text with style into a Post then finding their text to have "no style" can now Paste & Match Style under the Edit menu.
You can see our Help Center documentation in – of all places – the Help menu. The almost over-intuitively named Open Help Center item will be your friend.

Bug fixes

Fixed: Waking Slack after hibernation or a system crash occasionally found all your teams missing. Thank you for your patience, and sorry for the inconvenience; it no longer should.
Fixed: Some bold explorers moved their user profile off of the default drive and started the app to find nothing but a cryptic error message. We weren't prepared for this boldness, but have since girded our loins. Fine, explorers: Set your profiles free.
Fixed: A rare bug where team icons shuffled out of formation in the sidebar. They're more stoic and sticky and as a bonus, rearranging them is smoother.
Fixed: Customers typing in languages that use IME composition (Korean, for example) will find that the message input is 82% stickier.