Slack rolls out faster way to mark messages as read on Android

When a new message is put in Slack, the app will let you know if there’s an unread message waiting for you. On the desktop app, you can quickly mark messages as read by using keyboard shortcuts like Esc and Shift Esc. You also have the option to mark a message as unread by hitting the Alt key and clicking on the message. While there wasn’t really a quick way to deal with unread messages in mobile app, that appears to be changing now.

If you’re using the mobile version of Slack, to mark a message as read, you usually have to open the app and view the channel. However, it looks like an update has rolled out that gives you another way to address unread messages.

We’ve noticed that the Android version of Slack now has a “Mark as Read” button in the notification. The option sits beside the “Reply” button, allowing you to either ignore or mark as read right from the notification.

Although it’s not a game changer by any means, it’s a nice quality-of-life feature we welcome. Meanwhile, it appears the Android app still lacks a Mark as Read section on the Preferences page, like the desktop app has. So you still can’t customize your Mark as Read preferences in the mobile app.