Channels
Public or private conversation rooms, each with its own member list.
Open a channel per topic and each conversation stays where the team will look for it. A channel is a named conversation, and a team has as many as it has topics.
Public and private
Pick the kind as you create the channel: that decides who sees it and how people get in.
| Kind | Who sees it | How you get in |
|---|---|---|
| Public | Anyone with access to Swarm | You join yourself |
| Private | Only its members | Somebody adds you |
Nobody outside a private channel finds it in the directory. A Swarm admin is the one exception.
In the directory they see a private channel's name, with members and activity blanked out, and archive or rename it from there. They open no message.
The directory
Open Browse all channels to review the workspace's: name, your role if you belong, visibility, member count, last activity and creation date.
Filter by membership (all, ones I am in, ones I am not in), by visibility and by archived. Search by name. Sort by activity, name, date or member count.
Combine the three filters: "private channels I am NOT in" brings up the channels that were left ownerless.
Direct messages do not show up in the directory.
The sidebar list
Filter and sort your channels in the sidebar to keep the ones that matter today in front of you.
- Filter: active only (activity in the last 30 days), unreads, or all.
- Sort: by recent activity or A–Z.
The list starts on active only. If you cannot see a channel you are still in, switch to all.
When the list is trimmed, open "See N more" at the end to reach the rest in the directory.
Creating one
Create a channel with a name and a kind. By default anyone in the workspace creates both public and private channels.
Creating a private one sets up a room nobody else can see.
If you cannot pick the kind, the workspace settings restrict who creates each one. A Swarm admin can adjust that.
Joining and leaving
Join any public channel on your own, and leave when it stops being useful. On leaving you stop seeing its messages, and you come back whenever you want.
You leave a private one the same way, but somebody has to add you to return.
Changing visibility
Confirm before making a private channel public: the entire history becomes visible to anyone in the workspace, including messages already sent. Swarm publishes the whole channel, not from here on.
The other way round Swarm asks nothing: making a public channel private only removes access, and removing access reveals nothing.
Archiving
Archive a finished channel and it leaves the sidebar, with nobody able to post in it. Swarm keeps the history and you unarchive it whenever you want.