31

I have a few unread messages among my dozens of Slack channels.

I click one my channels to read the new message there. I quickly remember I need to respond to something on a different channel so I jump there and send the response.

But now I've forgotten which channel I was on just before this, and the channel name isn't bolded anymore.

How can I see a list of recent channel activity, chronologically?

Improve this question
1
  • It should be similar to the old Stackoverflow activity page
    – Nathan majicvr.com
    Commented Mar 5 at 21:26

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
34

To view all posting in chronological order, you can do a search for something like on:today and sort the results by Most recent.

If you want to get back to a previous channel you were viewing, the fact that Slack is really a webapp is your friend. Hit your browser back key combination (ex. Command-LeftArrow on a Mac).

Improve this answer
5
  • 2
    And if you need to go back further the search operator is after:yyyy-mm-dd
    – Michael Burr
    Commented Apr 13, 2020 at 16:04
  • 1
    You can also add: from:me if you want to look at messages you have sent. Slack will automatically suggest your username, click on it
    – alejandro
    Commented Aug 22, 2020 at 1:48
  • How do you apply on:today if you don't know which channel it's in? I can't seem to find an "all messages" thread at all. This is an elemental part of the original question.
    – Steve Horvath
    Commented Mar 2, 2021 at 2:44
  • 1
    If you don’t specify a channel in the search field, the search will cover all channels. The channel you’re currently in is automatically added to your search, so you may need to delete it prior to executing the search.
    – seren
    Commented Mar 2, 2021 at 6:21
  • 1
    Under "More filters" there's an "Only include channels I'm in" feature, which helps a lot.
    – StriplingWarrior
    Commented Jul 2, 2021 at 16:35
3

What I've done to solve this in the meantime, is that using a simple Slack app I've created, I log significant activity within the workspace to a separate channel called #log.

Then I can scroll up the #log feed to see where things have happened in chronological order.

In each log message, I also link to the channel the action happened in, i.e. New message added in channel <#C123456>

Improve this answer
5
  • 2
    Do you have any links to this app or pointers to how to do this? I'm just a slack user - I don't know anything about slack apps or much about webapps in general.
    – Michael Burr
    Commented Apr 13, 2020 at 16:00
  • An example would be good to see!
    – Daniel Williams
    Commented Feb 10, 2021 at 18:51
  • This would be great, but please, please post your code and/or some instructions on how to use it!
    – Steve Horvath
    Commented Mar 2, 2021 at 2:46
  • There's no special code, just create a channel called #log, and use the regular Slack API to post to it
    – CodyBugstein
    Commented Mar 2, 2021 at 2:49
  • 2
    A few years later, and google brings me back here because I want something better than searching for "from:me on:yesterday". It's just a matter of "use the regular Slack API"... but that's the missing link for me. I don't know a damn thing about the Slack API. I guess I could start from api.slack.com, but I don't want to make a career out of Slack. Of course, you don't owe me anything, but I for one would really appreciate a snippet or something as a starting point.
    – Michael Burr
    Commented Feb 10, 2023 at 18:05
1

try this Preferences>>sidebar>>sort>>by most Recent

enter image description here

Improve this answer
3
  • That does not seem to work. Is the most recent under Connections, or Starred, or Channels or Direct Messages? I really want to see the most recent of anything
    – Daniel Williams
    Commented Mar 22, 2023 at 15:49
  • This doesn't work if you've organized some of your channels into sub groups and don't know which channel the message was in. Slack doesn't natively support an "All Activity" section with its own sorting rules, so the on:Today search solution is really the only answer, unless you get into apps and API stuff, which is beyond the scope of what most people can do.
    – Mageician
    Commented May 3, 2023 at 14:24
  • This works well for me, except on my Slack it's not within the "Sidebar" menu but within "Home", and you need to scroll down a bit.
    – ErnestScribbler
    Commented Sep 22 at 9:16
0

I know this is really late, but I got this workaround.

  1. On Slack, search for "before:today on:today"
  2. You will get results of all messages from all channels of all time (before today + today) sorted by newest to oldest with pagination
  3. Bookmark this on your browser, it will always work

Why I'm saying it will always work:

  • If you search by "on:week", you will only get from last Sunday to this Saturday, so on a Sunday, the search will not return "a week" of data
  • If you search using "Last 7 days" shortcut, it will plug in the dates, so it's not saveable or re-useable
  • Slack doesn't have "past 7 days" or "past 2 weeks" search
  • Slack doesn't have a page that contains all messages from all channels; you have to visit each channel separately -- sometimes you want an entire log
Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.