Channels and groups
Add post channels, chats and links to a community, organize them into groups, reorder them by dragging, and control who can read or write in each one.
Channels are where conversations happen. When you finish, your community will have the channels it needs, grouped and ordered the way members should see them, each with the right access.
Channel types
| Type | What members do there | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Channel | Write posts with a title, formatted text, media and polls. Others comment and react. "Like a board." | Announcements, questions, wins |
| Chat | Send short messages in real time, reply in threads, react, mention others, attach images. | Day-to-day talk, quick help |
| Link | Click through to an external page. It opens in a new tab and holds no content. | A booking page, a shared folder |
| Group | Nothing directly. A group is a section heading that keeps related channels together. | "Start here", "Course cohorts" |
Posts from every Channel the member can read also appear in the combined feed (The community feed and search). Chats and links do not.
Add a channel
Open Channels
In the community editor choose Channels (/communities/<productId>/editor/channels). The card
lists groups as boxes with their channels inside, and channels without a group as separate rows.
An empty community shows "This community does not have channels yet."
Pick what to add
Click Create in the top-right corner. The menu has two parts: Channels (Channel, Chat, Link) and Organization (Group). To add a channel straight into a group, use the Add new channel row at the bottom of that group instead.
Fill in the form
Give the channel a Name and, optionally, a Description. If you have groups, Group places the channel under one of them. A link needs only a Title and the Link address.
Set the behavior
Under Behavior, Active decides whether members see the channel at all: an inactive channel is visible only to administrators and carries a Hidden badge. Read-only lets only admins post; members can read and react, but cannot write new posts. Commenting is not switched off by it: whether a member can comment follows their role's access to the channel (see Roles and VIP channels). In a chat the same switch is called Announcement mode: only people with the post permission send messages, and everyone can still reply in threads.
Choose who has access
Under Access pick Open (every role gets in, following its default access) or Only selected roles and tick the roles. Admin and Moderator are pre-selected, and the owner always has full access. Click Save. A channel that regular members cannot see shows a Restricted badge in the list.
Fine-tune access after creating
Open a channel again (click its row, or ⋮ → Edit) and the Access section becomes a per-role table with Custom roles and Built-in roles. For each role choose Inherit, No access, Read, Comment or Write. These changes apply immediately, without Save; the Save button covers the other fields. A group has the same table: it sets access for every channel inside it, and a channel can still override its group.
How to build a channel only some members can see is covered in Roles and VIP channels. Channels can also require a minimum member level: see Gamification.
Reorder, move and delete
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| Reorder channels or groups | Drag the handle on the left of the row. The new order saves on drop and is what members see. |
| Move a channel into a group | Drag it onto the group, or edit the channel and change Group. |
| Take a channel out of a group | Drag it into the gap above or below a group. |
| Rename | Click the row (or the group name) and change Name. |
| Delete a channel | ⋮ → Delete, or the trash icon in the edit window. "This operation is irreversible." |
| Delete a group | Only when it is empty: move or delete its channels first. The delete option is disabled until then. |
Good to know
A channel a member cannot access is hidden from their navigation, their feed and the post search; they are not told it exists. A channel with posts the member has not seen yet shows an unread badge next to its name. In a public community the form of a post channel gains a Visible to guests switch, so you can keep some channels members-only.
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