Channels and Announcements

Channels are for conversations that need more room than a regular 32-person group chat. They can be public or private, and they can either let everyone post or work as an announcement-only space.

Who Can Create a Channel?

Only someone with the Manage channels church permission can create one.

If someone needs that access, an authorized staff member can open their profile, tap Add Church Permission, and grant Manage channels.

If you need a channel created for a team, ask your director to make one and they can add you as an admin to the group chat.

When to Use a Channel

Use a channel when:

• The audience may be larger than 32 people.
• People should be able to discover and join the conversation.
• A ministry needs an ongoing communication space.
• Leaders need a place to send broad updates.

If it is just a day-of team with 32 people or fewer, use a group chat. If it is an official City Group, go to the city group and make a city group chat.

How to Create a Channel

1. Open Messages.
2. Tap New Conversation.
3. Choose New Channel.
4. Add a name and optional photo.
5. Choose whether Public Channel should be on.
6. Invite any starting members.
7. Tap Create.

A channel can start with only the owner, and it does not have the regular group-chat member limit.

Public Channels

When Public Channel is on, anyone in the church can discover and join the channel.

Someone can view a public channel before joining, but they must join the channel before they can react.

Private Channels

When Public Channel is off, only invited members can access the channel.

This works better for a defined team, private planning, and typically for a team that will persist.

Announcement Channels

An Announcement Channel allows the conversation owner and admins to send messages and react. Normal active members can still read and react, but their message composer is disabled.

To turn it on or off:

1. Open the channel.
2. Tap the channel name or header.
3. Open the Info tab.
4. Toggle Announcement Channel.

Public and Announcement Are Not the Same Setting

These settings do two different jobs:

• Public decides who can find and join the channel.
• Announcement decides who can post in the channel.

That means a channel can be public, an announcement channel, both, or neither.

The public announcement option is especially useful for broad church updates. People can choose to join, but the conversation stays clean because only leaders can post.

Managing the Channel

The owner and admins should keep the channel useful:

• Use a name that makes the purpose obvious.
• Add a description or introduction message.
• Keep the admin list to people who actually lead the channel.
• Decide whether people are supposed to talk or only receive updates.
• Do not use announcement mode just because one person sent an annoying message. We have moderation tools for actual problems.

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