13 Must-Have Slack Keyboard Shortcuts for Powerful Productivity

Slack is an incredible communication tool for teams of all shapes and sizes. In order to provide a comprehensive chat and sharing solution, Slack has tons of capabilities beyond basic chat functionality. And many of these capabilities can be implemented with simple keyboard shortcuts. These are some of the best Slack keyboard shortcuts that you should know about.

Up: edit the last message

Did you message the channel with an obvious error, such as wrong copy paste content? Instead of grabbing your mouse, clicking the message options, and clicking the edit option, you can simply press the “Up” arrow on your keyboard. From your message input box, pressing Up will immediately take you to edit the message you just sent.

Ctrl + B and Ctrl + I: emphasize your messages

Slack supports all kinds of markdowns to format your messages, but the familiar shortcuts for bold and italic characters are just as valuable here as they are in Word.

Shift + Enter – A completely new line

You will likely send messages by pressing Enter, but did you know that you can add newlines to your messages with Shift + Enter?

V and M: toggle call functions

Manage your video and mute switches on a call by simply pressing the V and M keys respectively.

Ctrl + F and Ctrl + G – Searching here and there

One of the most useful features in Slack is the ability to search and find messages on whatever channel you have access to. Ctrl + F will start a search within the Slack channel you are currently in, while Ctrl + G will open a general search without the channel filter.

Ctrl + U – Upload a file

A colleague just texted you: “Hey, do you have a copy of the style guide?” It definitely does, which is why you want to send them the PDF of the guide. A quick Ctrl + U will open the file explorer to find the file you want to upload and share.

Ctrl + N: start a new message

You just met a new addition to your team and would like to introduce someone else to your organization, so you can press Ctrl + N to start a new Slack message, include them both, and start that introduction.

Ctrl + Shift + Y – What is your status?

Alright, it’s time to join the customer call, so hit Ctrl + Shift + Y to set your status and let the rest of your team know that you’re not immediately available.

Ctrl + Shift + A – Mark all unread messages

It seems like a couple of channels actually appeared while you were gone. Get sucked into Slack’s unread view by pressing Ctrl + Shift + A.

Shift + Escape: just clear those notifications

It seems like a couple of channels really popped up while you were gone, and if something is important to you specifically, someone will remind you. You can mark all messages as read by pressing Shift + Escape to clear those annoying notifications.