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How to Create, Edit and Delete Channels

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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:

  1. Click the + Add button at the bottom of your sidebar.

  2. Select Channel.

  3. Select a channel type:

    • Threads – best for structured discussions

    • Chat – real-time message feed

    • Voice – live video/voice room

  4. Set your access controls (public, private, or specific groups/members).

  5. (Optional) Make the channel read-only so only admins can post.

  6. (Optional) Upload a channel banner (2:1 ratio recommended) and set a description.

  7. Click Create.

Note: 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:

  1. Hover over the channel name in the sidebar.

  2. Click the three dotsEdit.

  3. Update the name, emoji, access settings, or description.

  4. Click Submit to save.

Note: 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:

  1. Hover over the channel name.

  2. Click the three dotsDelete.

  3. Confirm deletion.

Before deleting, you can optionally move threads from one channel to another to preserve content.💡

Note: 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.

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