How to Troubleshoot Messages with Slack on Android | ZDNet

I use Slack every day as my primary means of collaborating and communicating with various writers, editors and teams. You could say that I rely on Slack to keep up to date on what is happening with various editorial calendars and projects.

For the most part, Slack does an admiral job of doing what it is supposed to. But once in a while it will go wrong and I miss a notification or two. It’s not always a bad thing, but once in a while a pretty important letter falls through the cracks. It is then that I realize how important Slack has become in my daily routine.

So when something goes wrong, I need to fix it as soon as possible.

Fortunately, Slack includes a few tools and options to help you get those messages running again. Let’s take a look at what you can do on both desktop and mobile Slack applications to make sure you don’t stop receiving notifications.

Troubleshooting the mobile app

The good thing about the mobile Slack application is that it actually includes a tool that automatically troubleshoots notifications for you. Because of this inclusion, it’s pretty simple to keep your Slack messages running smoothly.

Here’s all you need to do to use the messaging troubleshooting app:

1. Open Slack on your mobile device.

2. Tap You at the bottom right of the window.

3. Tap Notifications.

4. Tap Troubleshoot messages (figure 1).

The app will run through the following tests:

• Check Slack settings.

• Check the configuration of Google Play Services.

• Check the device notification settings.

• Check all device connections.

• Try sending a test message.

• Check if your device can receive notifications.

• Check if your device is compatible with push notifications.

If the troubleshooting tool finds something wrong, it will report back so you can focus your efforts on resolving any issues that arise.

If this does not help, you may need to have “Notify me on mobile” set as needed. If you find that you regularly miss notifications, set this option to “Always, even when I’m active” (Figure 2). Otherwise, set it to “As soon as I’m inactive”. This option can be found in You> Messages> Notify me on my mobile.

You should also make sure to set “On mobile, notify me of All new messages.” This option is also available in You> Messages.

It is also important to know that you need to do the above in every workspace you use.

Troubleshooting the desktop app

The desktop application does not include a troubleshooting tool like the mobile app. This is fine because I rarely have issues with notifications on the desktop app. This also means that you will have to troubleshoot it manually.

The first thing to do (again, this is done per workspace) is to open Slack and go to File> Options. In the Preferences window, click Messages and make sure it is set to All New Messages (Figure 3).

Next, make sure that your notification plan does not cause any problems. Scroll down the notification sections until you see the notification plan. Make sure Allow Notifications is set to weekdays (unless you also work on weekends) at a time that allows you to view your notifications during business hours (Figure 4).

If you use Slack on both desktop and mobile devices, you may also be able to configure the Slack desktop app to send messages to your mobile device as soon as you are idle on the desktop. This is done at the bottom of the same screen (Figure 5).

And that’s the extent of Slack’s troubleshooting of the desktop app. As I mentioned, it’s a rare time that I have problems on the desktop side of things, but you never know when problems might arise. As for the mobile app, I have experienced issues, but the troubleshooting feature usually solves these issues for me.

Enjoy keeping up to date on Slack.