Channel Categories

As your workspace grows and the number of channels increases, the sidebar can become crowded. Channel categories let you group related channels together under collapsible headings, making it much easier to find the right conversation at a glance.

What Are Categories?

A category is a named group that appears in the Communicate sidebar. Each category displays an emoji icon and a label, and the channels assigned to it are listed underneath. You can expand or collapse any category to show or hide its channels, which helps reduce visual clutter.

Channels that have not been assigned to any category appear under an automatically generated Uncategorized group at the top of the sidebar.

Creating a Category

1. In the sidebar, hover over the Uncategorized heading and click the + button that appears.
2. This opens the Create Category dialog where you can choose between creating a new category or a new channel.
3. Enter a name for the category (for example, "Engineering" or "Q1 Campaign").
4. Optionally pick an emoji icon to visually distinguish the category.
5. Click Create to add the category to your sidebar.

tip

Choose short, descriptive names for categories so they fit comfortably in the sidebar without truncation.

Editing a Category

To rename a category or change its icon:

1. Right-click the category heading in the sidebar, or click the gear icon that appears on hover.
2. Select Edit from the context menu.
3. Update the name or emoji and click Save.

Reordering Categories

You can drag and drop categories in the sidebar to change their order. Grab the category heading and move it up or down to the desired position. The new order is saved automatically and applies to your view of the workspace.

Moving Channels Between Categories

When you create a new channel, you can assign it directly to a category. To move an existing channel to a different category:

1. Open the channel's details by clicking the channel name in the header.
2. In the Overview tab, find the Category setting.
3. Select a different category from the dropdown.

Alternatively, when creating a channel from within a specific category (by clicking the + button on that category's heading), the new channel is automatically placed in that category.

Collapsing and Expanding Categories

Click the chevron arrow next to any category name to collapse or expand it. Collapsed categories still show unread indicators and voice activity badges, so you will not miss anything important even when channels are hidden.

• A red badge with a # icon indicates unread text messages in one or more channels within the category.
• A green badge with a speaker icon indicates that someone is connected to a meeting channel in that category.

Deleting a Category

To delete a category:

1. Right-click the category heading or click the gear icon.
2. Select Delete from the context menu.
3. Confirm the deletion.

Deleting a category does not delete the channels inside it. Those channels are moved back to the Uncategorized group.

Best Practices

• Mirror your org structure. Create categories that match your teams or departments (Engineering, Design, Sales) so members instinctively know where to look.
• Use project-based categories. For cross-functional work, create a temporary category for the project and archive it when the project wraps up.
• Limit category depth. Categories are a single level --- there are no sub-categories. Keep things flat and simple.
• Leverage emoji icons. A well-chosen emoji makes categories scannable at a glance, especially when you have many of them.