Slack Typing Indicator: How to Turn It Off, and Who Sees You Typing

Yes, Slack shows when you are typing: people viewing the same DM or channel see "[your name] is typing" under the message box while you write. To stop seeing other people's typing, open Preferences, Messages & media, and under Additional options untick Display information about who is currently typing a message. That only changes your own screen. Slack has no setting that hides your typing from others, and nobody can read your text until you send it.

We checked what Slack actually sends on 3 October 2026 by logging the Slack web app's network messages while typing in a channel, with the setting on and then off.

What Slack sends while you type

Slack's web app keeps one WebSocket connection open to wss-primary.slack.com. We recorded every message it sent while we typed in #social without sending anything. Typing produced this, and nothing else besides a keep-alive ping:

{"type":"user_typing","channel":"C0B7GGE8Q1Y","id":16391}

The signal carries the channel ID and a counter. It does not carry a single letter of what you typed. While we kept typing for about 13 seconds, Slack sent three of these, 5.1 seconds apart, so the indicator on the other side is refreshed about every 5 seconds and fades once the signals stop.

How to turn off the typing indicator, and what it changes

• Click your profile picture and select Preferences.
• Click Messages & media.
• Under Additional options, untick Display information about who is currently typing a message.

The box is saved to your account as the preference show_typing. We set it to false and typed again: Slack still sent user_typing signals, two in 10 seconds. The setting hides other people's typing from you and leaves yours visible to them. We set it back afterwards.

There is no official way to stop sending the signal. Browser extensions that block it need access to your Slack session and can break with any Slack update, so we do not recommend them. To write without showing "is typing", draft the message somewhere else and paste it, or schedule it; see how to delay and schedule Slack messages.

Can people see what you are typing?

No. Coworkers see only that you are typing, in the conversation where you type. Your unsent text does go to Slack, though: as you type, Slack saves it as a draft on its servers so it follows you to your other devices. In our test, drafts.list returned the half-typed text from #social a few seconds after we typed it, and marked it deleted once we cleared the box. Only your own account can read your drafts; they appear under Drafts & sent.

Does typing keep you active on Slack?

Yes. Typing is input, so your dot stays green and the 10-minute idle timer restarts. In the desktop app, typing in other apps counts too; the rules are in how long does Slack stay active. Admins cannot see what you typed and deleted before sending, and Slack does not log keystrokes; what admins can see is in can Slack be used to monitor employees.

Microsoft Teams shows three dots instead, with no setting to hide them; see does Teams show when you are typing.

FAQ

Can I turn off the typing indicator on mobile?

Slack's help center lists the setting only for desktop and the browser. We did not test the mobile apps.

Does the typing indicator show in threads?

It shows to people viewing the conversation where you type. We tested a channel, not a thread.