Slab's 2023 Wrapped

Learn about all of our major updates and improvements for Slab from 2023, and preview what’s coming next in 2024.

• AI Autofix and AI Predict - Our first AI features, both aimed to help you write better and faster
• Better post history - Redesigned to make changes stand out more clearly, along with quality-of-life upgrades
• Multiple post verifiers - You can now assign secondary verifiers to post verification
• Flowcharts and equations - Code blocks with Mermaid or KaTeX syntax gain a preview mode
• Consolidated post sharing - Posts can now be shared with groups, along with a consolidated overview of access to that post
• Large comments and annotations - Use cases for "commentary" are separated into distinct features, with dedicated UI and UX
• Post cover and Unsplash - Posts can now feature an image cover, along with Unsplash integration to help pick the right now
• Upgraded templates - Templates are now a special type of post, gaining all of their collaboration and organization features
• 100+ template library - We've greatly expanded our template library, with the same high-quality bar, to help you jumpstart yours
• More search filters - Explicit filtering is expanded with filters by date fields, such as edit or publish, or by what it mentions, such as a user or another post
• Improved search - Several search improvements have come together to make more available for search, their use in rankings, and results
• What's next in 2024? - Our biggest AI feature yet, as well as new capabilities for discovery, organization, and permissions

AI Autofix

Slab automatically fixes errors as you type, including missing, mixed, or extra characters, freeing you to focus on forward progress with your writing. This works for English words and your company and colleagues' names, so you never misspell or incorrectly case them again.

AI Autofix is available today to all teams — head to your user settings to turn it on.

Learn more about AI Autofix

AI Predict

Slab's AI Predict helps express your ideas, offering blazing-fast suggestions for the best next words to put to paper, using context around your writing. After turning on AI Predict in your user settings, suggestions will appear in posts as you type. Hit "tab" to easily accept, and the next suggestion will likely already be ready!

AI Predict is available for teams on our Startup plan or higher.

Learn more about AI Predict

Compare and cycle through post history

Post history now both looks better and works better, making it easy for your team to review and understand changes. All of Slab's content and formatting options are now clearly shown as additions or removals, alongside convenient new controls to cycle through those changes.

Reviewing changes when re-verifying a post gets these same upgrades, making it easy to check through all of the edits made since the last time the post was verified.

Learn more about Post history

Multiple post verifiers

Verifying posts no longer needs to be a solo endeavor — add secondary verifiers to spread the responsibility. There is still one primary verifier to designate who is ultimately responsible, and that person will receive one final notification if and when no one else has verified.

Edit any existing post verification to add secondary verifiers, or take advantage of more verifiers in a new post verification.

Learn more about Post verification

Syntax highlighting, flowcharts, and equations

Code blocks gained new capabilities in rendering flowcharts and equations, along with improved syntax highlighting for React and TypeScript, and across the board in dark mode.

Just set the code block's language to Mermaid or KaTeX, and a Preview option will be available in the toolbar, making it easy to draft and collaborate with flowcharts and equations with your team.

Learn more about Code blocks, Flowcharts, and Equations

Post sharing and access overview

Sharing posts got a lot easier and more useful. Posts can now be shared directly with users, groups, and topics from the same Share button, where other sharing and access features for that post are also consolidated. Their interactions and effects are summarized, making it easy to review who can access or edit that post.

Learn more about Post sharing

Comments, reactions, and annotations

Comments and reactions went through their own reviews and refinements. Both are now their own separate concepts, with their own distinct look, feel, and interactions. Annotations were also introduced to the mix, allowing lightweight "commentary" that is not meant to be resolved.

Large comments are now visible in a more generous view, allowing for those serious discussions on complex concepts with teammates. Comments from users without edit access to the post are also less visible, keeping your team's important posts looking neat and tidy.

Learn more about Comments and Annotations

Post cover and Unsplash

Speaking of important posts, up-level their visuals with post covers. Choose from our library of high-quality images, upload your own, or pick from endless options from Unsplash.

Learn more about Post covers

Template collaboration and organization

Post templates are completely rebuilt, gaining all the collaboration, organization, and review capabilities that regular posts have. At the same time, they are much more integrated throughout Slab, with convenient access and selection whenever you want to create a new post — without starting from scratch.

Learn more about Post templates

100+ templates from industry leaders

Not every team has a template handy for every occasion. That's why we've vastly expanded our template library with 100+ high-quality examples from leaders in the industry.

Our Library is always available on our website, but if your team is starting from scratch, the best ones will also be available and immediately usable within Slab.

Browse our Template Library

Date and mention search filters

One of our most popular search features got even more options — now being able to filter results based on date attributes such as publication, edit, archival, or verification. You can also filter search results based on who or what needs to be mentioned or browse the list directly from any post's insights panel.

Learn more about Search filters and Post backlinks

Search indexing, relevance, and results

Even without using explicit filters, we've made improvements to search on all fronts, including:

• Indexing more content faster, such as when posts are reorganized
• Better ranking signals through more formatting contexts and semantics
• Presenting more informative results with better highlighting
• And analytics around search performance — both speed and relevance — for continual experimentation, iteration, and improvement

What's next in 2024?

We're gearing up for an even more exciting 2024 — here's a sneak peek at what's coming in the coming months.

AI Ask

Our biggest AI feature yet will transform how you can access and interact with your team's knowledge through an intelligent and tireless AI assistant. Combined with our other content and organization capabilities, you might never have to bother a coworker again.

AI Ask will be available to teams on our Business plan or higher, with Enterprise teams enjoying the most performant and advanced AI models.

Sidebar sections

We're bringing much more customization and personalization to your and your team's sidebar with sidebar sections. A section behaves much like Favorites today — you can add individual posts and topics in any order, either for yourself as a personal section or shared across the team.

Organization and permissions

We're not stopping at just sections when it comes to organizing your team's knowledge. Several changes and capabilities are being introduced to address current limitations and shortcomings.

Here's an overview of a few upcoming:

• Show and sort defaults - Topics will gain more control over what types of posts they show and in what order.
• Detached topics - Topics themselves will gain an option to be shown less prominently throughout Slab, a particularly powerful combination with Sections.
• Permissions - We're overhauling the underlying models for accessing and modifying posts and topics. This ultimately enables more granular control to fit more use cases while still staying easy to use and understand.

Product updates and education

Lastly, the way we share product information is getting an overhaul, including updates, guides, and references, along with hints and touchpoints throughout the product.

There's never been a better time to start investing in your team's shared knowledge. Stay tuned!