Topics turn a flowing conversation into sections people can understand later. Each divider gives readers a clear place to begin, while Activity Chat adds a connected summary for the decisions and useful findings that should outlast the live exchange.

Two Kinds Of Topic

Activity Chat and Direct Messages both use topic dividers, but they use them for different purposes.

Activity Chat topics belong to an activity. They organize a shared discussion around a specific part of the work, and every topic has a connected summary article. Space and subspace Chat can gather topic dividers from the activities below them, giving members an overview without mixing several activities' messages into one feed.

Direct Message topics belong to the conversation. They help one-to-one and group conversations change subjects cleanly, but they do not create a shared summary article and cannot be published to a space. Any active participant in the conversation can create or delete one.

For the surrounding workspaces, see Activity Chat and Direct Messages.

The published Resources divider gives the shared discussion a clear boundary without leaving its activity context.

Direct Message topics divide a private conversation without creating a connected space article.

Give Each Discussion A Useful Boundary

Start a new topic when the group is moving to a distinct question, phase, or outcome that someone may need to find on its own. A title such as Weekly launch check-in tells readers what follows without asking them to reconstruct the change from individual messages.

Continue the current topic when the new message still contributes to the same decision or outcome. Creating a divider for every small tangent fragments the story; keeping unrelated work under one topic makes both the feed and its summary harder to understand.

A good boundary helps in three ways:

Topics are not goals. One goal may appear in several discussions, and one discussion may touch several goals. Messages can reference accessible goals, but the topic remains the boundary around the conversation rather than a replacement for the goal and its progress.

From Draft Conversation To Durable Summary

Space owners and members with chat-management access can start Activity Chat topics. Creation happens inside an activity. If they choose Add Topic from a space or subspace Chat view, Choose your activity directs them to an eligible activity first; Visual Space does not create a general space-level live conversation.

Starting a topic opens its connected article as a draft. The author can shape the topic name and summary before publishing, and only the author sees that draft topic in Chat. Other readers continue to see published topics. Until the new draft is published, messages continue under the latest non-draft topic; if there is no published topic, composing remains unavailable.

Publishing makes the divider and connected summary available together. The summary should capture what a reader needs after the rapid exchange has passed: the decision or conclusion, useful findings, essential context, and the next action when one was agreed. It should distill the outcome rather than reproduce the message history.

This gives the two surfaces complementary jobs:

Selecting the published Resources divider opens its connected Helpful links article.

For the complete creation and publication flow, follow Create and Summarize a Topic.

Open A Topic From The Right Context

Select a published divider while you are inside its activity to open the connected summary. This is the quickest route when you have read the live exchange and want its distilled outcome.

At space or subspace level, selecting an aggregated topic divider opens the activity conversation instead. You arrive where the topic's messages live and can read the discussion in its working context. Draft dividers open the topic editor for their author rather than behaving like published summaries.

Move The Whole Discussion When Its Home Changes

An Activity Chat topic may begin in the wrong activity or become a better fit elsewhere. The topic author, space owner, or a member with chat-management access can move it to another accessible, published activity in the same space.

The move keeps the topic intact: its divider, connected summary, and messages travel together. Draft, archived, missing, and inaccessible activities are not available as destinations. Moving is therefore a change of home, not a copy, and readers see the topic in the destination activity after Chat refreshes.

Direct Message topics do not move into activities or other private conversations. They remain part of the conversation whose participants created them.

Delete With The Conversation In Mind

In Activity Chat, the topic author or space owner can delete a topic. Chat asks for confirmation because deletion removes the topic from active conversation reads and removes its connected summary from normal access. Members with chat-management access can move a topic, but that permission alone does not grant deletion.

In a Direct Message, any active conversation participant can delete any topic that belongs to that conversation. The divider and its messages then disappear from the visible conversation, so use deletion for material that should no longer remain in that topic—not simply because the discussion has finished. A completed discussion with a useful outcome is usually more valuable with its divider and summary preserved.

Common Questions

Who can create an Activity Chat topic?

A space owner or member with chat-management access can create one. Topic creation always resolves to an activity, even when it begins from a space or subspace view.

Why can I still be composing in an older topic after starting a new one?

The new topic begins as an author-only draft. Chat uses the latest published topic for live messages until that draft is published.

Can a topic summary reach people beyond the live discussion?

Yes. A useful Activity Chat summary can be published as a post when the decisions or progress should appear in the wider feed. Direct Message topics remain private and do not use this publishing path.

Does selecting a divider always open the summary?

No. Inside the activity it opens the published summary. From a space or subspace overview it opens the activity conversation, where the topic and its messages have their full context.

Can I move a topic to another space?

No. Move destinations are accessible published activities within the same space.

Does deleting a Direct Message topic require its author?

No. Any active participant can delete a topic in the selected private conversation. For broader group-conversation decisions, see Start and Manage a Group Conversation.

Return to the Chat overview for related messaging, publishing, and meeting guidance.