Slack (WORK) has begun rolling out an overhaul of its platform that makes it easier for users to communicate and collaborate.
The move couldn't come at a better time for Slack. With the cases of COVID-19 rising around the world, and a growing number of companies mandating that any employees who can work from home do so, demand for tools like Slack is skyrocketing. When reporting fourth-quarter results last week, the company's management said they are seeing a "massive outpouring of interest" in the platform.
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In Wednesday's blog post, Slack said it is redesigning its platform so that it is a "simpler, more organized experience" for its users. The redesign is being rolled out over the next several weeks and includes a new navigation bar to search across an organization, a sidebar that includes key conversations, files and apps, and a new compose button to start a message anywhere. Paying customers get even more features, such as the ability to use emoji labels to organize channels and conversations. This marks the biggest change to Slack's app since it went live in August 2013.
"The average paid user spends more than nine hours each workday connected to Slack, including around 90 minutes of active use," wrote Slack in the blog post. "That adds up to more than 5 billion actions taken each week in Slack, from solving customer support tickets to keeping tabs on the latest sales deal."
While many companies are scrambling to set their employees up to work remotely in response to the pandemic, the work-at-home mentality may persist after COVID-19 is contained. With this overhaul, Slack is positioning itself to be ready if it does.
