Badge notifications
If you see a badge on your desktop's Slack icon, it means you have unread activity to review.
Use badge notifications
Mac
Windows
Linux
On Mac, unread activity will add a red badge to the Slack icon.
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A dot means you have unread activity in one of your Slack workspaces. |
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A number means a teammate sent you a direct message, mentioned you, or used one of your keywords. |
Set your preference
You can turn badge notifications off or on from your preferences:
- From your desktop, click your workspace name in the top left.
- Select Preferences from the menu.
- Click Notifications.
- Under Sound & appearance, check or uncheck Show a badge • on Slack's icon to indicate new activity.
Tip: If you're a member of multiple workspaces, you can pick and choose the ones you'd like to see badge notifications for.
For Windows, you'll see badge notifications in two places: in your taskbar and in your notifications area.
Notifications area
When Slack is running, you’ll see a Slack icon in your notifications area.
- A blue badge means there's unread activity in one of your workspaces.
- A red badge means a teammate sent you a direct message, mentioned you, or used one of your keywords.
You can't turn off badges, but you can choose not to leave the app running when the Slack window is closed. This will remove the Slack icon (and badges) from your notifications area. Here's how to do this:
- From your desktop, click your workspace name in the top left.
- Select Preferences from the menu.
- Click Windows App.
- Uncheck the box next to Leave app running in notification area when the window is closed.
Taskbar
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In your taskbar, a red badge means a teammate sent you a direct message, mentioned you, or used one of your keywords. |
You can choose to flash the Slack icon to alert you of new activity:
- From your desktop, click your workspace name in the top left.
- Select Preferences from the menu.
- Click Notifications.
- Under Sound & appearance, check Flash window when receiving a notification.
You'll also see the option to only flash the icon when you're not actively using your computer. If you check this box, the icon will flash after your computer has been idle for 10 seconds.
Tip: To keep the Slack icon in the taskbar when the app window is closed, select Flash window when receiving a notification, but leave the second option unchecked.
Note: If your taskbar is set to small taskbar buttons, badges on the Slack icon will not be visible.
On Linux, you'll see badge notifications in your notifications area when the Slack app is running.
- A blue badge means there's unread activity in one of your workspaces.
- A red badge means a teammate sent you a direct message, mentioned you, or used one of your keywords.
You can't turn off badges, but you can choose not to leave the app running when the Slack window is closed. This will remove the Slack icon (and badges) from your notifications area. Here's how to do this:
- From your desktop, click your workspace name in the top left.
- Click the Linux App tab.
- Uncheck the box next to Leave app running in notification area when the window is closed.
Note: The Slack icon in the panel won't indicate if any of your keywords were used in a direct message, mention, or message.