Using Channels

Written By Timothy Murenzi

Last updated 8 days ago

Channels are the heart of Comms. Every project has a channel; your team has its own internal channel; and you can spin up new ones for specific topics whenever you need.

Project channels

Auto-created. Every project gets a default channel when you create the project. No setup needed.

Auto-named. The channel takes the project name. Renaming the project renames the channel.

Who's in it by default:

  • You (the designer)

  • Any team members assigned to the project

  • The project's primary client contact

Who you can add later:

  • Additional client contacts on the project

  • Vendors (limited-scope access)

  • Other team members

Adding more people to a channel

  1. Open the channel

  2. Click the channel name in the header to open Channel Info

  3. Scroll to Members

  4. Click + Add Member

  5. Pick from your contacts / team members list

  6. Set their access level (read-only / participant)

Removed members lose access immediately and can't see past messages after removal.

Excluding specific clients

Some projects have multiple clients on the contact record but you only want SOME of them in the channel. Use the per-project access matrix:

  • Open the project record

  • Excluded Clients field

  • Add the contacts who should NOT see the project channel

  • Save

Excluded clients can't see the channel at all — it doesn't appear in their Client Portal sidebar.

Creating a new channel manually

For topics that don't map to one project (e.g. studio-wide announcements, vendor coordination thread, monthly retainer status):

  1. Comms → + New Channel

  2. Name it (e.g. "Q4 install planning", "Restoration Hardware POs")

  3. Set type — Project channel or Team channel

  4. Pick a project to scope it to (optional)

  5. Add members

  6. Click Create

Team channels are designer-only — no client visibility, no client-side surface.

Deleting a channel

Designers can delete any channel they have admin access to:

  1. Open Channel Info

  2. Scroll to the bottom → Delete channel

  3. Confirm in the modal

Deletion removes the channel for everyone — clients, team, history. There's no undo. Use Archive instead if you might want it back.

Good to know

  • Mentions ping people. @name notifies that specific user; @channel notifies everyone in the channel.

  • Pinned messages. Long-press / right-click a message → Pin to channel. Pinned messages show in the Channel Info sidebar so new members can find context.

  • File library per channel. Channel Info → Files tab shows every file shared in the channel, grouped by type.

  • Mute a channel. Channel Info → Mute. The channel still receives messages but no notifications fire.

Troubleshooting

"I added a client but they don't see the channel." Confirm the client is on the project's contact list AND not on the project's Excluded Clients list. Both gates have to pass.

"My team member can't post in the channel." Their access level may be read-only. Open Channel Info → Members and bump them to Participant.

"I deleted the wrong channel." Channel deletion is permanent. The audit log on the project record shows the deletion timestamp + who did it, but the content is gone. Use Archive next time.