Slack guide
By
Elias Brandt
Elias Brandt writes about marketing, email and analytics tools for Appcyclopedia, working on a ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 and a Galaxy S25.
- Web
- macOS
- Windows
- iOS
- Android
Short answer
Click the + in the sidebar and choose Channel, or on a phone tap + on the Home tab. Type a name, choose Public or Private, then click Create and add the people who should be in it.
Choose the type with care: anyone in the workspace can find and read a public channel, while a private one is visible only to the people added to it.
Below: the steps on a computer and a phone, the difference between public and private, and what to do when the option is missing.
How to make a new Slack channel, on desktop and mobile
To create a channel in Slack, start from the + button wherever you use Slack. The first group covers the desktop app and the browser, the second the phone app, and the last step is the same everywhere.
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On a computer
Click the + in the sidebar
Open the Slack desktop app or Slack in a browser and look at the left sidebar. Click the + (plus sign) and choose Channel from the menu. On a paid plan Slack then offers Blank channel or a template; choose Blank channel for an ordinary one.
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Type a name for the channel
Enter a short name that says what the channel is for, such as proj-website or team-sales. Slack writes channel names in lowercase and uses hyphens instead of spaces, and the name appears with a # in front of it everywhere in the workspace.
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Choose Public or Private, then click Create
Pick Public if anyone in the workspace should be able to find and join it, or Private if only invited people should see it. Click Create. The channel opens straight away, empty, with you as its first member.
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On a phone
Tap + on the Home tab
Open the Slack app on your iPhone or Android phone and go to the Home tab. Tap the + (plus sign) and choose to create a channel.
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Enter the name and tap Next
Type the channel name and tap Next. The same naming habits apply as on a computer: short, lowercase, hyphens between words.
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Choose the channel type and tap Create
Select Public or Private and tap Create. The new channel appears in your sidebar on the phone and on every other device signed in to the same workspace.
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Then, on any device
Add the first members
Slack offers to add people as soon as the channel exists. Type names or select a user group, then confirm. You can skip this and add people later from the channel’s member list at the top right. Nobody is told about a private channel until you add them.
A typical first channel: #proj-website for a redesign, created as public so anyone in the company can follow along, with the five people working on it added straight away. Updates go there instead of into five separate direct messages.
Name it for the topic and decide who can read it before you click Create: those two choices are what make a channel easy to find later.
More about Slack
Team chat organised into channels, with a free plan that shows 90 days of history.
When Slack will not let you create the channel
- There is no Channel option under +
A workspace owner can limit who creates channels. Ask an owner or admin to create it for you, or to change the permission.
- Slack says the name is already taken
Channel names are unique in a workspace, and archived channels keep theirs. Search for the name in Slack first; if it is an archived channel, ask whether it can be unarchived instead of starting again.
- You are a guest and can only create private channels
Multi-Channel Guests can create private channels but not public ones. Ask a full member to create a public channel if the whole workspace needs to see it.
Public or private: what each Slack channel type means
The type is the one choice that matters at creation, because it decides who can see what is posted.
| Public channel | Private channel | |
|---|---|---|
| Who can find it | Every workspace member except guests | Only its members |
| How people join | They join themselves | A member has to add them |
| Search | Messages appear in everyone’s search | Messages appear only for members |
| Good for | Projects, teams, open topics | HR, hiring, anything confidential |
When in doubt, make it public: most work channels benefit from being findable, and a private channel quietly hides decisions from people who needed them.
How to name a channel people can find
A channel name is how people find it in search and in the sidebar, so a consistent pattern saves everyone time. Many workspaces use a short prefix for the kind of channel, then the topic:
- proj- for projects, such as #proj-office-move
- team- for departments, such as #team-marketing
- help- for questions, such as #help-it
Before you create one, search Slack for the topic. A second channel for the same subject splits the conversation in two, and an existing one may only need joining.
What to do after you create a Slack channel
A new channel is empty, and the first few minutes decide whether people use it. Add a short description in the channel settings saying what belongs there, and post a first message that tells members why they were added.
Create the channel, add the people who need it and say what it is for in the first message. Once conversations start, replying in threads keeps a busy channel readable: hover over a message and click Reply in thread.
For friends or family outside work, a WhatsApp group is the usual choice.
Slack channel questions
- Can I change a private channel to public later?
- Yes. A channel can be converted after it is created, with one exception: the general channel every workspace has cannot be made private. Whether you are allowed to convert one depends on your role in the workspace.
- Can I rename a Slack channel?
- Yes. Open the channel, click its name at the top and edit the name in the channel settings. Links and mentions update to the new name.
- Is creating channels free?
- Yes. Channels are part of every Slack plan, including Free. Paid plans add channel templates and keep more of the message history.
- Who can read messages in a public channel?
- Every member of the workspace who is not a guest can find it, read it and join it. Its messages and files also show up in their searches.
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Test log
Followed the steps? Tell us how it went on your device. Entries appear here after we check them.
- Worked Every step, start to finish · Elias Brandt and Marta Kowalczyk Team
I tested this
Steps performed and confirmed 11 days ago
When you need this
If you want a shared space in Slack for a project, team or topic, create a channel from the + button in the sidebar. Whether it is public or private decides who in the workspace can see it.
- Describes
- Slack desktop app for Mac and Windows, and Slack in a browser · Slack app for iPhone and Android
- Takes
- About a minute
- Platforms
- Web · macOS · Windows · iOS · Android
- Published
- 11 October 2026
- Facts checked
- 10 October 2026
Steps repeated and verified by 
Elias Brandt and 
Marta Kowalczyk
on
- Elias Brandt: the Windows and web steps on a ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Windows 11 Pro).
- Marta Kowalczyk: the Mac steps on a MacBook Air (macOS 27.0.1), the iPhone steps on an iPhone 16 Pro (iOS 27.0.1) and the Android steps on a Galaxy A55 (Android 16).
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