Slack app on Linux: How to disable the "blue circle" icon on channel activity?

Question

When at work I want to disable the blue icon notification that happens when there's any activity in a channel that I'm in. Specifically, I don't want this notification from certain slack teams:

Is there a way to "mute an entire slack team" so that I won't get that blue icon notification? Thanks.

score 26 · Accepted Answer · edited May 30 '19 at 01:35

I don't seem to have the setting that Shawn mentions, but i was able to make this work by opening up the /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar.unpacked/src/static directory, making a copy of the slack-taskbar-rest.png file and renaming it to slack-taskbar-unread.png to overwrite the version with the blue dot.

of course, that gets rid of the blue dot for all teams, but that's what i wanted.

Edit (2019-05-28): Idea is still correct, but for the newest Slack version (3.4.2) on Ubuntu, two more files have to be replaced. The following worked for me:

cd /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar.unpacked/src/static
sudo cp slack-taskbar-rest.ico slack-taskbar-unread.ico
sudo cp slack-taskbar-rest.png slack-taskbar-unread.png
sudo cp slack-taskbar-rest-linux.png slack-taskbar-unread-linux.png

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 22 '20 at 21:20

The short answer is: You can't, without hacking slack.

The long answer is that exactly how to hack it will differ from one version to the next, as they update the source code. We should all team up and submit a feature request (or maybe this could even be considered a bug – it's clearly bugging people).

Until then, this should be a community wiki, to prevent a new answer from being generated for each new slack version. Add your scripts here, and clearly state the latest version on which it works, newest on top.

4.7.0

This is an improvement on Dmitry S.'s answer.

unreads>0 is replaced with false, so slack should always think there are no unread messages.
Replacement is done in all .js files, since the code seems to have been split up in the latest version.
asar is not run with super user privileges, which is useful for people using npm-g_nosudo.

Prerequisites:

asar installed globally through npm: npm install -g asar

Script:

#!/usr/bin/env sh
set -eu
Clean up previous failed attempts
rm -rf ~/tmp/slack
rm -rf ~/tmp/app.asar
Unpack
mkdir -p ~/tmp/slack
asar extract /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar ~/tmp/slack
Modify
sed -i 's/unreads>0/false/g' ~/tmp/slack/dist/*.js
Replace
sudo rm /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar
sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar.unpacked
asar pack ~/tmp/slack ~/tmp/app.asar
sudo cp ~/tmp/app.asar /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar
sudo cp -r ~/tmp/slack /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar.unpacked
echo "Enjoy your productivity"

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 19 '19 at 00:03

The newest version 4.1.2 doesn't read the .ico file on Linux, and changes src to dist. Instead it builds a badge + base. Luckily unread>0 is the check responsible for the badge and only appears once in the minified JS, so it's easy to patch. You'll need the ASAR tool to modify the Electron archive (npm install -g asar):

mkdir -p ~/tmp/slack
asar extract /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar ~/tmp/slack
sed -i 's/unreads>0/unreads<0/g' ~/tmp/slack/dist/main.1.*.js
sudo rm /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar
sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar.unpacked
sudo asar pack ~/tmp/slack /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar
sudo mv ~/tmp/slack /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar.unpacked

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered May 29 '19 at 06:52

Same idea as notatoad, but with the newest Slack version (3.4.2) on Linux, there are two more files which have to be overwritten to replace the "blue dot" icon by the "rest" icon. I did the following:

cd /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar.unpacked/src/static
sudo cp slack-taskbar-rest.ico slack-taskbar-unread.ico
sudo cp slack-taskbar-rest.png slack-taskbar-unread.png
sudo cp slack-taskbar-rest-linux.png slack-taskbar-unread-linux.png

After a restart of Slack, we are rid of the blue dot.

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 19 '22 at 14:45

Version 4.27.156

This is updated version of Dmitry S answer with the change of how the code is updated. Follow his answer for extracting and packing files using asar.

More elaborate but hopefully future-proof answer. You want to search for setTrayIcon function in the main.*.js file (in 4.27 it's named main.bundle.js). Look for code using the icon file - const O = nt.resolve(__dirname, "resources", 'slack-taskbar-${t}.ico'); In this case variable t is the status selecting the image. You want to add condition changing t to "rest" when it's "unread".

Unminified result:

...
setTrayIcon(t, n, o) {
if (t === "hidden") {
    this.tray && (ee.kg.debug("Tray Handler: Destroying tray."), this.tray.destroy(), this.tray = null);
    return
  }
  if (!t) return;
  if (t === "unread") t = "rest"; // <----- new line
  let y;
  if (al) {
    const O = nt.resolve(__dirname, "resources", slack-taskbar-${t}.ico);
    y = ce.nativeImage.createFromPath(O)
  } else {
    const O = WM[t];
    y = ce.nativeImage.createFromDataURL(O)
  }
  this.tray ? this.tray.setImage(y) : this.createTrayIcon(y, n, o)
}
...

Lucas Reginatto · Answer 6 · 2024-10-20T03:24:48.253

The changing icons solutions didn't work for me, but I edited the Elmir Bećirović solution at this question and it worked for me:
Create the directory ~/tmp/slack-backup

 sudo mkdir -p ~/tmp/slack-backup

Copy the app.asar file from Slack's resources to the backup directory

 sudo cp /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar ~/tmp/slack-backup/

Copy the app.asar.unpacked directory from Slack's resources to the backup directory

 sudo cp -r /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar.unpacked ~/tmp/slack-backup/

Install npm (Node.js package manager)

sudo apt install npm

Globally install the asar package to work with asar archives

 sudo npm install -g asar

Create a temporary directory for extracting the asar archive

 sudo mkdir /tmp/slack

Extract the contents of the app.asar archive into the /tmp/slack directory

 sudo asar extract /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar ~/tmp/slack

Remove the original app.asar file from Slack's resources directory

 sudo rm /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar

Remove the app.asar.unpacked directory from Slack's resources directory

 sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar.unpacked

Turn off blue dot notifications

 sudo sed -i 's/:t>0/:t<0/g' ~/tmp/slack/dist/main.*.js

Turn off red dot notifications (only if you want)

sudo sed -i 's/return i>0/return i<0/g' ~/tmp/slack/dist/main.*.js

Re-pack the modified Slack files back into an app.asar archive

 sudo asar pack ~/tmp/slack /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar

Current script
Video explaning script

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 09 '17 at 15:58

1

I don't see a way to modify this per channel but you can change it per team. In your preferences go to "notifications" and uncheck "show a badge on Slack's icon to indicate new activity" and that should do it.

answered Aug 09 '17 at 15:58

Shawn Aten

111

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 14 '19 at 20:02

1

In Preferences -> Notifications:

answered Mar 14 '19 at 20:02

tartaruga_casco_mole

123

Elmir Bećirović · Answer 9 · 2020-01-21T07:08:02.230

Slack version 4.2.0, remove both blue (notifications) and red (highlights) notification dot:

mkdir ~/tmp/slack
asar extract /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar ~/tmp/slack
sed -i 's/unreads>0/unreads<0/g' ~/tmp/slack/dist/main.2.*.js
sed -i 's/unreadHighlights>0/unreadHighlights<0/g' ~/tmp/slack/dist/main.2.*.js
sudo rm /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar
sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar.unpacked
sudo asar pack ~/tmp/slack /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar
rm -rf ~/tmp/slack

What this does is - It unpacks slack source code and edits the check for displaying the unread and highlight messages from when numberOfMessages>0 to when numberOfMessages<0. This means that when you have less than 0 of unread or highlight messages it will show the blue/red dot. You will never have less than zero of unread messages so you will never see the blue/red dot in taskbar. After this it packs the code again and replaces the original version with the edited one.

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Mar 02 '20 at 14:53

To provide a solution for Windows users, too:

The following short PowerShell script will 'disable' the notifications dot by replacing the icons with a dot with a blank one (as suggested by other answers).

# Set the path to the current Slack version here
# (by default the Slack installer puts it in %LocalAppData%)
$currentSlackVersionDir = "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\slack\app-4.3.4"

# Only change the following values if the names of the icons change
$blankIconFile = 'slack-taskbar-rest.ico'
$dottedIconFiles = 'slack-taskbar-highlight.ico', 'slack-taskbar-unread.ico'

# Get default icons folder path
$iconsFolder = "$currentSlackVersionDir\resources\app.asar.unpacked\dist\static"

foreach ($dottedIcon in $dottedIconFiles ) {
  # Rename dotted icon (as backup)
  Rename-Item -Path "$iconsFolder\$dottedIcon" -NewName "$iconsFolder\$dottedIcon.bak.ico"

  # Copy blank icon using its name
  Copy-Item -Path "$iconsFolder\$blankIconFile" -Destination "$iconsFolder\$dottedIcon"
}

Of course, you can also do this manually, but you'll probably have to redo it for every app update. (An improved version of this script could also try to find the $currentSlackVersionDir automatically, feel free to edit! :-))

ilkkalehtinen · Answer 11 · 2023-05-16T12:10:27.323

In version 4.20.0, assuming that "unread", "highlight", and "rest" strings in main.bundle.js are referring to the corresponding taskbar icons, changing "unread" to "rest" will hide the blue indicator dot, which it does.

#!/bin/bash
mkdir -p ~/tmp/slack
asar extract /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar ~/tmp/slack
sed -i 's/"unread"/"rest"/' ~/tmp/slack/dist/main.bundle.js
sudo rm /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar
sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar.unpacked
sudo asar pack ~/tmp/slack /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar
sudo mv ~/tmp/slack /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar.unpacked

justincc · Answer 12 · 2020-10-01T12:34:50.740

In Slack 4.8.0 you can disable this by patching main.bundle.js. You'll need to have the asar archive program available.

mkdir /tmp/slack
asar extract /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar /tmp/slack
sed -i 's/icon="unread"/icon="rest"/g' ~/tmp/slack/dist/main.bundle.js
sudo rm /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar
sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar.unpacked
sudo asar pack /tmp/slack /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar
sudo mv /tmp/slack /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar.unpacked

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered May 23 '22 at 20:22

Slack 4.26.1 here.

Unpack app.asar, edit main.bundle.js. There's an object that maps 'unread' to a data URL within the bundle. In the below, you see I changed it to refer to the same data URL as 'rest'.

:; grep -oE ......................unread:.... main.bundle.js 
{highlight:E3,rest:b3,unread:b3};

After changing it, pack app.asar again.

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Nov 20 '19 at 16:10

as of version 4.1.2 this doesn't seem to work because it appears that the electron app doesn't appear to use the assets on disk or something. I asked this to coworkers and was given the following that has worked for me:

mkdir ~/tmp/slack
asar extract /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar ~/tmp/slack
sed -i 's/unreads>0/unreads<0/g' ~/tmp/slack/dist/main.1.*.js
sudo rm /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar
sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar.unpacked
sudo asar pack ~/tmp/slack /usr/lib/slack/resources/app.asar
rm -rf ~/tmp/slack

Slack app on Linux: How to disable the "blue circle" icon on channel activity?

14 Answers14

4.7.0

Clean up previous failed attempts

Unpack

Modify

Replace

Version 4.27.156