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

Browse and subscribe to streams

On Zulip, users primarily communicate with each other by sending messages to 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 () icon next to Streams in the left sidebar. A tooltip labeled Subscribe, add, or configure streams will appear upon hovering above the cog.

   

2. After clicking the cog () icon, the Subscriptions page will now appear, showing all streams that you've subscribed to by default.

   

   Here, you can explore all the public streams in the organization. You can also create a new stream by clicking the plus () icon.

• {!all-streams.md!}

  

• {!filter-streams.md!}

  

• Upon selecting a stream in the Subscriptions page, {!stream-settings.md!}

  

Subscribing to streams

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

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 the notification bot such as the one in the following image.

The message will present to you the option of subscribing to the stream, and you can do so by simply clicking Subscribe to 'stream name' 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 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).

   

   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.