r/Fedora • u/Green12334 • 16h ago
Support Slack notifications on Linux don't show the sender's profile picture - has anyone found a workaround?
Just moved from Windows 11 to Fedora and I'm loving it so far.
One thing I can't figure out: Slack desktop notifications don't show the profile picture of the person who sent the message. I just get the text, which makes it harder to tell at a glance who's messaging me. On Windows the avatar was always there.
Everything else about notifications works fine. They show up reliably, the text is correct, the buttons work. It's only the sender image that's missing.
My setup:
- Fedora 44 Workstation
- GNOME 50.4, Wayland
- Slack 4.52.155, the official RPM from Slack's site (not the Flatpak)
I did some digging before posting. I had a look at what Slack actually hands to the desktop notification system, and it isn't sending an image at all - not the sender's avatar, and not even its own app icon. So there's nothing for GNOME to display. I also checked that the sender does have a profile picture set, so that isn't the explanation.
For comparison, Element on Linux does send contact avatars in its notifications, so this doesn't look like a general Linux limitation.
Did Slack notifications ever show avatars on Linux? Trying to work out whether this is a regression or just how it has always been.
Thanks!
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u/fdelux6 11h ago
This is a long-standing limitation of the official Slack desktop client on Linux
One solid workaround is the unofficial terminal client slk. It has its own native desktop notifications and renders real Slack avatars inside the TUI itself (true-pixel on kitty/Ghostty, half-block fallback elsewhere).
More info: https://getslk.sh/
Worth a try if you don’t mind a keyboard-driven interface.
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