Slack's new feature wants you to swipe right on all those unread alerts

Catch Up for Slack
(Image credit: Slack)

Slack has unveiled a new feature for its mobile app that it hopes will help make sure you never miss an unread message or alert ever again.

Catch Up will display all your unread Slack messages across multiple channels or DMs as a slideshow, giving you much more visibility into what you might have missed.

Users are then able to swipe right or left (much like an online dating app) to mark a message as unread or read respectively.

Catch Up for Slack

Slack says it sees Catch Up as a useful tool for workers either starting their day, where they can quickly sort through which alerts are the most pressing, and prepare their working schedule accordingly, but also for those ending the day, who may need to look through all the alerts they may have missed.

This is particularly useful on the Slack mobile app, which users might quickly glance at whilst heading to the office, train station, vehicle or just when heading to a meeting.

Users will also be able to long-press on any particularly pertinent unreads to save them for later without clogging up their to-do list.

"Before they get to their desk in the morning, or when they're away from their desk, or maybe at lunch — a 30-second session, super fast, just trying to catch up," Akshay Bakshi, a product management director at Slack, told The Verge, which broke the news. "Then the stuff they want to get back to at their desktop, they leave it for later."

Bakshi also added that Slack is planning even further developments for the app and Catch Up as a whole, including utilizing AI for intelligent summarizations and prioritization.

Catch Up is available now across the iOS and Android apps for Slack, with an iPad release scheduled soon, along with a rollout to users of the paid Slack app. 

The release comes shortly after Slack revealed a full-scale overhaul to its platform aimed at boosting productivity and making online collaboration easier than ever, including tweaks such as easier navigation around messages, channels and conversations, as well as easier ways to find the tools you need.

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Mike Moore
Deputy Editor, TechRadar Pro

Mike Moore is Deputy Editor at TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a B2B and B2C tech journalist for nearly a decade, including at one of the UK's leading national newspapers and fellow Future title ITProPortal, and when he's not keeping track of all the latest enterprise and workplace trends, can most likely be found watching, following or taking part in some kind of sport.

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