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Sort unread channels. Decide how to prioritize your unread messages by changing how they’re. By default, the next time you go into a channel with unread messages, Slack starts you at the last read message. Then immediately marks all messages in the channel as read. Starting you at the last message you read is intended to make it easy to read through and catch up on all of the messages you missed. Slack is basically a glorified messaging application that makes it easier for teams to communicate and coordinate when working from home. That said, it seems that some Slack users with iOS devices are claiming that there’s a bug in the app that prevents messages and channels from being marked as read or get stuck on unread even after viewing them.
●March 31, 2020● 4 min read
Slack is one of the most popular communication tools for remote teams. With the ability to coordinate conversations by a specific theme, within a team or company-wide, there is great power in this platform.
Long popular with remote teams, here are some tips and tricks that you might have missed.
Use these to make the most of your time and communication efforts.
We will cover:
Notification Management
Pin important messages
Keyboard shortcuts
Polls and surveys
Star items = quick list
Slackbot Reminders
Include posts
Slack Mark As Unread Mobile
Keyword Notifications
Find mentions quickly
Search Smarter
Quick link to previous posts
Bookmark location in a channel
Formatting for Impact
Deep Work Time – DND
Customized Emojis
Integrate! Apps, bots, and workflows
Notification Management
- You may not need notifications for all activity within a channel. Adjust your notification requirements by selecting the settings icon (cog) at the top of the channel on desktop or using the drop-down menu (3 dots) on mobile, then settings, then notifications/notification preferences.
Pin important messages
- You might want to pin the most current update of the project you are working on or your guide to using the channel. You can pin up to 100 messages per channel, but keeping it to crucial information is better.
Keyboard shortcuts
- You can use keyboard shortcuts to navigate around the Workspace, mark a message as read or unread, format your messages, and more. Saving time and giving flow and process to your time in Slack.
- When all the pictures and GIFs are making it hard to follow the conversation type “/collapse” into your text box, which will leave text only within the chat and reverse this type “/expand.”
- To see the list of shortcuts hit “ctrl” and “/.”
Polls and surveys
- Want to get some quick feedback from the team? Or trying to decide on meeting times? Use the command “/poll” and follow the instructions to call up the “Polly” app. Both powerful and fun.
Star items = quick list
- Click “Show starred items” or use the keyboard shortcut “crtl_shift+s” for a quick list of all your starred messages. This hack can be useful to quickly review essential items and help you to come back to something you might not have time to handle at the moment.
Slackbot Reminders
- Use the “/remind” command to give you a personal reminder, or to remind someone else on your team. An example is “/remind @Jeff of meeting at 2 pm”, your reminder will be sent at 2 pm to Jeff about your upcoming meeting.
Include posts
- Where you need to share longer-form content, you can include posts in your Slack messages. You might want to share project plans, or quickly link to your code of conduct, vision, and mission statements.
- Create a post – (On your desktop). Select the attachment icon (paperclip) → “Create new” → “Post.” From here, you can share your post, edit it, allow others to edit it, format the article, and add images to it—further instructions via the Slack help section.
Keyword Notifications
- While you will get notifications if you are tagged or mentioned, it can be useful to get a notification. Likewise, when someone uses a specific keyword. Go to preferences, then notifications to set up your desired keywords. You will receive the notification, and the channel will display a badge.
Find mentions quickly
- You can use the @ symbol on the top right on desktop to show, or hide, mentions if you are looking for a recent conversation (or you’re drowning in notifications). Or use the keyboard shortcut “ctrl” + ”shift” + ”m” to show and hide your mentions.
Search Smarter
- Use modifiers that help you to search smarter. “From:user”, “in:channel”, “during:March”, or “has:emoji-code”, this one is particularly useful if you follow a specific process of emoji usage within your Workspace. You can find a complete list of search modifiers here.
Quick link to previous posts
- Using the timestamp (time beside your name above a post), you can copy this as a link and paste into a new post, bringing old posts back into the conversation quickly.
Bookmark a location in a channel
- Some channels require more attention from us than others, if you need to read everything in the channel then use “Alt+click” on the message where you are leaving the channel, it will mark all subsequent messages as unread. On mobile, this should be a long press/hold on the message.
Formatting for Impact
- Need certain parts of a post to stand out? Then use formatting. E.g., using * either side of a word will embolden it i.e., *here* now becomes here. Or traditional keyboard shortcuts also work. You can also add formatting like inline code or block quotes, very useful to help faster communication of crucial information. More on formatting your messages from Slack.
Deep Work Time – DND
- DND – You can type in “/dnd” into the text box and then set a time, or use the bell icon to the top left and select a time frame. Stopping you from receiving any sounds or notifications in the time frame you specify, and your co-workers will see a sleeping symbol beside your name.
Customized Emojis
- Emojis can be useful to speed up communication within your team or to help strengthen branding and team identity. You can add the custom emojis from the drop-down menu on the top left and choose “Customize Slack.” Admins have the power to limit who can edit these.
Integrate! Apps, bots, and workflows
- Slack supports integrations with 100s of apps. Here is a list of some of the most popular ones. See the Slack help center for details on each and a full list of apps available, follow this link: Zoom for SlackStart a meeting, join a meeting and make a call with Zoom phone. Remember, you must register your Slack and Zoom accounts with the same email address.
- Trello for SlackManage cards on your boards from Slack, add conversations to cards, and update due dates.
- Asana for SlackCreate new tasks and turn your conversations in Slack into to-dos in Asana
- Salesforce for SlackSearch Salesforce records from Slack, configure Salesforce alerts for Slack. Send Slack messages to SalesForce, or send Salesforce records to Slack.
- Twitter for SlackYou can set up mentions on Twitter to feed into a channel that the team can keep an eye on. Follow similar businesses or your suppliers.
- Google Calendar for SlackView your full schedule and have your status update when you are scheduled in a meeting.
- Donut for SlackDonut helps to improve team-building; there are prebuilt connection programs in Donut, one of the most popular functions is virtual random coffees. Help to encourage cross-organizational bonding.
- Loom for SlackMention @person or #channel directly in your Loom videos, and they can watch the clip without needing to leave Slack.
- Polly for Slack. This Polls and surveys bot lets you get quick feedback. Use pulse surveys directly in Slack.
- Greetbot for Slack. An onboarding assistant for Slack. Customize welcome messages and schedule follow-ups.
- You can also create custom integrations, build your bot, create automated workflows, and much more, read more on this via the Slack help center here.
Do you have a workflow or trick that works well for you in Slack? Then please share it with us over on Twitter @Turingcom.
- How to be a successful remote software engineer Oct 27, 2020 This blog post covers how a developer can be recognized,…
- Onboarding to a new team as an engineering leader Oct 26, 2020 In this post, Jean Hsu of Range shares some guiding…
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- 10 Best Cities on Earth for Remote Workers Feb 3, 2020 Remote workers enjoy an enviable combination of freedom, productivity and…
- Remote Now! A Quick Guide to Remote Work… Mar 16, 2020 In a world where so many are going suddenly remote…
- How to Become a Remote Developer | Turing Jobs Feb 5, 2020 My goal with this post is to tell you how…
- Why a ‘Deep Jobs’ Platform is a Better… Mar 13, 2021 Turing offers vetting, onboarding, payments, time tracking, performance monitoring, and…
- GitLab’s Darren Murph reveals secrets of… Mar 1, 2021 Darren Murph, GitLab's head of remote, shares the do’s and…
- Things to know to get hired as a Turing Engineer Sep 17, 2020 To help you out, we’ve reached out to some Turing…
- Key Takeaways from Turing’s Boundaryless:… Mar 5, 2021 Top engineering leaders who have built large, remote developer teams…
●March 31, 2020● 4 min read
Slack is one of the most popular communication tools for remote teams. With the ability to coordinate conversations by a specific theme, within a team or company-wide, there is great power in this platform.
Long popular with remote teams, here are some tips and tricks that you might have missed.
Use these to make the most of your time and communication efforts.
We will cover:
Notification Management
Pin important messages
Keyboard shortcuts
Polls and surveys
Star items = quick list
Slackbot Reminders
Include posts
Keyword Notifications
Find mentions quickly
Search Smarter
Quick link to previous posts
Bookmark location in a channel
Formatting for Impact
Deep Work Time – DND
Customized Emojis
Integrate! Apps, bots, and workflows
Notification Management
- You may not need notifications for all activity within a channel. Adjust your notification requirements by selecting the settings icon (cog) at the top of the channel on desktop or using the drop-down menu (3 dots) on mobile, then settings, then notifications/notification preferences.
Pin important messages
- You might want to pin the most current update of the project you are working on or your guide to using the channel. You can pin up to 100 messages per channel, but keeping it to crucial information is better.
Keyboard shortcuts
- You can use keyboard shortcuts to navigate around the Workspace, mark a message as read or unread, format your messages, and more. Saving time and giving flow and process to your time in Slack.
- When all the pictures and GIFs are making it hard to follow the conversation type “/collapse” into your text box, which will leave text only within the chat and reverse this type “/expand.”
- To see the list of shortcuts hit “ctrl” and “/.”
Polls and surveys
- Want to get some quick feedback from the team? Or trying to decide on meeting times? Use the command “/poll” and follow the instructions to call up the “Polly” app. Both powerful and fun.
Star items = quick list
- Click “Show starred items” or use the keyboard shortcut “crtl_shift+s” for a quick list of all your starred messages. This hack can be useful to quickly review essential items and help you to come back to something you might not have time to handle at the moment.
Slackbot Reminders
- Use the “/remind” command to give you a personal reminder, or to remind someone else on your team. An example is “/remind @Jeff of meeting at 2 pm”, your reminder will be sent at 2 pm to Jeff about your upcoming meeting.
Include posts
- Where you need to share longer-form content, you can include posts in your Slack messages. You might want to share project plans, or quickly link to your code of conduct, vision, and mission statements.
- Create a post – (On your desktop). Select the attachment icon (paperclip) → “Create new” → “Post.” From here, you can share your post, edit it, allow others to edit it, format the article, and add images to it—further instructions via the Slack help section.
Keyword Notifications
- While you will get notifications if you are tagged or mentioned, it can be useful to get a notification. Likewise, when someone uses a specific keyword. Go to preferences, then notifications to set up your desired keywords. You will receive the notification, and the channel will display a badge.
Find mentions quickly
- You can use the @ symbol on the top right on desktop to show, or hide, mentions if you are looking for a recent conversation (or you’re drowning in notifications). Or use the keyboard shortcut “ctrl” + ”shift” + ”m” to show and hide your mentions.
Search Smarter
- Use modifiers that help you to search smarter. “From:user”, “in:channel”, “during:March”, or “has:emoji-code”, this one is particularly useful if you follow a specific process of emoji usage within your Workspace. You can find a complete list of search modifiers here.
Quick link to previous posts
Slack Mark Unread
- Using the timestamp (time beside your name above a post), you can copy this as a link and paste into a new post, bringing old posts back into the conversation quickly.
Bookmark a location in a channel
- Some channels require more attention from us than others, if you need to read everything in the channel then use “Alt+click” on the message where you are leaving the channel, it will mark all subsequent messages as unread. On mobile, this should be a long press/hold on the message.
Formatting for Impact
Mark Message As Unread
- Need certain parts of a post to stand out? Then use formatting. E.g., using * either side of a word will embolden it i.e., *here* now becomes here. Or traditional keyboard shortcuts also work. You can also add formatting like inline code or block quotes, very useful to help faster communication of crucial information. More on formatting your messages from Slack.
Deep Work Time – DND
- DND – You can type in “/dnd” into the text box and then set a time, or use the bell icon to the top left and select a time frame. Stopping you from receiving any sounds or notifications in the time frame you specify, and your co-workers will see a sleeping symbol beside your name.
Customized Emojis
- Emojis can be useful to speed up communication within your team or to help strengthen branding and team identity. You can add the custom emojis from the drop-down menu on the top left and choose “Customize Slack.” Admins have the power to limit who can edit these.
Integrate! Apps, bots, and workflows
- Slack supports integrations with 100s of apps. Here is a list of some of the most popular ones. See the Slack help center for details on each and a full list of apps available, follow this link: Zoom for SlackStart a meeting, join a meeting and make a call with Zoom phone. Remember, you must register your Slack and Zoom accounts with the same email address.
- Trello for SlackManage cards on your boards from Slack, add conversations to cards, and update due dates.
- Asana for SlackCreate new tasks and turn your conversations in Slack into to-dos in Asana
- Salesforce for SlackSearch Salesforce records from Slack, configure Salesforce alerts for Slack. Send Slack messages to SalesForce, or send Salesforce records to Slack.
- Twitter for SlackYou can set up mentions on Twitter to feed into a channel that the team can keep an eye on. Follow similar businesses or your suppliers.
- Google Calendar for SlackView your full schedule and have your status update when you are scheduled in a meeting.
- Donut for SlackDonut helps to improve team-building; there are prebuilt connection programs in Donut, one of the most popular functions is virtual random coffees. Help to encourage cross-organizational bonding.
- Loom for SlackMention @person or #channel directly in your Loom videos, and they can watch the clip without needing to leave Slack.
- Polly for Slack. This Polls and surveys bot lets you get quick feedback. Use pulse surveys directly in Slack.
- Greetbot for Slack. An onboarding assistant for Slack. Customize welcome messages and schedule follow-ups.
- You can also create custom integrations, build your bot, create automated workflows, and much more, read more on this via the Slack help center here.
Do you have a workflow or trick that works well for you in Slack? Then please share it with us over on Twitter @Turingcom.
- How to be a successful remote software engineer Oct 27, 2020 This blog post covers how a developer can be recognized,…
- Onboarding to a new team as an engineering leader Oct 26, 2020 In this post, Jean Hsu of Range shares some guiding…
- Vetting Candidates for Remote Work | Turing Hire Feb 5, 2020 What you need to know about a candidate to make…
- 10 Best Cities on Earth for Remote Workers Feb 3, 2020 Remote workers enjoy an enviable combination of freedom, productivity and…
- Remote Now! A Quick Guide to Remote Work… Mar 16, 2020 In a world where so many are going suddenly remote…
- How to Become a Remote Developer | Turing Jobs Feb 5, 2020 My goal with this post is to tell you how…
- Why a ‘Deep Jobs’ Platform is a Better… Mar 13, 2021 Turing offers vetting, onboarding, payments, time tracking, performance monitoring, and…
- GitLab’s Darren Murph reveals secrets of… Mar 1, 2021 Darren Murph, GitLab's head of remote, shares the do’s and…
- Things to know to get hired as a Turing Engineer Sep 17, 2020 To help you out, we’ve reached out to some Turing…
- Key Takeaways from Turing’s Boundaryless:… Mar 5, 2021 Top engineering leaders who have built large, remote developer teams…