When I first started at Slack, there was an in-depth orientation on the best ways to search within Slack. After taking some time away from work for parental duties, I myself could really use a refresher on Slack best practices, so here’s some search tips that can help you get the information that you need, faster. If this isn’t feeding two birds with one scone, I don’t know what is!

Just put quotes around it 🗣️

This one’s simple but so useful. If you’re looking for something that you know the exact name of like “advent calendar article day 22” 😉 just throw quotes around it. Without quotes, your search results contain everything with “advent” or “calendar” or “article” or “day” or “22” in it, which is… a lot of noise. With quotes? You get exactly what you’re looking for. Trust me on this one.

Try: “advent calendar article day 22”

in: Is your best friend 🤝

So you know the article is somewhere in the #team-developer-advocacy channel, just add in:#team-developer-advocacy to your search. The same thing works with people’s names or DMs too. I usually know where I saw a message so this saves me a lot of time. Instead of wading through every single channel, you’re only looking where you need to.

Try: advent calendar in:#team-developer-advocacy

When you know who said it 💬

Remember talking to your colleague MJ about the advent calendar article but can’t find the message? Use from:@MJ and boom—only her messages show up. Super helpful when you’re trying to find something from a specific person who definitely shared it but you just can’t remember when or where.

Try: advent calendar from:@MJ 

Because time actually matters ⏱️

Here’s where it gets really good. You can search by when something was posted using before:, after:, on: and  during:. As an example, if you know you started the advent calendar project in November of this year, just search add after:november to your search query. 

Try: advent calendar after:november

One shortcut to rule them all

To start searching, use the following keyboard shortcut – that way you won’t need to touch your mouse at all:

• ⌘K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) opens search from anywhere
• ⌘F (Mac) or Ctrl+F (Windows/Linux) searches in your current conversation

Stack ’em up

Note that you can combine all of these. Need to find the advent calendar article that your teammate talked about in #team-developer advocacy channel some time in November? 

Just search: advent calendar #team-developer-advocacy during:november

I know it looks complicated written out like that, but once you do it a couple times, it becomes second nature. And honestly? It’s kind of satisfying when you nail the search on the first try.

Give it a shot next time you’re hunting for something. Your future self will thank you.