Topics on Heylo provide a streamlined way to organize group chats. They allow admins and members to create separate chats for messages focused on specific subjects or themes within your group.
Every member of the group has a topics screen with two sections: Joined and Not Joined. People who join topics can contribute to the conversation by sending messages. They can also receive notifications for that topic. For topics not joined, they can still see the messages in the topic but cannot send any messages or receive any notifications, unless they were @mentioned.
Everyone in the group can choose the topics to join, with the exception of the announcement topic and private topics.
Topics are organized on the topic screen by the most recent message sent. Heylo does not use an algorithm to determine which topics to display.
Join a topic
To join a topic, navigate to the topics screen and select an interesting topic. Tap the "join" button, and you'll be added to the topic. Joining a topic enables you to contribute to the conversation by sending messages and receiving relevant notifications. When you join a topic, a system message will indicate you joined, and others will receive a notification if enabled. There is no limit to the number of topics that anyone can join.
Leave a topic
Leaving a topic is as simple as selecting the topic header and selecting "leave quietly". When someone leaves, no notifications or system messages are sent when you leave a topic. Alternatively, topics can be muted to prevent message notifications while still remaining a member of the topic. Members only receive messages from a not joined topic if they are specifically @mentioned and have those notifications enabled in permissions.
Long press the topic from the topics tab to leave or mute a topic.
Creating a new topic
Depending on the group’s permissions, admins or members of a group can create a new topic. A new topic can have a name, photo, and description to help others understand what the topic is all about.
When creating a new topic, the topic creator can choose to invite specific members. Invited members are automatically added to the topic, and the topic appears in "joined." Public topics will also send everyone in the group a push notification and/or email depending on their personal notification settings. In addition, the topic is listed at the top of the topics screen and labeled as “new”.
There is no limit to the number of topics that anyone can create.
Moderators
Moderators have administrative privileges over a specific topic. Moderators can edit the topic details such as the name, description, or image. They can also add or remove members from the topic, and delete any message or photo shared in the topic. Anyone can be a topic moderator, including both admins and members. By default, the topic creator is the moderator of the topic. If all moderators are removed, then everyone in the topic is a topic moderator.
Viewing topic details
To see the topic details, navigate to the topic and then the top header. Anyone in the group can see the topic photo, description, and full list of members.
Archived and deleted topics
Topics with more than 30 days of inactivity are automatically archived for the group. Only admins can delete any topic.