Slack has upgraded its dekstop app to make online collaboration easier than ever.
The company says Slack for desktop now launches 33 percent faster, and uses 50 percent less RAM than previous versions, thanks to a number of tweaks and changes to the back-end of its software.
The improvements, which Slack says are the result of nearly two years work, will apply across both Windows and macOS, with the updated app available to download today.
- Slack password reset coming to thousands of users
- Best small business software of 2019
- Slack brings extra security to your business chats
Need for speed
Slack says that business customers using multiple workspaces will see the most benefit from the upgrade, with the app much less of a drain on your computer's hardware.
That's because the company has redesigned the underlying code behind the app to be far more friendly towards multi-workspace users, espeically those switching frequently between channels. The result is that Slack will no longer create a standalone copy for each workspace and take up RAM for each instance. Instead, it reuses components and uses a more modern codebase.
Connecting to incoming Slack calls is now ten times faster, and message history will be available to read even if your internet connection drops. The app interface itself has also had a refresh, featuring a new smaller and smarter autocomplete menu, as well as profile cards that match those in the mobile app.
"As more conversations, information and apps run through Slack, the underlying technology that supports it must scale too," the company wrote in a blog post announcing the news.
"That’s why we rebuilt Slack’s desktop experience to run faster and more reliably across a growing number of workspaces and channels. This latest desktop release makes it easier to stay responsive and collaborate efficiently across teams, whether you’re an organization of 10 or 10,000."
- The best online collaboration tools of 2019
