
(On iOS, open the channel or message you want to star, tap the circled i button at the top right, and then tap the star icon.) From the sidebar, just control-click the item you want to star and select Star channel or Star conversation, or do it directly on the item by selecting it and clicking the star icon. When you give a conversation channel or direct message a star, it will be made available in the Starred section of your sidebar, which is itself only visible so long as you have an item starred.

Use the stars to highlight important items it is what they are for. Doing so will immediately reduce the number of channels in your list, though if new messages appear in any channel, you will still see them. Select Advanced options in Preferences and then choose the Hide any channels which have no unread activity unless they are starred option. This way you don’t need to take your hands off your keyboard.

Keep your hands on the keyboardīusy lives get busy sidebars, right? On a Mac you can navigate through all those channels and messages using Option and the Up or Down arrows. You’ll be notified whenever that keyword gets used in any of your channels. Perhaps there’s a client relationship you take particularly seriously, in which case you might set that company name up as a keyword. If you are working on a project, you might set the application up to alert you when someone in any of your channels uses the project code name (“big heart,” for example).

Preferences > Notifications also gives you access to the Keywords item. Now you can adjust notifications to the level you are comfortable with:Īlternatively, use the Do Not Disturb feature (click your profile icon, select Pause notifications, and choose a period of time) to give yourself a little space.Īnd don’t forget: You can also use the Mac’s default Notifications manager in System Preferences to put Slack notifications on a diet. Select a workspace and then choose Preferences > Notifications in Slack’s menu.

If you work in a busy team, you may want to disable Slack notifications temporarily when you attempt to focus on a task, or adjust them to cut out the interruptions while still picking up on necessary stuff.
