Create streams

In Zulip, streams determine who gets a message. They are similar to channels in IRC/Slack/Discord, chat rooms, and email lists.

We recommend setting up some streams before inviting other users to join Zulip, so that you can automatically subscribe everyone to the right set of streams.

If you later create additional streams, no worries! You can always add a group of users or all the members of another stream to a new stream.

Add clear descriptions to your streams, especially public streams.

How to create a stream

  1. Click on the gear () icon in the upper right corner of the web or desktop app.

  2. Select Stream settings.

  3. Click Create stream on the right, or click the plus () icon in the upper right.

  4. Fill out the requested info, and click Create in the bottom right corner of the create stream panel.

Note: You will only see the Create stream button if you have permission to create streams.

  1. Tap the Streams (hash) tab at the bottom of the app.

  2. Scroll down to the bottom, and tap ALL STREAMS.

  3. Tap the Create new stream button at the top of the app.

  4. Fill out the requested info, and tap Create.

Note: You will only see the Create new stream button if you have permission to create streams.

For more details about stream settings, see Create a stream.

Tips for creating streams

  • It's often best to start with just a few streams, and add more as needed. For small teams, you can start with the default streams and go from there.

  • For large organizations, we recommend using a consistent naming scheme, like #marketing/<name> or #mk/<name> for all streams pertaining to the marketing team, #help/<team name> for <team name>'s internal support stream, etc.

  • A #zulip help stream can be useful for providing internal Zulip support and answering questions about Zulip.

  • For open source projects or other volunteer organizations, consider adding default streams like #announce for announcements, #new members for new members to introduce themselves and be welcomed, and #help so that there's a clear place users stopping by with just a single question can post.