TeamsmojiTeamsmoji/ Guides

Turn Off Animated Emoji and GIFs in Slack

Slack plays animated custom emoji and GIFs automatically. If moving or flashing images distract you or make chats hard to read, a personal preference stops the motion. It changes only what you see: your coworkers keep their own setting, and nothing is removed from the workspace.

Miles Crawford

Miles Crawford

3 min read
An overhead paper scene with lavender ribbons, a pause tile, a still yellow smile sticker, and an off-position indigo slider
This image was generated with AI

Turn animations off on desktop

  1. Click your profile picture in the sidebar.
  2. Select Preferences from the menu.
  3. Select Accessibility from the list.
  4. Below Other display options, uncheck the box next to Automatically play animations in Slack.

Animated emoji and GIFs in channels and messages now stay still for you. Check the box again at any time to turn the motion back on.

Turn animations off on iOS

  1. Tap your profile picture at the top of your screen.
  2. Tap Preferences.
  3. Under Accessibility, tap Animation & Haptics.
  4. Tap the toggle next to Allow Animated Images to turn it off.

If you would rather match your iPhone's own reduce-motion setting, tap the toggle next to Sync with iOS instead, and Slack will follow the device.

Turn animations off on Android

  1. Tap your profile picture at the top of your screen.
  2. Tap Preferences.
  3. Tap the toggle next to Allow animated images & emoji to turn it off.

Collapse one moving image instead

If you usually enjoy animations but one GIF is too much, you do not need to change a preference. On desktop, click the arrow icon beside the image name to collapse that image in the message. Click it again to expand the image when you want another look.

What this setting does not change

The preference is personal. It does not pause animations for anyone else, remove any custom emoji from the workspace library, or change how your own uploads appear to coworkers. Emoji codes still work the same way; the images simply stay still on your screen.

If a specific custom emoji is a problem for more than one person, for example a flashing image that should not be in the library at all, Slack suggests leaning on a Workspace Admin or Owner to remove it. Our guide to deleting or renaming a custom emoji explains who can do that on each platform.

For reactions that stay readable with the motion off, static images work well. The Slack upload guide covers adding them, and our accessibility guide shows how to pick motion-safe alternatives the whole team can use. If you make your own, the animated GIF guide explains how animation behaves at emoji size, which is useful even when you decide to ship a still frame.

Sources

Checked October 7, 2026. The steps below are documented by Slack and cover the current desktop app, iOS, and Android.