Chat: notifications, status and Do Not Disturb

Chat follows Slack's rules for getting your attention: bold means there's something new to read, and a number means something is meant for you. On top of that you choose how loud each conversation is, whether your browser pops up notifications, and whether Chat emails you about messages you missed.

Unread messages and badges

What you see	What it means
A conversation in bold	It has messages you haven't read.
A number next to a conversation	Messages for you: every unread message in a direct message or group DM, and @mentions of you, of a group you're in, @here, @channel or @everyone in a channel, and messages with one of your keywords.
A dimmed conversation	You muted it. It's never bold, but a mention still shows a number.
Threads lit up	New replies in threads you follow. Thread replies never make the channel itself bold.

Ordinary channel messages make a channel bold without a number. Your own messages, and notes Chat posts itself such as "joined the channel", never count as unread.

The same numbers add up in two more places: the browser tab title reads Chat (3), counting your mentions and unread direct messages, and the Chat section of the Mail sidebar shows the total next to Open Chat. See Chat: getting started.

Catching up

Open a conversation and it's marked read. A red New line shows where the unread messages started.
If unread messages are above what's on screen, a banner offers Jump to unread and Mark as read. Jump to latest takes you back to the newest message.
Press Esc to mark the conversation you're in as read, or Shift+Esc to mark everything read.
To come back to something later, choose ⋯ ▸ Mark unread on a message, or Alt+click it.
Activity in the sidebar collects your mentions, keyword matches, reminders and reactions to your messages from the last 30 days.
Unreads in the sidebar puts every conversation with unread messages on one page. See Chat: channels and direct messages.

What you've read is shared across your devices and tabs: read a conversation on your phone and it's no longer bold on your computer.

Notifications for one conversation

Open ⓘ ▸ Settings in any conversation to choose when it notifies you:

Every new message: the default for direct messages and group DMs.
Only mentions: the default for channels. You hear about @mentions of you and your groups, @here, @channel, @everyone and your keywords.
Nothing.

Muting

Mute a conversation to quiet it without leaving. A muted conversation is dimmed in the sidebar and never turns bold, and it never sends desktop or email notifications. A mention of you still shows a number, so you won't miss something addressed to you. Unmute it from the same place.

Keyword notifications

Want to hear whenever a project, a client or a product comes up, even when nobody mentions you? Add it as a keyword in Preferences. A message with one of your keywords, in any conversation you're in, counts like a mention:

the conversation shows a number, the message appears in Activity under Keywords, and you get a desktop notification;
the keyword is highlighted in the message.

The rules:

Up to 20 keywords, each 1 to 60 characters. A keyword can be a phrase, such as launch plan.
Matching ignores capitals and looks for whole words: api matches "API is down" but not "rapid".
Your own messages, muted conversations and messages that already mention you don't trigger a keyword notification.

Desktop notifications

Chat can show your computer's notifications for new messages while you're in another tab or app. Turn them on in Preferences: your browser asks for permission the first time. Then choose what they're for: every message, direct messages and mentions (the default), or nothing.

Desktop notifications need a Chat tab open somewhere in your browser. With Chat closed, email notifications take over.
You won't get them while you're looking at Chat, for muted conversations, or while notifications are paused.

Email notifications

If you miss a direct message or a mention, Chat emails you about it, so nothing important sits unseen while you're away:

The email goes out when a direct message, group DM or mention is still unread 15 minutes after it arrived and you haven't had Chat open since then. Chat checks every 5 minutes, so the email arrives 15 to 20 minutes after the message.
It says "You have unread messages" and links straight to the message in Chat.
At most one email per conversation per hour, and 10 emails per hour in total.
Never while your notifications are paused, and never for muted conversations.
Ordinary channel messages that don't mention you never trigger an email.

Email notifications are on by default. Turn them off in Preferences.

Messages brought over from Slack never notify anyone: an import marks everything as read.

Your status

Tell people what you're up to with a status: an emoji and a short line such as "🌴 On vacation" or "🤒 Out sick". Open Set a status, pick an emoji, type up to 100 characters and choose when to clear it under Clear after. Your status is shown next to your name in conversations, direct messages and member lists across your organization. You can also type /status or /clear-status in any composer.

Status from your calendar

When you haven't set a status yourself, Chat sets one from your calendar:

When	Your status
You're in a meeting you've accepted, with at least one other person	In a meeting · until it ends, for example "In a meeting · until 3:00 PM"
You have an all-day or long event called something like "OOO", "PTO", "Out of office", "Vacation" or "Holiday"	Out of office · until it ends
You're in a SingleSign Meetings call	In a huddle

It clears itself when the meeting or the time off ends. Only the status is shown: event titles are never shown, and nobody sees your calendar through Chat.

A status you set yourself always wins. While you have one, your calendar doesn't change it; clear it and the calendar status comes back. Don't want a status from your calendar at all? Turn it off in Preferences. It's on by default.

Pausing notifications (Do Not Disturb)

Need to focus? Pause notifications turns on Do Not Disturb for a set time: pick one of the preset lengths. While notifications are paused:

You get no desktop notifications and no emails from Chat.
Messages still arrive, and bold and numbers still show, so you can catch up when you're ready.
People in your organization see that your notifications are paused.

Notifications resume on their own when the time is up, or turn them back on sooner from Pause notifications.

Presence: active and away

A green dot next to someone's name means they're active: they have Chat open in a browser tab and have used it in the last 10 minutes. Otherwise they're away, shown with a grey dot. Presence updates live, for everyone in your organization.

You can also set yourself to away by hand, even with Chat open, and switch back when you're available again. /away and /active do the same.

Profile cards

Hover over or click anyone's name, picture or @mention to see their profile card:

their name, address and role in your organization, and when they joined;
whether they're active or away, and their status, including a status from their calendar;
their local time, when Chat knows it;
whether they're free or busy right now, from their calendar, and until when.

Free and busy follow the person's own calendar sharing settings. If they've hidden their calendar from colleagues, the card doesn't say whether they're free. Event titles are never shown, only free or busy. From the card you can message the person, email them, start a huddle or view their profile.

Profile cards show only people in your own organization.