# 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

1. Click the cog (<i class="icon-vector-cog"></i>) icon next to **Streams**
in the left sidebar. A tooltip labeled **Subscribe, add, or configure streams**
will appear upon hovering above the cog.

    ![Streams cog and tooltip](/static/images/help/streams-1.png)

2. After clicking the cog (<i class="icon-vector-cog"></i>) icon, the
[Subscriptions](/#subscriptions) page will now appear, showing all streams that
you've subscribed to by default.

    ![[Subscriptions page](/static/images/help/streams-overview.png)

Here, you can explore all the public streams in the organization. You can also
[create a new stream](create-a-stream) by clicking the plus
(<i class="icon-vector-plus"></i>) icon to the right of the **Filter Streams** input.

* {!all-streams.md!}

    ![All streams](/static/images/help/all-streams.png)

* {!filter-streams.md!}

    ![Filter streams box](/static/images/help/filter-stream.png)

* Upon selecting a stream in the [Subscriptions](/#subscriptions) page, {!stream-settings.md!}

    ![Stream Settings](/static/images/help/stream-overview.png)

## 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 [Subscriptions](/#subscriptions) page.

{!subscriptions.md!}

2. {!all-streams.md!}

3. 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.