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My specific question is how to do this in the Slack desktop app, but I wouldn't mind settling for a way to do this via a web browser, and then worst case, a web api.

I often want to jump to the beginning of a channel and just read, but it takes FOREVER to scroll up. What's the shortcut? I was hoping for something like /InTheBeginning, jk too long. How about /begin /oldest or something like that or a keyboard shortcut like ctrl+shift+home or something like that? I don't care what it is, I just want it. How about "/jump oldest" "/jump latest" and "/jump 11/29/2015", because maybe I want to see what was said on my B'day?

This is starting to sound like a feature request, but hopefully the functionality already exists and I'm just missing it.

Update1

I'm using the latest version of Slack v1.2.7 64-bit on Windows 7 Ent Sp 1.
I now see that the Home button does retrieve "some" history, but only if you select a message first. I was previously pressing Home when my cursor was in the "+" input message text box and nothing happens in that case. However, I still can't get it to go all the way to the beginning with a single key stroke. Also, I saw a vague setting in preferences' "Advanced Options" -> Page up, Page down, Home, and End keys always scroll messages, but I can't see a difference between when it is checked or not.

Update2: "archives" path

I found a faster way for the browser, but not the desktop app.

https://{team_name}.slack.com/archives/{channel_name}

The above "archives" path shows a page that has a date picker "BROWSE BY DATE". Click on "Pick a date" and you can quickly scroll back to the beginning of time.

Maybe there is an even faster way to get to a specific date or the beginning of a channel using only the URI. Also, if anyone can find docs on this "archives" path please add in a comment. I don't remember how I stumbled across this.

Update3: Hack for linking directly to beginning of channel

It looks like the DatePicker passes the epoch time in seconds, so I discovered if I pass s0000000000000000 it goes to the beginning of the channel. It works if you shorten to s00, but not s0 for some reason. Voila!

https://{team_name}.slack.com/archives/{channel_name}/s00

halfer
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successhawk
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    This question should really be in WebApps SE. – Caleb Kleveter Mar 09 '18 at 13:59
  • @CalebKleveter The moderators of WebApps have been known to close questions like these, sadly, because they feel that only questions for "power users of the web" should be left open. – Flimm Aug 16 '23 at 14:18

5 Answers5

190

Slack..version 2.0.0 has jump to date feature. on selecting a particular date, the control goes to that particular date and then we can scroll

Click the settings on the channel, and then "Jump to date ..."

Click the settings on the channel, and then "Jump to date ..."

Blake Yarbrough
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sindhu sarathy
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  • "Jump to date" works this way, but unfortunately once I do that, I can't mark messages unread from that view :( – Gautam Sep 23 '16 at 13:12
  • Looks like the datepicker now limits how far back you can go in non-paid versions (Slack app 2.3.0 on Mac) – pakx Apr 18 '17 at 17:00
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    Slack developers take note. If someone has to go to SO to ask how to do such a simple thing, you've got a problem. – Zoomzoom Dec 01 '17 at 20:41
  • Mine says: "To see and search this channel's full history, upgrade to one of our paid plans." Is there any way or application to do it for free? – skan Jun 04 '18 at 10:40
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    Why is that placed in settings? How is that a setting? It should be in the search bar or in the "others" (3 dot) dropdown. – totymedli Oct 12 '18 at 20:19
  • Not the best answer since in the corporate channels, you often do not have access to channel setitngs. The below answer with `:after` / `:before` filter worked for these channels, however. – Dmitriy Popov Aug 10 '21 at 09:20
22

Click on the date that appears before any messages belonging to that day, and then click "The very beginning" under the "Jump to..." sub-menu. You can also click "Jump to a specific date".

Screenshot

Flimm
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16

In the desktop app, to jump to the oldest message one can open View Channel Details tab by clicking the (i) button, then clicking Created by ... text will take one to the first message in the channel

Maxim
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  • Once you open details, you have to open the "About" pane, in which "Created by ..." exists (at least in version 4.12) – Taylor R Dec 17 '20 at 19:47
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in:cs-498-data-vis after:2020-05-17 before:2020-06-30

You can enter that after clicking the magnifying glass icon.

Breakdown of syntax:

in:

The channel you want to search

after:

After the date in yyyy-mm-dd format

before:

Before the date in yyyy-mm-dd format.

pmagunia
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3

The Slack app recently moved this feature from the "settings", the way to do it now is that you can click on the bubble thing that demarcates the beginning of any day's messages (the thing that sticks near the top of the channel when you're scrolling, that says "Today", "Yesterday", "Sunday, August 15", etc) and there will appear a menu where you can select to jump to the beginning of the channel, or a specific date, or a few other options.

Avril
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