Channel naming conventions#

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All organizations are different and have different communication needs. The importance of organizing your conversations increases as your user base grows. The following are ideas for how you might want to name, group, and structure your channels. If you change your mind about a channel’s name, you can rename it.

Basic structure#

  • Channel names appear in menus where users select which conversations to join.

  • Channel names are unique.

  • Channel names have a 64-character limit to ensure readability on both desktop and mobile devices.

  • An additional 1024 characters are available for describing the channel’s focus in the channel header and channel information pane.

  • An additional 128 characters are available for a Channel Purpose that’s visible in the channel header and the channel information pane.

Scope channel names#

It’s natural to start with broadly defined channels and let them divide into narrower topics as discussions progress.

For example, you might begin with a general “Marketing” channel. As conversations progress, you might divide that channel into: “Marketing: Website”, “Marketing: Social Media”, “Marketing: General”.

Tip

Use colons to separate sections of channel names, rather than `` - `` or `` > `` which require more spaces to display.

As the organization grows, disciplines might split across business units, products and geographies, with channel names like “US: Marketing” and “UK: Marketing”.

Tip

If you need to shorten country names, use standard 2-letter country codes.

You can combine the hierarchies, with formats like [SUB-TEAM]: [TOPIC]: [SUB-TOPIC]. For example: US: Mrkt: Website and UK: Mrkt: Social Media.

Tip

Shorten words, particularly categories, by removing vowels, endings, and redundant letter sounds. Example: Turn “Marketing” into “Mrkt”, and “Project” into “Prjt”.

Good naming can take a team up to several thousand channels without significant confusion. Eventually every organization hits a limit and an additional team might need to be created on the server to accommodate the large number of channels. Keeping names clear and short lets users navigate large collections of channels quickly.

Here are different navigation options and types of channels to consider.

Topic channels#

Topics are broad categories for organizing discussions. Topics are similar to how a user might create a folder for organizing emails or documents. Examples: Recruiting, Interviews, Legal Reviews, Documentation.

Users can join and leave topic-based channels, as well as add colleagues to have topic-based discussions.

As teams get larger and the number of channels increase, you may start naming topics in a hierarchy to make them easier to find. Examples: Legal: Trademarks, Legal: Contracts, Legal: Licensing.

Meeting channels#

Meeting channels are often used to organize regular meetings. Members can add topics as messages to be discussed during the regular meeting time. Examples: Monday Sales Update, All Hands Meeting.

There are three built-in features to make meetings easier:

  1. Numbered agenda items in title text

You can number and format messages as agenda items to discuss for the next meeting.

Tip

Try pasting the following as an example in a channel designated for meetings:

#### 1) Agenda item example
#### Commentary about agenda item to be discussed.

  1. Threaded messaging

On an agenda item message, you can select [...] > Reply to leave comments about an agenda item before or after a meeting to extended discussion.

  1. Header links

When meeting remotely, add persistent links to your video or audio conferencing solution, like Zoom, Google Hangouts, or BlueJeans in the channel header. See our documentation to learn more about working with channel headers.

When it’s time to meet, your team can select the conference link to connect.

Sub-team channels#

Sub-teams can include people from the same discipline, project teams, people with the same manager or other groups brought together for a shared purpose. Examples: Developers, Marketers, Offsite Organizing Committee, SusanK’s Directs

As sub-teams grow beyond a manageable size for one channel, they can sub-divide. Examples: US: Developers, UK: Developers, SusanK’s Directs, SusanK’s Extended Directs.

Project channels#

Project channels discuss how groups of people come together to achieve specific outcomes. Examples: Logo Design, Localization, Product Launch.

Projects are often private channels rather than public channels and are used to organize a small team around a project brought up in a larger channel. The Project Channel is used to do detailed work, and updates are typically communicated back to larger channels.

Location channels#

If your teams are in different buildings, cities or regions, you can create Location channels to help people coordinate meetings and get-togethers. Examples: Building 10, Palo Alto, Toronto, Delaware.

This helps share announcements and discussions relevant to only those locations.

Data channels#

Data channels allow automatic integration. Information like new or updated support tickets or bug reports, Twitter updates or mentions of your company name in the news can all be made available in channels your team chooses to monitor. There is a wide array of options. Examples: Bugs, Support Tickets, Twitter, News Mentions.

People might use these channels like a daily newspaper, reading about everything that’s happened in the last day, while other configurations allow notifications to alert only when their username or certain key words are mentioned.

Channel naming examples#

Here is an example of what a marketer’s channels might look like in a small team:

CHANNELS

  • Recruiting

  • Interviews

  • Marketing

  • Sales

  • All Hands Meeting

  • Town Square

  • Off-Topic

PRIVATE CHANNELS

  • Website

  • Twitter Marketing

  • Logo Design

DIRECT MESSAGES

  • [Sales People]

  • [Marketers]

  • [Recruiter]

  • [Manager]

Here’s an example of what a marketer’s channels might look like if she was working in the Palo Alto, California office of a large enterprise, working on a product called “Pontoon”:

CHANNELS

  • Geo: PA: Recruiting

  • Geo: PA: Interviews

  • US: Mrkt: General

  • US: Sales: West Coast

  • US: All Hands

  • Town Square

  • Off-Topic

PRIVATE CHANNELS

  • Pontoon: Mkrt: Website

  • Pontoon: Mkrt: Twitter

  • Pontoon: Mkrt: Logo Design

DIRECT MESSAGES

  • [West Coast Sales People]

  • [Marketing Peers]

  • [Recruiter for PA office]

  • [Manager]