Until now, chat channels have been sorted like this, with no way to change it:
Public channels - Alphabetically
Direct message/group channels - By priority (unread first)
Though when you are a member of a lot of public channels, or have a fair few starred channels, the list can be a bit overwhelming, especially if you only need those channels followed in case something interesting or important shows up.
Weโve just added the functionality to select filter and sorting options per section of chat channels! The defaults will be the same as before, but now you can specify these filter and sort options for each section (public channels, DM/group channels, and starred channels).
Filter
All channels
Active only (new activity in last 30 days)
Unreads
Mentions
Sort
Alphabetically
Recent activity
Priority (mentions, then unreads, then recent activity)
See the screenshots below, or give it a whirl yourself
Now if a filter makes one of your sections empty, we show this button at the top of it to temporarily show all channels, and no longer show the empty placeholder which was a bit bulky: