Whether you love it or hate it, now that we’re pretty much all working remotely, Slack has become as essential in the workplace as gmail and Microsoft Office.
And while it is a great tool for streamlining communication in the office, the learning curve to really using it as streamlined as you can can be steep—especially if you’re used to more basic communication tools like gchat or Facebook Messenger.
If you’re working on learning the ins and outs of Slack to be a more optimized colleague or supervisor, read on. Below, we’ve pulled some of the most practical, whimsical, and downright life-saving keyboard shortcuts on Slack that you need to know about if you’re using the communication tool on a daily basis.
From jumping to the most recent unread message in a group conversation and marking all messages as read, to adding an emoji reaction or adding bold and italicized formatting, here’s everything you need to know to make communicating via Slack as streamlined as possible—for both Windows/Linux users and Mac users as well.
The best Slack keyboard shortcuts for Windows and Linux
- Jump to a conversation: Ctrl+K
- Jump to the most recent unread message in a conversation: Ctrl+J
- Navigation – Move focus to the next section: F6
- Navigation – Move focus to the previous section: Shift+F6
- Browse direct messages: Ctrl+Shift+K
- Browse channels: Ctrl+Shift+L
- Compose a new message: Ctrl+N
- Open the Threads view: Ctrl+Shift+T
- Previous unread channel or DM: Alt+Shift+Up
- Next unread channel or DM: Alt+Shift+Down
- Previous channel or DM visited: Alt+Left Arrow
- Next channel or DM visited: Alt+Right Arrow
- Open your preferences: Ctrl+,
- Channel details pane: Ctrl+Shift+I
- Mentions & reactions: Ctrl+Shift+M
- People: Ctrl+Shift+E
- Saved items: Ctrl+Shift+S
- Set a status: Ctrl+Shift+Y
- Search current channel or conversation: Ctrl+F
- Open previous search: Ctrl+G
- Toggle full screen view: Ctrl+Shift+F
- Collapse or expand the right sidebar: Ctrl+.
- Collapse or expand the left sidebar: Ctrl+Shift+D
- Open All Unreads: Ctrl+Shift+A
- Mark messages as unread: Alt+click the message
- Move between messages: Up or Down
- Open and collapse channels: Left arrow or Right arrow
- Upload file: Ctrl+U
- View all downloaded files: Ctrl+Shift+J
- Create new snippet: Ctrl+Shift+Enter
- Edit your last message: Ctrl+Up
- Select text to beginning of current line: Shift+Up
- Select text to end of current line: Shift+Down
- Create a new line in your message: Shift+Enter
- Add an emoji reaction to a message: Ctrl+Shift+/
- Bold selected text: Ctrl+B
- Italicize selected text: Ctrl+I
- Strikethrough selected text: Ctrl+Shift+X
- Quote selected text: Ctrl+Shift+9
- Code selected text: Ctrl+Shift+C
- Code block selected text: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C
- Turn selected text into a numbered list: Ctrl+Shift+7
- Turn selected text into a bulleted list: Ctrl+Shift+8
- Apply formatting when you copy and paste text in markdown from another source into Slack: Ctrl+Shift+F
- Undo message formatting: Ctrl+Z
The best Slack keyboard shortcuts for Apple
- Jump to a conversation: Command+K
- Jump to the most recent unread message in a conversation: Command+J
- Navigation – Move focus to the next section: F6
- Navigation – Move focus to the previous section: Shift+F6
- Browse direct messages: Command+Shift+K
- Browse channels: Command+Shift+L
- Compose a new message: Command+N
- Open the Threads view: Command+Shift+T
- Previous unread channel or DM: Option+Shift+Up
- Next unread channel or DM: Option+Shift+Down
- Previous channel or DM visited: Command+[
- Next channel or DM visited: Command+]
- Open your preferences: Command+,
- Channel details pane: Command+Shift+I
- Mentions & reactions: Command+Shift+M
- People: Command+Shift+E
- Saved items: Command+Shift+S
- Set a status: Command+Shift+Y
- Search current channel or conversation: Command+F
- Open previous search: Command+G
- Toggle full screen view: Up+Command+F
- Collapse or expand the right sidebar: Command+.
- Collapse or expand the left sidebar: Command+Shift+D
- Open All Unreads: Command+Shift+A
- Mark messages as unread: Option+click the message
- Move between messages: Up or Down
- Open and collapse channels: Left arrow or Right arrow
- Upload file: Command+U
- View all downloaded files: Command+Shift+J
- Create new snippet: Command+Shift+Enter
- Edit your last message: Command+Up
- Select text to beginning of current line: Shift+Up
- Select text to end of current line: Shift+Down
- Create a new line in your message: Shift+Enter
- Add an emoji reaction to a message: Command+Shift+\
- Bold selected text: Command+B
- Italicize selected text: Command+I
- Strikethrough selected text: Command+Shift+X
- Quote selected text: Command+Shift+9
- Code selected text: Command+Shift+C
- Code block selected text: Command+Alt+Shift+C
- Turn selected text into a numbered list: Command+Shift+7
- Turn selected text into a bulleted list: Command+Shift+8
- Apply formatting when you copy and paste text in markdown from another source into Slack: Command+Shift+F
- Undo message formatting: Command+Z