Slack is a handy way to communicate with colleagues and friends. But great communication has a downside: a deluge of notifications. Here are five ways to tailor the app so you don’t get overwhelmed.
1. Silence specifically
In your Slack groups, chances are you have multiple channels set up for different conversations. And chances are they’re not all of equal importance.
To silence a specific channel or group message you mysteriously got added to, tap into it, tap its title at the top of the screen, then select Notifications. Here, choose “Nothing” to silence all notifications.
2. Make a clean break
Need a moment of quiet? You can temporarily mute all Slack notifications by tapping the triple-dot icon and selecting “Do Not Disturb.” On this screen, opt to go dark for as little as 30 minutes or as long as the start of the next workweek.
3. Schedule quiet time
You can set Slack to turn off all notifications at the same time each day. Tap the triple-dot menu, then go to Settings > Do Not Disturb and specify a time range.
4. Simplify your alerts
If you have Slack installed on your Mac as well as your iPhone and iPad, you’ll end up getting pinged on multiple devices for the same message.
To prevent sensory overload, have Slack send iPhone notifications only if you’ve been idle on your Mac: Tap the triple-dot menu, then go to Settings > Notifications and set “Notify Me on Mobile” to “After I’ve been idle on desktop.”
5. Key up
You’ll feel more comfortable curtailing your Slack notifications as a whole if you’re confident you won’t miss crucial messages. Keyword notifications can help with this. They notify you any time a message has a specific word or emoji (for anyone with a boss who conveys urgency with 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥).
To set this up, tap the triple-dot icon and go to Settings > Notifications. Then scroll down and select “My Keywords” and enter any hot-button words in your life.