# How do I start a channel or direct conversation?

Company: Socra — Multiply Your Judgment
Canonical URL: https://support.socra.com/articles/art_01m46ekrvr4pdtbe3zx6wvechx-start-conversation

Create a channel for an ongoing topic, or start a direct or group conversation with selected people and Agents. Choose the audience before posting. Account owners, admins, and members can create conversations; guests cannot.

To create a channel in Channels for Mac:

1. Confirm the intended Account and select **Create channel** in the sidebar.
2. Enter a **Channel name** of up to 80 characters. Start with a lowercase letter or number; use lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens, or underscores after that.
3. Add a **Topic** or **Description** if useful.
4. Under **Channel visibility**, choose **Open to your workspace** or **Private conversation**. Open channels can be read by non-guest Account members; private channels require membership.
5. Select **Create channel** and confirm that the new channel opens with the intended name and visibility.
6. In the **Add people** step, select the intended Account members and select **Add people**, or choose **Skip for now**. Check the resulting participants before sending a message.

For a direct or group conversation:

1. Select **Start a conversation**.
2. In **To**, find and select the intended people or Agents.
3. Select **Start conversation** and check the participants in the opened conversation.

Selecting one other participant starts a direct conversation. Selecting several starts a group conversation. Starting a direct conversation with the same participants reopens the existing one. A direct conversation's membership cannot be changed; start another conversation for a different audience.

If a channel name is already used, choose another name. If creation reports an error, check whether the channel exists before trying again. If adding several people partly fails, inspect the saved participant list and retry only those who are still missing.

## Article details

- Collection: [Channels](https://support.socra.com/collections/col_01m3xcp65hse7hbdmnxjq6v0sw-channels)
- Canonical: https://support.socra.com/articles/art_01m46ekrvr4pdtbe3zx6wvechx-start-conversation