How to Create a Channel in Slack

A project or team needs its own place to talk. Any member can usually create a channel, unless an admin has restricted it to certain roles.

Click the plus next to Channels

In the left sidebar, hover over the Channels heading and click the + that appears. If you do not see it, click Add channels at the bottom of the channel list, or click the New message (pencil) button near the top of the sidebar and look for the channel option.

Choose Create a channel

Click Create a channel. Some workspaces show a set of templates first; pick Blank channel unless one of them fits what you are doing.

Name the channel

Type a name. Channel names must be lowercase, cannot contain spaces or periods, and are limited to 80 characters. Hyphens and underscores are allowed, so design-reviews works while Design Reviews does not. Slack converts spaces to hyphens as you type. Pick something a coworker could guess from the sidebar.

Set the visibility

Under Visibility, choose Public if anyone in the workspace should be able to find and join the channel, or Private if only invited members should know it exists. Click Create.

Add people

In the Add people box, type names or email addresses and click Add, or click Skip for now to invite people later. The channel opens. Click the channel name at the top to add a topic and description so newcomers know what belongs there.

Private stays private. A public channel can be converted to private later by whoever manages it, but a private channel cannot be switched back to public without a workspace admin, so decide before you invite everyone. Prefixes such as proj-, team-, and help- group related channels together alphabetically and make the right one obvious in a long list.

On a phone. Tap the Home tab, tap the + button, choose Create a channel, and follow the same steps.