What "native" means for a Slack client on Linux
The official Slack desktop app is built on Electron — a framework that bundles the full Chromium browser engine alongside the application code. When you open Slack, you're running a complete copy of Chrome, configured to display one website. That's why it uses 400 MB to 1 GB of RAM at startup.
A truly native Slack desktop client takes a different approach: it draws its interface with native code — through a UI toolkit like Qt or GTK, or by calling the OS's own windowing and graphics APIs directly — and it calls Slack's API directly rather than loading Slack's web interface in a browser. The result is far lower memory use and near-zero CPU at idle — in other words, Slack without Electron.
There's also a middle ground: WebView wrappers that swap Electron for a lighter runtime but still render Slack's web interface. They're lighter than the official client, but not truly native.
Open-source Slack clients that stopped
ScudCloud
ScudCloud was one of the earliest Linux Slack clients, built with Qt and WebKit. It wasn't truly native — it still rendered Slack's web UI inside a Qt WebView — but it was lighter than the official app and felt like a Linux desktop citizen. Development stopped around 2018 when Slack began restricting the legacy API ScudCloud depended on. The repository is now archived on GitHub.
Slacken
Slacken was a genuine attempt at a native Qt5 Slack client that called Slack's API directly and rendered real desktop widgets. It was ambitious — targeting under 32 MB of RAM — and the architecture was correct. But it never reached feature completeness. The last meaningful commit was in 2017, and Slack's authentication flow has changed substantially since then. It won't connect to modern workspaces.
slaq
slaq was another Qt5-based open-source Slack desktop client taking the same native API approach. It got further along than Slacken — channels, messages, and basic DMs all worked at one point. But the last substantive update was around 2019, and it has the same API compatibility problem. Effectively abandoned.
Native and near-native Slack desktop clients still active today
CrabChat
CrabChat is written in Rust and Tauri. It's actively maintained and represents the WebView-wrapper approach done well: by replacing Electron's bundled Chromium with Tauri's system WebView, it uses around 200–300 MB instead of 400–600 MB, and it still renders Slack's full web interface so you get complete feature parity.
The tradeoff is that "lighter than Electron" is not the same as "native." CPU at idle is not near zero, and the app renders in a WebView rather than with OS-native widgets. If your goal is minimum resources and a real desktop UI, it's a step in the right direction — but not the same thing.
slk (terminal UI)
slk is a TUI Slack client written in Go. It's extremely lightweight — under 20 MB — and cold-starts in milliseconds. If you live in the terminal, it's worth a look: vim-style keys, live messages, threads, and images in terminals that speak the kitty graphics protocol or sixel. Setup reads your session from the Slack desktop app, so that app has to be installed. For a side-by-side, see slk vs msga.
msga — a fast native C++ Slack client with direct OS calls
msga is a native Slack desktop client for Linux written in C++ that calls the operating system directly through its own thin cross-platform layer — no Electron, no web view, no GUI toolkit. It calls Slack's API directly and draws its interface with its own CPU renderer (FreeType and HarfBuzz for text), and ships as a single fully static binary that runs on any x86-64 distro under Wayland or X11, making it the only actively maintained open-source Slack client for Linux in this category that targets both real feature coverage and true desktop integration. It is not a web wrapper.
Memory: ~40 MB at startup, ~60 MB after an hour. CPU at idle: near 0%. Supported features include messaging, channels and DMs, threads, search, file sharing, and emoji reactions. Huddles (voice/video) are on the roadmap. The project is GPL-3.0 and supports Linux, macOS, and Windows — making it a practical choice for anyone who wants a fast Slack client without Electron on Linux.
| Project | Status | Approach | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official Slack | Active | Electron | 400 MB – 2 GB+ |
| CrabChat | Active | Tauri / WebView | ~200–300 MB |
| slk (TUI) | Active | Terminal UI | <20 MB |
| ScudCloud | Archived 2018 | Qt / WebView | — |
| Slacken | Abandoned 2017 | Qt5 native | — |
| slaq | Abandoned 2019 | Qt5 native | — |
| msga | Active | Native C++, direct OS calls | 40–60 MB |
Getting msga
msga is available for Linux (x86-64), macOS (Apple Silicon), and Windows. It's free and open source under GPL-3.0. For a closer look at what the memory difference means in practice, see the lightest Slack client for Linux.