New Slack profile updates enhance hybrid work experience for teams

Have you looked around in a meeting and wondered, who are all these people? Without context, working with new teammates across your organization can feel disconnected, impersonal, and most of all—like work.

Making connections can feel particularly tricky in hybrid and remote work environments. You may no longer get those few minutes before and after meetings to make the kind of small talk that often fuels positive working relationships like you used to.

At Slack, we’re obsessed with improving your digital headquarters, helping you connect with new colleagues and quickly find the right collaboration partners—no matter where you are. Today, we’re announcing our redesigned Slack profiles that make it easier to see who you’re working with, so you can work better alongside them. Plus, new features that will help you represent your full, authentic self at work.

5 ways Slack profiles make it easier to virtually navigate an organization

1. Simpler, richer profile UI

We’ve reimagined user profiles to include a much richer set of information in a clean, more streamlined way. In the new profile, you’ll find three new modules: Contact information, People, and About Me.

The Contact info section includes exactly what it says: ways to reach you. The People module lets others know the people you work with. And the About Me section lets you add customizable fields such as your start date, languages spoken, and fun elements like pets and birthdays.

If that seems like a lot of information, fret not. We’ve optimized the layout of our profiles for improved information hierarchy.

2. Pronounce names correctly—the first time

Pronouncing someone’s name correctly is an important way to make someone feel respected, valued, and seen, which can help foster inclusion and belonging throughout your organization. That’s why we’ve added an audio feature to all user profiles that lets you record the exact pronunciation of your name.

That way, anyone looking at your profile can listen to it and know how to say your name correctly—the first time. Additionally, you can add the phonetic pronunciation of your name to your profile.

This feature will start rolling out to Slack users on June 1.

3. See information at-a-glance with Hover Cards

Hover Cards are a subtle design enhancement we’ve made in the spirit of reducing the friction that gets in the way of digital connection. When you hover your mouse over someone’s name, a card will pop up containing the user’s picture and abbreviated profile. You can expand the profile by clicking on it.

You can also initiate huddles, calls, or direct messages from the card itself. Consider it a few less clicks—on us.

This feature will start rolling out to Slack users on June 1.

4. Create richer connections through Flexible Text

With Flexible Text, which launched earlier this year, profile fields for Slack Atlas customers can now support up to 5,000 rich text characters, allowing you to express yourself in deeper ways—think extended bio, bullet points, or links to useful resources. These expanded fields can incorporate special characters, line breaks, code blocks, even emoji.

Content on your profile is searchable, so people will be able to find you based on elements you add.

5. Quickly find the right colleague with Smart Tags

Smart Tags, another Slack Atlas update launched on April 28, are a powerful new way to search through all of your colleagues’ profiles within your organization. With the Smart Tag data type, admins can create fields that convert into searchable, filterable “tags.” Think: expertise, focus areas, languages, etc.

For example, say you’re trying to support a French-speaking customer and need to find a co-worker to translate a request. With Smart Tags, you’ll be able to quickly identify the right colleague by searching “French” and clicking on the People search tab. Alternatively, you can find everyone who shares that characteristic pulled up in the People Browser by clicking through on a Smart Tag on their profile.

Ready to get the most out of your Slack profile? Edit your profile to make working alongside your colleagues even easier, or upgrade to a Business+ or Enterprise Grid version of Slack and add Slack Atlas to unlock all features.