Dive Brief:
- Collaboration tool Slack is getting a major design update, according to its parent company Salesforce, which announced the user experience overhaul Wednesday.
- The tool will don a new look and layout with a default home screen aimed at reducing complexity. Customers with Enterprise Grid accounts can view channels from every workspace on the home screen without toggling between workspaces.
- Slack is also offering users more control over where they spend their time. The new interface allows users to set aside time to respond to unread direct messages, save a message or action for later and quickly access integrated tools. Slack will house notifications deeper within these views to aid heads-down work, the company said.
Dive Insight:
The only feature Slack isn’t changing is its integrated homepage, which enables users to see channels, direct messages and apps in a single view.
The new user experience will roll out to new teams Wednesday and existing users can access it in the coming months.
In total, Slack has unveiled more than 100 updates to its platform in the past year. Most recently, the company launched a sales-focused product to link Salesforce’s Sales Cloud more closely to the platform last week.
Cloud environments tailored to various industry verticals have won customers over as enterprises look for solutions with built-in security and compliance. Gartner predicts that by 2027 more than half of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms to accelerate business initiatives.
It’s also an area where Salesforce has found success. Eight of the company’s offerings for industry-specific cloud environments grew more than 50% in annual recurring revenue, said Brian Millham during the company’s earnings call in May.
But overall growth in the company has slowed. Salesforce revenue for Q1 2024 reached $8.25 billion, up 11% year-over-year, for the period ending April 30. That growth rate, however, is the company’s smallest since its 2010 fiscal year.
