Create a group or an organization channel

Start a private group with chosen people, manage members and roles, or open a channel for a whole organization.

In short

A group is a private conversation for three or more people you choose. A channel belongs to an organization, and every member of that organization is in it. Both start from "New message": tick two or more people for a group, or "Everyone in" your organization for a channel.

Before you start

Who: anyone can create a group; any member of an organization can create a channel. Owners and Admins manage a group's members.
Plan: Chat is part of every plan.
First: for an organization group or channel, make the organization your active workspace first. That cannot be changed afterwards.

Steps

Press "New message".
Tick the people you want in the group. Once two or more are ticked, the button reads "Create group of N".
Optionally type a "Conversation name". Left empty, the group is named after its members.
Press "Create group of N". You become its Owner.

Make the organization your active workspace.
Press "New message" and tick "A channel in" the organization.
Type a "Channel name", and under "Open to" keep everyone in the organization or pick one of your teams.
Press "Create channel".

Result: the new conversation opens, and every member sees it in their list.

Who is in a group or channel

A group made while an organization is your active workspace belongs to that organization. Everyone in it must be an accepted member, its name shows on the group, and only members can be added later. That cannot be changed afterward. A group made in your Personal Workspace belongs to no organization and can include anyone you can message.

Example: Ava creates Release 4.2 while Acme is her workspace and adds two Acme members. Erin is Ava's contact but not at Acme, so she cannot be added. Made from the Personal Workspace, the group could include Erin.

A channel is open to everyone in its organization, or - when you choose one of your teams under "Open to" - only to that team's members. People who join the organization or the team can read it, including earlier messages; people who leave lose it. You cannot edit a channel's members or leave it. Any member can create a workspace channel, any team member a team channel, however large the organization is. A group made in an organization is its private channel: only the people added to it.

Members and roles

Open the group and press its title, or choose "Details" in the conversation's menu.
On the "Members" tab, use "Add people" to add someone.
Owners and Admins see "Make admin", "Make member" and "Remove" in each member's menu.
To leave, choose "Leave group" in the conversation's menu.

Open it and press its title, or choose "Details" in the conversation's menu, then the "About" tab.
Change its name or topic: it saves as you type, and "Saved" shows when it is stored. If someone else changed it first, choose "Reload" to see theirs or "Keep mine".
Choose "Archive" to keep every message readable and stop new ones. "Open again" undoes it.
Choose "Delete" to remove it for everyone in it. The message that follows offers "Undo" for a few seconds.

Owners and Admins of a group or channel can do this. For a channel open to an organization or one of its teams, so can whoever manages the organization's settings, so a channel whose creator left is still looked after. They can also delete anyone's message in that channel.

Good to know

A group holds 2 to 100 members, and its name is up to 100 characters. A channel open to an organization or a team has no size limit; its topic is up to 250 characters.
Only selected members can find and read a group or private channel.
A group keeps at least one Owner: the last Owner cannot leave, be removed or be made a member until someone else is made Owner.
A removed or departed member stops receiving the group's messages. A member can add them again.
When someone leaves an organization, they leave its groups and channels too.
An archived conversation is listed under Filter > "Archived". It keeps its messages and takes no new messages, reactions, pins or files.
In a direct conversation or a group of up to 12 people, your own message says who has read it ("Seen by Ana and Bo"); elsewhere it shows how many.
In a channel of more than 100 people, the "Members" tab shows them a page at a time: type in "Filter members" to find someone, and "Show more members" for the next page. Typing @ finds anyone in the channel the same way.
Pictures (PNG, JPEG, GIF or WebP up to 8 MB) show inside the message; press one to see it larger and download it. Other files stay a file you download.
To turn a message into work, open its "…" menu and choose "Make a follow-up". A card asks for a board and column in this conversation's workspace, a note asks for a notebook there, and a task goes to your Planner. Each message makes one of each: asking again opens the one already made, which is listed under the message.
Paste a link to a message, a board card, a note, a test run or another record here and it shows as a card with its name, for people who may open it. For anyone else the link stays a plain link.
In your quiet hours, new messages make no sound or pop-up and the unread digest email waits until they end. Your messages and your inbox are all there when you come back. Set them in your notification settings.
If you run a group or channel in this workspace and someone reports a message in it, a flag button appears above the conversation list. "Reported messages" shows the reason given most and how many reported it, never who. You can open the message or delete it; the platform's moderators decide on the report. Reports on your own messages are not listed.
The "Channel activity" report in Analytics shows how the channels you can open are used: messages, threads answered and which channels went quiet. It counts and never quotes anyone. A kept copy opens only for someone who can open every channel in it.

If something goes wrong

"Transfer ownership before removing the last owner." Make another member Owner first.
"Members are managed automatically for this conversation." It is a channel or a private conversation; only groups have editable members.
"This conversation cannot be left manually." Channels and private conversations cannot be left.
"A group cannot have more than 100 members." Make a channel instead, or split the group.
"Give the channel a name." Type a channel name before you create it.

/help/chat/messages
/help/chat/find-conversations
/help/organizations/organizations-and-teams