Twitter user Alistair Hutton tweeted this morning that they are no longer able to access Slack’s desktop site on their mobile phone, despite it working two days ago. Instead of reaching his workplace, he’s being met with a page prompting him directly to “Get the Slack app,” and kept getting redirected back to that page no matter what he tried.
“Hi @SlackHQ I have requested the desktop site on my mobile phone yet you are refusing to show me the desktop site. This worked fine two days ago. Stop sniffing my browser fingerprint and show me the damn desktop site when I ask for it. No, I do not want to install your app,” he tweeted. Then adding: “UPDATE: Visited Slack using an incognito tab and could get the Desktop site on my mobile. I suspect cookie shenanigans”
Slack promptly responded to the tweet confirming the findings and that it is an attempt to force users to start using the mobile app: “So sorry that this has caused you some bother, Alistair. For now, in order to access your workspace from your mobile device, you must use the mobile app. It is not possible to access your workspace from your mobile browser, we’re afraid.”
Other Twitter users piled on saying the same complaints, further pointing out that this breaks functionality on Samsung Dex, which is becoming increasingly popular, as well as some Chromebooks. Twitter user Maël said: “This is especially annoying on Samsung Dex. Please consider that more and more people are going to use Android in desktop mode. Your app lacks some feature of the website. E.g. hitting Esc. to clear all new messages.”
Many responded with alternatives to Slack, including Trello and AirSend, the latter using the opportunity to advertise their own solution. Twitter user HackForKeanu said: “@SlackHQ dafuq … I don’t want company business on my private phone ..yo. Just tried it and change it back. That’s bullshit. I’m the IT head and might jump ship from the platform bcuz this. Your platform isn’t big enough to fail” after another user claimed to be migrating away from Slack to Microsoft Teams over this.
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