Channels are the core of your community’s discussions on Heartbeat. This guide walks you through how to create, edit, and delete channels — plus a few tips on managing access, layout, and naming conventions.
Creating a Channel
To create a new discussion channel:
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Click the + Add button at the bottom of your sidebar.
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Select Channel.
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Select a channel type:
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Threads – best for structured discussions
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Chat – real-time message feed
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Voice – live video/voice room
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Set your access controls (public, private, or specific groups/members).
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(Optional) Make the channel read-only so only admins can post.
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(Optional) Upload a channel banner (2:1 ratio recommended) and set a description.
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Click Create.
Emojis are required for all channel types except Voice (which uses a speaker icon). Click the emoji to the left of the channel name to customize it — no custom emoji support yet, but you can use something plain like ⚪ if you prefer a cleaner look.
Editing a Channel
To update an existing channel:
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Hover over the channel name in the sidebar.
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Click the three dots → Edit.
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Update the name, emoji, access settings, or description.
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Click Submit to save.
You cannot change the channel type (e.g., Threads → Chat) if the channel has existing content. We don’t currently support migrating posts between channel types.
Managing Channel Access
When you set a Channel as Private, this allows you to add specific groups or users from the Search for users and groups drop-down.
After adding groups or users, their access can be removed by clicking the "x" to the right of each group or user.
Deleting a Channel
To delete a channel:
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Hover over the channel name.
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Click the three dots → Delete.
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Confirm deletion.
Before deleting, you can optionally move threads from one channel to another to preserve content.💡
You can’t create multiple channels with the same name — even if access is limited to different groups. For example, if you're managing multiple cohorts, you'll need unique names like general-cohort-1, general-cohort-2, etc.