As a remote worker, Slack is one of the essential tools that I use on a daily basis for team communication. The desktop app for Mac is well designed and offers a great user experience but one thing that always puts me off is the time it takes to switch from one team to another. It loads incredibly slow when switching teams, but their latest beta vastly improves the app’s performance and speed.

The current version of Slack for Mac is built using a WebKit wrapper, which essentially turns their web version into a desktop app. But the latest beta of Slack has been built completely from scratch as a native application, using the Electron framework, which brings a considerable improvement to the performance of the app.

After installing the beta version, right off the bat, you’ll notice how much faster the app has become, especially when switching teams, which barely takes a few seconds now as opposed to the current non-beta version.

Apart from performance improvements, the design hasn’t changed much except that the top bar has been removed from the app and the team bar on the far left also changes color based on the theme you’ve chosen.

It’s good to see that Slack is constantly improving its app to provide a better user experience. Just a few months ago, the company rolled out ‘Calls’ feature for both their desktop and mobile apps to allow team members to call each other right within Slack.

The latest beta version of Slack is available for download from their official website. Let us know what you think about it in the comments below.