Slack to roll out new features for free users as it increases prices

Audio messages and increasing storage come amid an increase to the Pro tier

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Slack is making major changes to its platform and increasing its prices in September.

Free users will have access to new features including its audio messaging function called ‘clips’ in direct messages.

It is also simplifying subscription limits. “Instead of a 10,000-message limit and 5 GB of storage, we are giving full access to the past 90 days of message history and file storage, so you’ll never have to guess when your team will hit your limit”, Slack said in a blog post.

“The majority of our active free teams will have access to more of their message history with the new 90-day limit compared to the previous limit. No matter how much your free team uses Slack, you’ll always have access to 90 days of history.”

The monthly Pro subscription will increase to £7.00 from £5.25 per month, but the Business Plus and enterprise plans will remain the same. People paying for a yearly subcription can make their payment now and lock in the annual rate before it increases.

It is the first time Slack has increased its prices since 2014, when it launched.

The news comes as other technology companies are increasing or launching their own Premium services.

Snapchat recently launched Snapchat+ premium tier with many extra, but superficial, features. These include changing the style of the app’s icon, seeing who rewatched a story, and making one of your friends a “BFF” and pin them to the top of your chat history.

Telegram also has a subscription model alongside its standard free version.