How to invite subscribers to join your chat
Chat is a new way for Substack writers to start conversations with their subscribers. Writers and creators are hosting conversations to get to know their community, react to live events, brainstorm posts, and more.
As you spark conversation in Chat, it’s important to remind your readers to download the app to participate. Here are a few ideas for how to promote your chat to existing subscribers and curious followers who haven’t yet joined you on Substack.
If you haven’t sent your first chat yet, visit our getting-started guide.
Note: As of March 15, 2023, Chat is also available on the web in addition to the Substack iOS and Android apps. For the most up to date guidance on how to use Substack Chat, visit our guide.
Share a link to your latest chat
You can get a link to any chat thread by long-pressing the chat bubble or tapping the 3-dot menu.
Writers use this unique URL to promote the chat on social media or embed it within their Substack posts. Embed a chat in a post simply by pasting the link directly into the post.
Novelist and essayist
embedded her chat link in a post, where she continued to expand on the topic discussed.
Political writer
included a screenshot of his first chat in a tweet with his chat URL, inviting more people to join the conversation.Culture writer
lets her Twitter followers know a live conversation is taking place by sharing the unique URL.
Send a dedicated announcement post to subscribers
Substack will send a one-time email notification to your readers when you start your first chat.
It’s best for them to also hear directly from you, in your voice, about the conversations you plan to host in this space. We’ve added a Chat announcement template that you can access and edit in the Chat section of your Settings page.
We encourage writers to personalize this post. Here are a few of our favorites so far:
Food writers Michelle Davis and Matt Holloway from
describe Chat as “a group chat or message board if you’re old enough to remember those golden days of the internet.”Faith writer
explains that her Chat will be a space to share short updates, workshop ideas, and host more intimate conversations with paying subscribers.Sports writer
introduced his Chat as the place to “rant, rave, fire off any and all thoughts” about Sunday football games each week.In his announcement post, music writer
credits the reader who suggested that subscribers would like a thread to jam on music recommendations as inspiration for his Chat.Culture writer
notes she is “excited to have even more opportunities to hang out in the wonderful conversation pit we’ve built here” and expand on the community forming in her comments section.Climate change writer
introduces a weekly shared activity in a chat: a Thursday discussion with people who give a damn about the climate crisis.
Read more: How to find and engage your readers
Remind subscribers about Chat in your posts
Your subscribers may not have downloaded the Substack app. Now that Chat is available on both iOS and Android, nudging subscribers to join will ensure that they don’t miss out.
Including customized “Get the app” or “Join my subscriber chat” buttons, which you can find in the Buttons dropdown in the Substack editor, in posts will increase the chance of your readers joining you in Chat.
of started including the “Join chat” button at the bottom of every post.
Read more: How to use Buttons
Just as no two communities are the same, there are endless creative ways to use Chat. Here are some exciting conversation-starter ideas from your fellow writers.
- and are rounding up wacky, delicious holiday romantic comedies with subscribers.
“Salad CEO”
invites subscribers to share their favorite kitchen gadgets.Political scientist
is inviting the subscribers of to ask him anything for the course of an hour.Astronomer, science communicator, and writer
invites paid subscribers of to introduce themselves in his first chat.
Read more: How to spark conversation in Substack Chat
How have you spread the word about your Substack Chat?
I can’t get anyone to my chat... 💬
When will the chat option come to the desktop web browser?
My chat is starting slowly, and I hope it gains momentum. I try to bounce a discussion off a current post; for example, this week, I had a gift guide focused on meaningful/purposeful less-materialistic gifts. Then I invited readers to crowd-source their recommendations for gifts in the chat.
I like the chat, and plan to start using it in the new year. I am trying to wrap my head around a couple of things. First, it looks like you "close" a chat thread by turning off replies. Then it is archived and show up at the top of the chat list. I am changing my format in Jan, and will send out a weekly substack related to a topic that I will be covering that entire month. I want to have a threat for each week's newsletter, but then close it when the next week's is sent out. What are best practices for archiving or deleting chat threads?
Hey J Scott, you are right. To "close" a chat, you can long press on the chat thread and turn off replies. People can go back and read old chats and replies but not respond to them.
Started with one thread, got one response! I'm hopeful. Sometimes it feels like shouting into the void.
Is chat fully functional on Android now?
yes!
Yeah!
Very useful post. I only hope my subscribers would join chat.
My newsletter is "The Wordsridge Newsletter" if anyone here is interested :)
I don't have time for using chat, because I am a single author, but since the chat function was introduced, my articles from my Dashboard have been loading in 3-5 minutes, but only if I keep scrolling down; even after that, upscrolling needlessly refreshes the page (the page should be buffered in my computer's memory, but the encoding on Substack stopped allowing that). After they are loaded, all other Substack pages are draggingly slow. At the same time, I need access to my previous articles (there are hundreds of them) in order to include them into comments, so that readers can gain quick access to them.
My computer has 16GB of memory, so that cannot be the problem.
Is this a bug or a feature?
Another problem, which something new again, is that my readers clicking on links to my previous articles cannot access them, only every once in a while. Why?
If I'm understanding you correctly, perhaps you could copy the links to your previous articles that you want to insert into comments from the "archive" page, rather than the "dashboard"?
Thank you for responding. Please, advise: where is the "archive" page?
On your newsletter, the "Archive" is one of three links on the top menu bar under the header "Ray's Newsletter." The other two links are "Home" and "About":
https://rayhorvaththesource.substack.com/archive
There is also a link to the "Archive" when you scroll all the way to the bottom left of your homepage:
https://rayhorvaththesource.substack.com
Thank you. However, this page loads just as slowly...
Have you tried re-booting your computer, i.e. turning it off and on again?
I've been trying on several computers, usually i7 processors and at least 8GB of RAM, sometimes 16MB.
Hmm. Well, your "archive" page loads pretty fast for me. Have you tried testing your internet connection: https://www.speedtest.net
When I run this test, I get "DOWNLOAD Mbps = 873.21"
I have found another computer that does the job. Something must be wrong with the original one. Ping 35ms, download 35Mbps, upload 5Mbps. Never been otherwise in the last several years.
Great!
Sorry about bothering you. It might be that the previous computer had two SSDs installed (plenty of RAM, 16GB, which may have cause some overhead, but the current 12GB seems to work fine on the new computer. (I usually have a lot of browser windows open, but only as tabs on two or three browsers). I'm only guessing, but you might profit from my experience in the future.
It might be MS Outlook with the dual security, because on this computer, the Gmail app that comes with Win 10 is working fine.
It makes no difference. I've tried it on three desktops with i7 processors and 16GB of RAM on each, but the page loads draggingly slowly and, eventually, slows down typing in Substack, despite the fact that I still have 7GB or more memory free...
I like that we can determine each chat by paid and free. It’s a bit like a tiered system so your free subscriptions feel like they get something extra from being in your external community. This was a VERY great addition to the platform. I am excited to build my communities and encourage subscriptions (free and paid) to come chat with me and each other. Beautiful execution of the web community aspect of marketing!
Just started using the android app. It is well formatted and convenient. I had what seemed to be a crash where it went all black and didn't want to close correctly. Also, I ended to ask for a cross post button. Or if I just missed the cross post please point me to it. Thx
سلام نحوهی کار من در مورد کار کردن سنگ کاری هستش
One week and loving this place. Happy Holidays and stay writing.
Is chat still only available on iOS devices?
> If so, when will it be coming to Android and browser?
Doesn't make sense to invite all my subscribers to a chat that is still only available to a select group of followers.
Android is available as of yesterday! Be sure you update to the latest version so you see the new tab on your device.
Thanks for confirming re: Android chat.
What about those of us who do not use mobile devices?
> Does Substack plan to provide a chat access option inside our Substack dashboard?
The Chat Feature is exciting!
Everyone needs to post one of these to get the message passed down and around until finally someone reads it and gets it
My publications first day... was today. After struggling with the software for a couple of days suddenly today I was on a page which told me to start creating.
What a sight to see that flashing cursor.
A wonderful thrill to see my humble effort appear in substack.
All I need now is a few subscribers.
I'm starting mine today so please read,share and subscribe too
All great ideas. For me it would be a place to explore very human "failures" & how ethics can help us better accept & overcome them
Hi everyone. Great see the chat feature enabled/started. I write topics on news, current affairs, religion race and identity, postcolonialism and decolonisation.
Wanted to ask, how to remove article from paywall and make it free. It seems one of my article without my consent was made behind paywall. Is it by default? Would welcome tips.
All my articles are free, and made sure not to put them behind paywall, for now.
Thank u
Nice, would try it soon💪
Hi, Katie, may be you can address and redirect the technical problem my Android subscribers are having. If I publish paid post with free preview and voiceover and then - after the paywall have some features like audio embed and polls, my Android users cannot use them on their Substack app and get "unsupported content" notice.
Also android app does not seem to have an edit button for comments