How to Mute Someone on Slack: DMs, Hide Person and What Still Shows

To mute someone on Slack, open your direct message with them and click the bell icon at the top right of the conversation. Slack mutes that DM at once, with no menu, and shows a crossed-out bell next to it in the sidebar. This mutes the conversation, not the person: their messages in channels and group DMs are not affected. In our test on October 28, 2026, a muted DM still showed a number badge for every new message, so muting stops notifications, not the unread count.

Mute a DM

• Open the DM with the person.
• Click the bell icon at the top right, next to the three dots.
• The bell turns into a crossed-out bell. Click it again to unmute.

We muted a DM with a test app in a Free workspace. The crossed-out bell showed in the conversation header right away:

Slack's help page on muting says that for a DM with one person the bell mutes it directly, while a group DM offers Mute and hide. On the phone, tap the name at the top of the DM, then Settings & Details, and turn on Mute.

What a muted DM still shows

With the DM muted, we moved to another channel and had the app send two more DMs, the second one with an @mention of us. The DM stayed in the sidebar, greyed out with the crossed-out bell, and the badge went to 1, then 2:

Slack's own count for the DM read 2 mentions. That matches Slack's help, which says numbered badges still appear on muted conversations "if you're mentioned or receive a DM". In a DM every message counts. Desktop pop-ups were turned off in our test browser, so we could not watch for banners; Slack's help says muting stops notifications for the conversation.

Hide a person: the stronger option

Slack also has Hide person, announced on Slack's blog in July 2023 and described there as "a powerful mute button". Per that post, hiding someone hides their name and profile, mutes push notifications from them in DMs, group messages, threads and mentions, and puts their messages behind a click-through warning. They are not told. DMs from them still show a message counter, and you can click Show anyway.

We could not test Hide person: our test workspace has only one human member, and the option is for people, not apps, so we cannot show where it sits in today's menus.

Mute their channel messages

Slack has no way to mute one person's messages inside a channel. You can mute the whole channel, which Slack mute a channel tests, or use Hide person above. If what bothers you is that they can see your status, that is a different setting: see hide your Slack status from one person.

FAQ

Does the person know I muted our DM?

No. Muting is a personal notification setting. Nothing in the other person's view changes.

Can I mute a DM for an hour only?

Slack's help describes Temporarily mute for channels (one hour or until tomorrow). In our DM, the bell muted with one click and offered no time menu.

Can I block someone on Slack?

Not in the usual sense. Hide person is the closest option. For harassment, contact your workspace owner or admin, who can remove the person from the workspace.