14 DAY TRIAL // Slack developers have just announced that their Android application has just been overhauled in line with Google's new Material Design.
Slack for Android 2.0 has already been rolled out in Google Play Store and apart from the obvious visual changes, there are quite a lot of new features too.
The first thing you might notice, especially if you're a long-time user, is that developers have updated the layout of the UI.
For example, the left and right drawers have been removed in favor of a much simpler to use tabbed navigation. A new “Jump to ...” option has been implemented as well, which can get user to any channel, group, or direct message.
Also, “a much refined notification experience” has been added, which is supposed to group notifications by team.
Last but not least, the search functionality had been further enhanced with the option to open search results in a new “archive viewer.”
But that's not all. The team behind Slack has taken all the feedback into consideration and came up with new features that should offer a much better experience when not connected.
Android emoji is in the house
So, in the latest version of Slack, all the messages that loaded last time when you were connected can be read, and users will now be able to move faster from place to place.
Another important improvement is the addition of the full *message*_formatting_ support for the Android version of Slack. This is basically Android emoji, so you should give it a try and see if you like it.
Developers also promise that they will be working to make performance on low memory devices better and optimizations around initial load time.
You can now download Slack for Android 2.0 for free via Google Play store. The application should be fully compatible with all devices powered by Android 2.3 and up.