Follow a topic
Zulip lets you follow topics you are interested in. You can follow or unfollow
any topic. You can also configure Zulip to automatically follow topics you start
or participate in. Participating in a topic means sending a message,
reacting with an emoji, or participating in a
poll. You can also automatically follow topics where you
are mentioned.
It's easy to prioritize catching up on followed topics. You can:
-
Configure
how you get notified about new messages for topics you follow.
-
Use the Shift + N keyboard
shortcut to go to the next unread followed topic.
-
Filter the inbox and recent
conversations views to only show followed
topics.
-
See which topics you are following in the left sidebar.
You can use followed topics for a variety of workflows:
-
Catch up on
followed topics at the start of the day, and whenever you want to
spend a few minutes checking on on the conversations that need
your attention.
-
No more stressing about missing a reply to your message in streams
you don't regularly read. You can automatically
follow topics you
start or participate in.
-
You can also mute the streams you don't
regularly read, and automatically follow or
unmute topics you
start or participate in. In muted streams, topics you follow are
automatically treated as unmuted, so it will
be easy to see when someone responds to your message.
-
If you like, follow just the topics where your prompt attention is
needed, and enable desktop and mobile
notifications
for followed topics.
Follow or unfollow a topic
-
Hover over a topic in the left sidebar.
-
Click on the ellipsis ().
-
Configure topic notifications using the row of icons at the top of the menu.
You can also configure notifications by clicking the topic notifications
status icon (,
, or
) in the message recipient bar,
in the Inbox view, or in Recent conversations.
Catch up on followed topics
-
Click on Inbox
(or if the views
section is collapsed) in the left sidebar,
or use the Shift + I keyboard shortcut.
-
Filter the view to the topics you follow by selecting Followed topics
from the dropdown in the upper left of the inbox view.
-
Click on a conversation you're interested in to view it. You can also use
the arrow keys to select a conversation, and press Enter.
-
Return to Inbox when done to select the next conversation. You can use
the back button in your browser or the desktop app, Shift +
I, or Esc if Inbox is configured as you home
view.
You can also use Shift + N from any location to go
to the next unread followed topic.
You can configure custom notifications for followed topics. You can also
configure the unread count
badge to include unread
messages just in followed topics, without counting other stream messages.
-
Click on the gear () icon in the upper
right corner of the web or desktop app.
-
Select Personal settings.
-
On the left, click Notifications.
-
In the Notification triggers table,
toggle the settings for Followed topics.
Automatically follow topics
Follow topics you start or participate in
-
Click on the gear () icon in the upper
right corner of the web or desktop app.
-
Select Personal settings.
-
On the left, click Notifications.
-
Under Topic notifications, select the desired option from the
Automatically follow topics dropdown.
Follow topics where you are mentioned
You can automatically follow topics where you are personally
mentioned. If this setting is enabled:
- You will automatically follow topics where you are personally mentioned, but
group mentions and wildcard mentions (@all, @topic, etc.) will not
affect topic status.
- You will automatically follow topics in muted streams
when you are mentioned.
- Mentions will not cause you to automatically follow topics you have
explicitly muted.
-
Click on the gear () icon in the upper
right corner of the web or desktop app.
-
Select Personal settings.
-
On the left, click Notifications.
-
Under Topic notifications, toggle Automatically follow topics where I'm
mentioned.
-
Click on the gear () icon in the upper
right corner of the web or desktop app.
-
Select Personal settings.
-
On the left, click Topics.
-
Configure notifications for each topic by selecting the desired option from
the dropdown in the Status column.
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