Slack for Linux (Beta) - Release Notes

Slack 4.7.0

July 3, 2020

What’s New

  • 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.
  • 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.

Bug Fixes

  • After restoring the app window, some parts of it could lose their clickiness. Those parts have found their clickiness anew. Click away. Clickety clickety click.
  • 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 4.4.3

May 18, 2020

Bug Fixes

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

Slack 4.4.2

March 31, 2020

Bug Fixes

  • We're always working on performance improvements - and this release repairs a previously broken performance diagnostic tool. You won't notice a difference, but we'll have an easier time improving Slack.

Slack 4.4.0

February 4, 2020

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed: If you zoom way in or zoom way out, and then open the About Slack window, the About Slack window would also be zoomed way in/out.

Slack 4.3.2

January 30, 2020

What’s New

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

Bug Fixes

  • Slack would sometimes crash when the user right-clicked to see the context menu. In context, that was unhelpful. So it no longer does that.
  • When maximized, the app had developed a bit of a distracting flicker. That flicker is now part of Slack history.
  • Occasionally, a restart would result in connectivity issues for Slack… now you should be back online and back to work lickety-split.

Slack 4.2.0

December 5, 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.
  • In Linux some components of the app were displaying menus when menus were not required. These items are now officially off-menu. Or rather, the menu is now officially off-them.
  • By popular demand (and because it was a bug), the --silent option is now available to silence terminal output.

Slack 4.1.2

October 18, 2019

Bug Fixes

  • Receiving a gif in a notification could mess with your notifications.
  • Long workspace names now no longer appear as incredibly long in menus.
  • Slack menus should now be showing up at the right language (meaning the one that is right for you).
  • 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.
  • Restarting when clearing cache now works again.

Slack 4.1.1

October 8, 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

  • For a quicker connection, and less frustration, checking for network connectivity is more reliable than it was before.
  • 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 4.0.2

August 7, 2019

Bug Fixes

  • Videos in channels were found to be the cause of a minor (but pesky) memory leak that has now been well and truly plugged.
  • We spruced up the notifications a little so now they'll not only show up every time you need them to, they'll show up looking like whatever theme you wear proudly on your sidebar. Neat.
  • On opening your computer, the app is now, thankfully, more likely to launch properly every time.
  • If you'd become used to opening Slack from a shortcut on your desktop or menu… you'll know that we broke that recently. Sorry about that. It is now unbroken once more.

Slack 4.0.1

July 25, 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

July 8, 2019

What’s New

  • Slack is now a little faster, thanks to a few small but important changes.

Bug Fixes

  • Drag and dropping files into Slack is now much more stable.
  • If you ever do need to reset the app's data, it now works better. A bit better, at least.
  • We improved team icons alignment in the side bar for those in a lot of workspaces. It's a small thing, but much more aesthetically pleasing.
  • In a Cinnamon desktop environment, the Snap Slack app was missing a dock icon. We found it and put it back where it belongs. (In the dock.)
  • Hardware acceleration can now be turned off without foregrounding Slack. If you know what that means, you'll know it's handy. If you don't — it still is! Carry on. And thank you for reading.

Slack 3.4.2

May 23, 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.
  • We've updated the RPM icon dependency for a better availability & icon experience. Because you're worth it.

Slack 3.4.0

April 18, 2019

Bug Fixes

  • Launch (and Hide) on Login have been improved and are now just … better.
  • Pressing 'Control+Shift+V' would cause copied text to paste twice. We've fixed that.
  • Pressing 'Control+Shift+V' would cause copied text to paste twice. We've fixed that. In Slack.
  • Some teams were experiencing an issue where icons that belonged to other signed-in teams were showing up rather than their own. This was deeply confusing. Sorry about that.
  • Unhelpful keyboard and cursor actions that some people were experiencing have now, thankfully, been fixed.

Slack 3.3.8

March 12, 2019

What’s New

  • When you sign in, you'll now sign in through the browser rather than within the app.

Bug Fixes

  • The new loading animation was a little stretched, or a little squished, depending on how you looked at it. It's now practically perfect.
  • Occasionally, the "Open the Slack App" browser button was not opening the workspace in the desktop app. Silly, really. It now does.
  • If you use SSO (Single Sign-on) to log in, it should now work perfectly every time.

Slack 3.3.7

January 16, 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.)

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. No more.
  • The desktop app was not playing nicely with the glibc 2.28. If you were experiencing a segfault, you should segfault no more. It's better now.
  • The full screen shortcut was mistakenly listed as ‘Ctrl+F’ instead of ‘Ctrl+Shift+F’ in the "View" menu. We both apologize for this and also hope that, because of it, someone out there discovered 'Ctrl+F' is a useful shortcut for searching the channel that you're in. Always look on the bright side of bugs.

Slack 3.3.4

January 10, 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. You can now copy and paste to your heart's content.
  • The desktop app was not playing nicely with the glibc 2.28. If you were experiencing a segfault, you should segfault no more. It's better now.
  • The full screen shortcut was mistakenly listed as ‘Ctrl+F’ instead of ‘Ctrl+Shift+F’ in the "View" menu. We both apologize for this and also hope that, because of it, someone out there discovered 'Ctrl+F' is a useful shortcut for searching the channel that you're in. Always look on the bright side of bugs.

Slack 3.3.3

October 2, 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 3.3.1

August 31, 2018

Bug Fixes

  • Overall, stability has been improved, thanks to a veritable bevy of bugfixes.
  • It's so very useful when you report issues that we've tweaked the diagnostics that collect reports so that we can get to them, and to things being better for you, sooner.
  • There was an annoying flickering caused by the color profiles having been updated in 3.2.0. There is, as far as we can tell, no more flicker.
  • When you download something, we will now more dependably tell you so.
  • Duplicate windows were leading to dubious repetitious notifications if multiple instances of the aforementioned were open simultaneously. We've fixed them so that the overt duplicity of multiplicities no longer incurs incongruity. TL;DR: No more doublespeak. If you have multiple windows open, you'll now only be notified once.
  • We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The app is now better than it was.

Slack 3.2.1

May 31, 2018

What’s New

  • If you use Red Hat, you now have spell check. For other distros, you have a new and different spellchecker. Hopefully it is better at detecting what language you are writing in. Hopefully.

Slack 3.2.0-beta.2

May 8, 2018

What’s New

  • A bevy of improvements for the people of Enterprise Grid, including faster quick switching, better proxy support, and direct message draft syncing across multiple workspaces (so whichever workspace you started typing in, you can finish in another).
  • We’ve switched from GTK2 to GTK3, so if that makes sense to you, gtk, you’re gtg.

Bug Fixes

  • Unread badges are more consistent than before.
  • Call loading has been improved, as have several general under-the-hood performance things.
  • The workspace sign in flow has been smoothed out, updating the way we handle problems and improving magic link support.
  • Copying an email link will now, as you might expect, copy the email link.
  • Of all the edge-cases that could crash Slack, we located and fixed 12 of them. We're sure there are more to come, but in the meantime, we'll take 12.
  • Alt+E can now, once more, be used to open the Edit Menu.

Slack 3.1.1

April 6, 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

March 9, 2018

What’s New

  • We’re using a new font for Japanese. It’s clearer, more legible, and goes well with aubergine. (Which is the default color of your sidebar. As well as a vegetable.)
  • Sometimes Slack takes too long to start up. If that happens, a) we’re sorry that it does, but b) 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 extraneous loading screen action, and fewer fanfares.

Bug Fixes

  • 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 no longer refuses to load.
  • Sometimes, during a support conversation, we’d ask you to reset your app data with the click of a button. Clicking this button will now actually reset all the necessary data, rather than some. Which is good for everyone.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • The option to disable hardware acceleration now does what it says on the tin.
  • For some users, Slack’s tray icon had wandered off. It’s back now.
  • There was an itsy-bitsy white gap between the top of Slack and the title bar above. It simply wouldn’t do! We squished it and smushed it and it’s all peachy-keen now.

Slack 3.0.5

January 18, 2018

Bug Fixes

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

Slack 3.0.2

January 9, 2018

Bug Fixes

  • A rare case that could cause Slack to crash when showing a proxy configuration dialog at startup has now, thankfully, been fixed.

Slack 3.0.0

December 8, 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).
  • We found our pen and started signing release packages. Sorry for the delay, we really hid it good that time.
  • On some environments, viewing channels neither marked them as read nor removed the blue banner. This unsavory situation is resolved.
  • A quantum incoherence involving clipboards was collapsed.
  • And finally, sometimes selecting text in the search box would move the window around. You could say… it was a bit of a drag.

Slack 2.9.0

November 16, 2017

What’s New

  • Slack now officially, and fully, supports Japanese. Along with the already available French, German, Spanish, and, of course, English (of the US variety). Find them under Languages & Region in your preferences menu.

Slack 2.8.2

October 16, 2017

What’s New

  • A small release containing nothing but another Electron update, this one better than the last.

Slack 2.8.1

September 29, 2017

What’s New

  • Previously in Slack app releases: we fixed the Japanese input in 2.6.3. Then we re-broke it in 2.8.0. And now it’s fixed again. Stay tuned for the next thrilling installment.
  • An important Electron update improving security. A precautionary measure, but it’s always good to be up to date.

Slack 2.8.0

September 11, 2017

What’s New

  • Slack is now fully available in French, Spanish and German, down to the very last emoji, you’ll find the options in Preferences > Language & Region.
  • Also, we added support for a brand new way of working with external companies from within Slack.
  • AND a whole new way of handling name tagging in order to handle the exciting world of challenges brought by the two things above.
  • 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!
  • You can now configure the language used by the spellchecker in Preferences to be the language you wish to spell correctly.

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

August 17, 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.

Slack 2.7.0

August 1, 2017

What’s New

  • 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

  • On Windows 7, notifications have been made more reliable, at the expense of a preference: you’ll no longer be able to customize their position on-screen.
  • On Windows 10, we’ve negotiated a truce between notifications and your antivirus. This will keep notifications appearing in a timely manner. They’ll play whatever sound you’ve told them to play more reliably, too.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Those little white dots in the team sidebar that let you know when you have messages to read? They’re no longer obscured when the app is maximized.

Slack 2.6.3

June 7, 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.