Slack says: “In parallel with our efforts on desktop, we have been rethinking our mobile apps to make them easier to navigate and optimized for using Slack on the go: quickly catching up, responding to DMs and mentions, sending messages, and getting work done with the shortcuts feature,” wrote Slack’s Preet Mangat, Johnny Rodgers and Cory Bujnowicz in the announcement. Tabs for access: Slack mobile now has tabs at the bottom to get you to the places in the app that you use often. This, says the design team, is to give mobile users a familiar interface instead of the confusing previous one, which used a slide out sidebar instead. The tabs include a Home button, which will bring new content to the top of the list, a Direct Message (DM) button so you can go right to your one-to-one conversations, and a Mentions and Reactions button, which surfaces all those types of interactions into an easy-to-find spot. Finally, there’s a You tab, which will let you manage your availability and online presence much more quickly than before. Gestures and Quick Compose: You’ll now be able to swipe around to navigate the mobile app more quickly than before. Swipe right to open your workspaces, left to go back, and right when in a conversations to go to your last tab. The desktop’s Quick Compose button makes its debut on mobile, now, too, letting you create a message to anyone in your Slack community with one tap, rather than searching for them in an endless maze of menus. Bottom line: If you need to use Slack on mobile, these changes should help you stay connected while away from the computer. If nothing else, you’ll be able to use the same sorts of features you’ve gotten used to on desktop. Via: Engadget
