If your team already has Donut installed to your Slack workspace, you can create Donut channels for different purposes. You can set up a new Donut channel in a few different ways:

  • The first way to set up a channel is from your Donut dashboard. You can either set up a channel from our ready-made templates OR start a channel from scratch.

  • The other way is by inviting Donut to an already existing Slack channel within your Slack workspace. And you don't have to do both! You can either set it up from the dashboard or the Slack channel.

Please note: Ready-made templates are only available on the dashboard.

Starting a Channel from the Dashboard

Start a Channel Using a Donut Template

Donut also has ready-made templates that you can use to start new channels for different purposes (like cross-department connections, weekly wins for hybrid teams, and more) with a few simple clicks. All of the settings and features you'll need will be pre-selected when you start with one of our templates.

You can find all of the different templates on your dashboard and read more about them here. Along with the different templates you find you can also adjust and customize those template settings to fit your needs.

Note: Ready-made templates are available on both of our paid plans (Standard and Premium).

Starting a Channel from Scratch

You can start a new Donut channel from scratch with just a few quick clicks:

  1. Log in to the dashboard with your Slack credentials at app.donut.ai/coffee

  2. Click "All Channels" in the left nav

  3. Look for the template called "Start an Intros Channel"

  4. Hover over it and click "Get Started"

You'll then be taken to the next page where you can select the Slack channel where you’d like to set up Donut Intros. Click the drop-down that says "Search public Slack channels..." and start typing to search for the correct channel.

Note: You can also invite Donut to private Slack channels, but the process is slightly different. See our help article here on adding Donut to private channels for more information.

Start a Channel using the "/invite" command in Slack

If you’d rather get started from within Slack, you can also invite Donut directly to your channel there. Simply go to the channel in Slack and type "/invite @donut". Hit enter. Donut will DM you to finish setting up the channel. To get started, select either Intros or Watercooler. You can have both running in the same channel, but to get started, you'll have to choose one from the menu.

Starting a Channel from the Dashboard

Wondering what settings you can control for your Donut channel? You can edit what day(s) of the week Intros will happen, how often, the time zone of your channel, whether Donut shares weekly stats in the channel, and you can also toggle on additional features like messages to welcome new joiners, remote intro messages, and our Zoom or Calendar integrations. This can be done by logging into your Donut Dashboard, clicking "Donut Channels in Your Workspace

Announce Donut to your team!

Your team participates in Donut intros by joining the channel you created, so now you just need to invite others to participate and let them know what channel to join if they're interested! You can announce Donut to your team via email and/or within Slack (most teams post the announcement in the #general channel).

Now go check out our best practices article for more info on how to use Donut.

🍩 Need more help? Just click the purple chat button or email support@donut.ai and we’ll help you out!

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