A new space for writers and creators to host conversations with their subscribers. It’s like having your own private social network where you make the rules. Writers set the topic and the tone for every discussion, and can turn the feature on or off at any time.

As the quality of writing on Substack has blossomed and comments sections lit up with intelligent discussions, subscriber communities began to take shape. Some enterprising writers have taken matters into their own hands, hacking together integrations with Discord, Slack, and Telegram to cultivate communities of supporters. Chat eliminates the need for writers to frankenstein together different software tools and cross-reference subscriber lists.

If you would like to turn Chat on for your publication, here’s how to do so.