zulip/templates/zerver/help/browse-and-join-streams.md

# Browse and subscribe to streams

On Zulip, users communicate with each other by sending messages to
conversation streams, which are similar to conversation threads.  New
users are automatically subscribed to the organization's default
streams; however, users may want to subscribe to additional streams or
browse the list of streams that they subscribe to.

## Browse streams

To browse your subscriptions, click the cog
(![cog](/static/images/help/cog.png)) next to **Streams** in your left
sidebar. A tooltip labeled **Subscribe, add, or configure streams**
will appear.

![Browse streams](/static/images/help/streams-1.png)

This will open the stream browser (shown in the following image)
featuring an overview of all the streams you've subscribed to.

![Streams Overview](/static/images/help/streams-overview.png)

Here, you can explore all the public streams in the organization and
search for specific streams by entering the stream name in the
**Filter by stream name** search box.

## Subscribing to streams

Users can choose to subscribe to any public stream in the orgniazation.

### Subscribing when a stream is created

When users create a public stream, they can choose to alert all users
in the organization about their stream's creation.

Thus, you may be notified about the stream's creation with a message
in the **Home** view sent by Notification Bot such as the one in the
following image.

![Streams subscribe alert](/static/images/help/stream-subscribe.png)

The message will present to you the option of subscribing to the stream, and you can do so by simply clicking the gray button.

### Subscribing later

However, if the you were not notified about the stream's creation, you
can subscribe to a stream by navigating to the stream browser by
clicking the cog (![cog](/static/images/help/cog.png)) next to
**Streams** in the left sidebar. Click the **All Streams** tab
(highlighted in red in the following image) to view all streams in the
organization, including streams you haven't subscribed to.

![Streams Overview](/static/images/help/stream-overview.png)

Next, click on the area to the left of the stream that you would like
to subscribe to (highlighted in red).

![Subscribe before](/static/images/help/subscribe-before.png)

A green checkmark will appear next to the stream that you've just
subscribed to, and you will now be able to read and send messages in
that stream.

![Subscribe after](/static/images/help/subscribe-after.png)