Slack reveals record user growth as millions work from home

It's no surprise that apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams are seeing a surge in user activity as millions work from home due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Slack revealed its huge jump in users during the past few weeks. Slack has so far reached a user base of 12.5 million.

Slack's CEO Stewart Butterfield in a series of tweets shared the company's progress over the past few weeks. Slack reported 10 million users earlier this January which increased starting March 10. Slack's user base jumped to 10.5 million six days later which quickly touched 11 million and moved on to 11.5 million. On March 23, Slack reached 12 million users and it is now at 12.5 million users.

Note that this is the overall user base of Slack and not daily active users. Still, it's a big jump for Slack. Overall, the company added 9,000 new users in Q1 which is an increase from 5,000 in the previous quarters. The company's stock also increased by 15% following the revealing of its user growth.

The company even launched a major redesign earlier this month amid the work from home scenario. This was also Slack's biggest redesign since 2013. Slack introduced a simpler and more customisable design for its users.

It added a new compose button which sits on top of the page. The sidebar has more features like reactions to messages, files, people and apps. Slack also lets users customise their channels now but only for its premium plan. It also added a lightning bolt shortcut tool to access work tools like Simple Poll and Cisco WebEx.

Slack rival Microsoft Teams also reported an addition of 12 million users in just seven days. Microsoft Teams reached 44 million users after the major spike. Teams also introduced new features as part of its third anniversary celebrations.