Discussions let you create focused conversations within a team or channel in Rocket.Chat. They are useful for breaking down larger topics into smaller, organized threads. Discussions appear in the sidebar under Discussions and are marked with the 
icon.
Every discussion must belong to a parent team or channel.
Example: If you have a team called Engineering-Team and a channel named Website-Development-Channel, you could create a discussion called Website-Landing-Page to keep all conversations about the landing page in one place.
Discussion details
To access the details of a discussion:
Open the desired Discussion from the sidebar.
Click the Room Information
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icon from the menu bar to access some details of the discussion.Click Edit to access and update all the following discussion details:
Name: The discussion title, shown in the sidebar and used in search.
Topic: A short label displayed next to the header.
Announcement: A message shown at the top of the discussion for important reminders.
Description: A longer explanation of the discussion’s purpose.
Private: Restricts access to invited members only.
Read-only: Allows only users with permission to post. Others can read messages but not reply.
Archived : Closes the discussion to new messages.
Password to access: Protects the discussion with a password. Members must enter the password before joining.
Advanced settings
In the Advanced settings section, you can further control behavior and permissions:
Hide system messages: Choose which automated system notifications (e.g., join/leave messages) are hidden.
Automatically prune old messages: Set the discussion to remove older messages automatically.
Override global retention policy: Apply custom retention rules for this discussion. Refer to Room Retention Policy to learn how to prune messages in a room.
Create a new discussion
You can create a discussion in Rocket.Chat to organize conversations around a specific topic within a team or channel.
To create a discussion on web or desktop:
In the menu bar, click Create New icon
➝ Discussion .png)
Select the parent team or channel.
Enter a name for the discussion.
(Optional) Add a topic and a message to describe the discussion.
Add members to include in the discussion.
(Optional) Enable encryption if available for your workspace. If your workspace requires encryption for private rooms, a discussion under a private parent room is created encrypted automatically, and encryption cannot be turned off.
Click Create.
To create a discussion in the mobile app:
Tap the Create New plus icon
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and select Discussion.Select the users you want to invite.
Click Next and select the parent channel or group.
Enter a discussion name.
Tap Create discussion.
Once created, any member of the selected team or channel can join the discussion.
A discussion is announced in its parent room by a message showing how many messages it holds and when it was last active.
Adding a member raises the count but leaves the time unchanged. The time follows the last message a member sent.
Hidden system messages are not counted. That covers types hidden for the whole workspace with Hide system messages (Hide_System_Messages) under Administration > Settings > Message, and types hidden on a single discussion through Hide system messages in the room's edit panel, which carries the hint Hidden system messages are excluded from a room's message count. To count the join and leave notices again, stop hiding them.
A discussion's figures update as new messages arrive in it. One that has gone quiet keeps its current count and timestamp until someone posts again, and no admin action recalculates every discussion at once.
Manage Discussions
Depending on your role and permissions, you can view, edit, hide, or delete a discussion.
View or edit discussion information
To view or edit a discussion’s information:
Open the discussion and click the Room Information
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icon in the header. In the Discussion info panel, you can:
Click Hide to remove the discussion from your sidebar. It will reappear when someone sends a new message or if you search for it in the Directory.
Click Edit to update the discussion’s name, topic, announcement, description, or privacy.
Expand Advanced settings to set Read-only, Archived, Password to access, and Hide system messages. The message pruning options appear here only when the retention policy is enabled for the workspace.
Click Save to apply changes.
To remove messages from a discussion by hand, open the Options (kebab) menu in the discussion header and select Prune Messages.
Mark discussion as favorite
Marking a discussion as a favorite keeps it pinned at the top of your sidebar for quick access.
You can favorite a discussion in two ways:
From the sidebar: Hover over the discussion, click the three-dot menu (⋯), then select Favorite.
Inside the discussion: At the top of the discussion screen, click the star icon next to the discussion name to mark that discussion as Favorite.
To remove a discussion from your favorites, repeat the same steps and select Unfavorite.
Leave or delete a discussion
From the More (⋮) menu in the Discussion info panel, you can perform several actions related to discussion management:
Leave: Exit the discussion. Note that a discussion owner cannot leave until they assign another member as the new owner.
Delete: Permanently remove the discussion and all its content. This action requires the appropriate delete permissions or use the
/partor/leavecommand in the message box.On mobile, tap the discussion name, then select Leave or Delete.
Other discussion options
In addition to editing a discussion, you can manage and interact with it using several options:
Room options: To perform actions like muting, hiding, or leaving a discussion, see the Room Options guide.
Manage members: To add, remove, ban/unban, or update discussion members, see the Manage Room Members guide.
Assign roles: To give members specific roles to control communication and collaboration, see the Room Roles guide.
Manage rooms: For administrators, configure additional room settings, see the Manage Rooms guide.