In the world of remote work and team collaboration, Slack has emerged as an indispensable tool for teams, streamlining communication and enhancing productivity. One functionality that often remains underutilized despite its incredible utility in organizing and prioritizing vital information within channels is the ability to “pin” messages. Let’s go over how to utilize Slack’s pinning feature effectively, unveiling its potential to transform how teams collaborate and share information within the platform.

What is Slack? 

Slack is a business messaging app that transforms the way teams communicate- bringing transparency, accountability, and flexibility to the workplace. You can collaborate and coordinate just like you would in person with team members, virtually. Within your company workspace, you can communicate in dedicated spaces called channels, bringing together the right people and information in one convenient place. Slack is a fantastic tool for asynchronous work. Regardless of location or time zone, slack users can access the information they need in public channels, anytime and anywhere. All channel members can keep updated on different projects, tasks, and information without having to find the perfect time for a meeting. Slack is a platform that encourages transparency and openness within an organization. In Slack, everyone can access the same searchable information. When teams work together in channels, information can be shared with everyone at once, helping keep teams aligned, and transparent, and make informed decisions more quickly. 

Why pin a message in Slack?

Pinning a message in Slack keeps the pinned information at the top of your channel, increasing visibility and ease of access. Pinning is a useful feature that serves several purposes:

Highlight Important Information: When there’s crucial information that everyone in the channel needs to be aware of, such as policy changes, meeting schedules, or urgent updates, pinning a message ensures it remains visible and easily accessible to all channel members.. For instance, in a sales channel, pinning a new product release announcement at the top of a channel helps ensure that the entire team sees it immediately.

Quick Reference: In channels with extensive conversation histories, finding specific information can be time-consuming. Pinning a message at the top of the channel provides a quick reference point for frequently needed details, like important links to shared documents, project guidelines, or FAQs. This makes it convenient for team members to quickly find important information without scrolling through multiple messages in an active public channel.

New Member Onboarding: When new members join a channel or workspace, pinned messages can serve as a welcoming gesture or orientation tool. You might pin an introductory message outlining the channel’s purpose, relevant information, or instructions on how to get started. This aids in their smooth integration into ongoing discussions and activities. 

Project Updates or Deadlines: Take your project management to the next level by pinning messages related to project updates, deadlines, or milestones. Pinning keeps these critical details prominently displayed in a single location, ensuring everyone in the channel has easy, quick access to critical project-related information at all times. For example, in a project channel, pinning a message with the current project status or the deadline for a specific phase ensures that team members remain informed and focused on key objectives.

Important Discussions: Within ongoing discussions, pinning a message that summarizes a decision, outlines action items, or concludes a debate helps maintain clarity and ensure that everyone is on the same page. It prevents key details from being lost or overlooked amidst the flow of conversation.

Temporary Important Notices: For urgent or time-sensitive announcements that might otherwise get buried in subsequent messages, pinning provides temporary visibility. For instance, a notice about a system outage, a change in meeting time, or an immediate action required by the team can be pinned temporarily for quick access.

Overall, pinning messages in Slack is a great idea if you want to prominently display and preserve important information within a channel for future reference, facilitating better communication, organization, and information sharing among team members. Pinning a message in Slack can ensure critical updates, key announcements, or essential resources remain prominently displayed for easy access by the whole team. Pinning messages can significantly streamline workflows, foster clearer communication, and ultimately elevate team efficiency. 

So how do you do it?

How to pin a message in Slack

In both channels and direct messages (DM), you can pin important messages to the conversation header and add bookmarks and folders to organize useful links. All members of a conversation can access these items in the conversation header.

From your desktop, hover your mouse over the message you’d like to pin.

Click the three dots icon.

Select Pin to channel, or Pin to this conversation in a DM.

You can also pin messages from your mobile device!

Tap and hold a message, then select either Pin Message or Pin to Conversation, both work!

If you end up needing to remove a pinned message, here’s how to do so:

From your desktop, open a channel or DM, then click Pinned messages in the conversation header.

Hover your mouse over the message you’d like to un-pin and click the close icon.

Click Remove pinned item to confirm. As a note, if you remove items that were pinned by other members, they’ll receive a Slackbot automated message letting them know.

Need to keep track of something just for yourself? Try saving a message or file instead of pinning. Scroll your mouse over the message you’d like to save and simply click the save icon that looks like a flag. 

…

Mastering the art of pinning messages in Slack not only boosts organizational efficiency but also cultivates a more focused communication process within teams. By using this feature to highlight crucial information, resources, or announcements, teams can ensure that vital updates remain easily accessible and prominently displayed for all members. Pinning messages facilitates clarity, reduces information overload, and fosters a culture of transparency and collaboration. The simple yet powerful act of pinning messages empowers users to curate and prioritize essential content within channels, ultimately optimizing workflows and enhancing productivity. By embracing and implementing these best practices for pinning messages, teams can harness Slack’s full potential.