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Channels analyze continuous, high-volume customer feedback: support tickets, product reviews, survey responses, and sales conversations. Feedback arrives from connected sources, and Channels groups it into ranked Ideas you can act on.
Only paid seats can create and manage channels. Viewers cannot connect a data source to a channel.

Channels 2.0 is the default

New channels use Channels 2.0, which is currently in beta. Channels created before 2.0 continue to run on the original experience, documented in Channels 1.0. A badge on each channel shows which one it is using.

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Ideas vs Evidence

Channels 2.0 organises everything you see into two views.
Ideas are AI-generated, opinionated summaries of what’s worth doing next, based on the consolidation of all your high-volume feedback. Each idea groups together the feedback pointing at the same underlying problem or request, and is ranked by how much it matters: your business context, how often it comes up, how many accounts are affected, and how much ARR sits behind it.
Evidence is the raw material behind every idea: the original support tickets, reviews, survey responses, and conversations. Use Evidence to check a claim, pull a quote, or see exactly who said what.
Think of Ideas as what to do, and Evidence as why.

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How Channels work

Channels 2.0 is the default

New channels use Channels 2.0, which is currently in beta. Channels created before 2.0 continue to run on the original experience, documented in Channels 1.0. A badge on each channel shows which one it is using.

​
Ideas vs Evidence

Channels 2.0 organises everything you see into two views.
Ideas are AI-generated, opinionated summaries of what’s worth doing next, based on the consolidation of all your high-volume feedback. Each idea groups together the feedback pointing at the same underlying problem or request, and is ranked by how much it matters: your business context, how often it comes up, how many accounts are affected, and how much ARR sits behind it.
Evidence is the raw material behind every idea: the original support tickets, reviews, survey responses, and conversations. Use Evidence to check a claim, pull a quote, or see exactly who said what.
Think of Ideas as what to do, and Evidence as why.

New channels use Channels 2.0

Channels 2.0 groups your feedback into ranked Ideas, each backed by the Evidence behind it, and lets you act on them without leaving the feed. It’s the default for any new channel you create, and it’s currently in beta.Channels you created before 2.0 keep working exactly as they did. This page documents that original experience — see Channels 2.0 for the current one.

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How Channels work

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How Channels 1.0 works

The rest of this page covers Channels 1.0, which existing channels continue to run on. If your channel shows a 2.0 badge, follow Channels 2.0 instead.
Channels 2.0 is built around four stages. Feedback in. You connect your data sources and scope the channel to what you care about. You can consolidate all of your sources into a single channel, so that you have a combined voice of customer channel. Or you can create separate channels for different sources or areas. Ideas surfaced. As data flows in, Channels groups it into ideas, ranked by severity, frequency, reach, and business context such as ARR. Dovetail will utilize any workspace docs as context to help generate ideas and ensure the right evidence is attached. Team acts. From any idea, send to Jira, Figma Make, Linear, or Claude, comments, assign an owner, and track progress without leaving the feed. Close the loop. When an idea is resolved, Channels enables you to notify the customers whose feedback contributed to it, driving loyalty and engagement.
When creating your own topics:
  • Use clear wording that immediately conveys the high-level category
  • Keep titles concise (2-3 words when possible)
  • Use customer language rather than internal jargon
  • Avoid overlapping categories that could confuse classification
  • Use consistent naming patterns across similar topics
Good examples include “Mobile App Performance”, “Billing and Payment Issues”, “Feature Requests ”, “Onboarding Confusion”Avoid examples like “Technical problems with updating the software” (too granular), “Issues” (too broad), “Stuff about our platform” (unclear)With each topic created, you will need to add a description. For these, we recommend that you:
  • Explain the theme’s scope clearly in 1-2 sentences
  • Use keywords that customers might actually use
  • Guide the AI on what to look for and what to exclude
  • Keep under 200 characters for optimal performance
  • Include specific examples but make sure the example and expectation matches the the most common meaning in general English
Once you reach the usage limit for the month, no new data points will appear in your channel. You can continue to access all data that has been imported previously, move data points, and update the themes list.This also means that there will be no extra charges for overages and if necessary, you can choose to upgrade your data usage for your plan.The usage period resets every month from the workspace original billing date. This is applicable for subscriptions billed on both a monthly and yearly cycle.
Yes. Workspace admins can increase or decrease the amount of data points included in your plan by accessing ⚙️ Settings → Billing. For more information, see our article here. If the option to increase your data points is unavailable, please contact our Sales team. There are a few important things you will need to know before upgrading or downgrading your Channels add-on:
  • If you upgrade in the current billing cycle, the new limit will apply immediately, and data points in the current cycle will be imported and analyzed in Channels (up to the new limit).
  • If you upgrade in the next billing cycle, only the data points that come in during the new cycle will appear in Channels. You will lose the data points from the previous cycle that were not imported.
  • When downgrading and decreasing your limit, the new limit will apply immediately and no new data will appear in Channels. Any historical data will still be available.
No, you cannot export data from a channel like regular project data. This includes imported data points, generated themes, or generated summaries.
For details on your data, see Responsible Use on Dovetail AI features.
The current Artificial intelligence development policy in our trust center is still relevant and covers what is required to use channels.
Disconnecting a source pauses the flow of new data but keeps existing data in your channel. Deleting a source permanently removes all previously imported data for that source from the specific channel.
CSV files don’t automatically re-sync or reprocess in the background. Instead, reclassification is mostly triggered by specific events, such as:
  • Importing new data from a CSV
  • Creating or updating topics/themes
In addition, theme regeneration can only run if:
  • At least ~24 hours have passed since the last run, and
  • More than 200 new datapoints have been added
200 data points are the minimum required to generate a theme.
Please make sure you are occupying a paid seat when connecting or reconnecting a Channel. Viewers cannot create or manage data sources within a Channel.
When a Channel integration disconnects due to an expired OAuth token or revoked access, Dovetail notifies you in three ways:

Email notification Dovetail sends an email using the “Channel Integration Disconnected” template. It includes the integration type and the reason for disconnection, so you know exactly what happened and what to do next.In-app notification A notification appears in your notification center. For ingestion failures specifically, an error toast also displays so you’re alerted immediately.Reconnect banner in the Channel UI When you visit the Channel page, a “Reconnect Integration” banner appears at the top if the integration needs re-authentication. The Sources dialog also shows a “Disconnected” badge alongside a reconnect action for any affected sources.To restore the connection, follow the reconnect prompt in the Channel UI or re-authenticate via the Sources dialog.
To restore deleted topics or themes:
  1. Open the channel
  2. Navigate to the Channel ⋯ menu → Open trash
  3. Choose from which tab to restore from: Data points, Themes, or Topics

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Where to go next

Channel setup

Connect data sources, map your data, and manage them over time.

Channel context

Focus areas and linked docs that shape how feedback is classified.

Ideas

The ranked feed, roll-ups, trends, and saved views.

Idea actions

Send to Jira or Linear, notify customers, and reach ideas through MCP.
Channels 2.0 is built around four stages. Feedback in. You connect your data sources and scope the channel to what you care about. You can consolidate all of your sources into a single channel, so that you have a combined voice of customer channel. Or you can create separate channels for different sources or areas. Ideas surfaced. As data flows in, Channels groups it into ideas, ranked by severity, frequency, reach, and business context such as ARR. Dovetail will utilize any workspace docs as context to help generate ideas and ensure the right evidence is attached. Team acts. From any idea, send to Jira, Figma Make, Linear, or Claude, comments, assign an owner, and track progress without leaving the feed. Close the loop. When an idea is resolved, Channels enables you to notify the customers whose feedback contributed to it, driving loyalty and engagement. Themes are generated from the individual data points imported into a channel. A data point is a single piece of feedback that is imported to a channel in Dovetail. It could be a support ticket, an NPS response, or any kind of continuous product feedback. A theme is a collection of data points with a title.
In Channels 2.0, themes are replaced by Ideas — ranked by how much they matter to your business — and the underlying data points are called Evidence.
All workspaces on any plan can import up to 1,000 data points per month, and additional data points can be purchased by contacting our Sales team.

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Create a new channel

Managers and Contributors can create a new channel sidebar under Home or Browse pages. You can create a channel to track themes in support tickets, CSAT/NPS responses, churn responses, app store reviews, and in-product reviews.
  • To do this, click New and select Channel.
  • From there, import data via a first-party integration, Zapier, or the API. These options will automatically sync data into your channel. You can also import a CSV manually.

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Add context to guide AI

In a channel, Dovetail generates high-level topics to organize and refine key themes from your data. You can enhance AI-driven topic generation by adding context. When creating a new channel, you will be instructed to provide details such as your role, specific goals, or key focus areas to create dynamic, tailored topics that align with what you’re interested in.
  • To do this, in the textbox under Context, enter your details as a prompt. For better results, you can also refine your prompt using Enhance context.
  • Next, your channel will generate and our AI will surface a list of auto-generated topics and descriptions based on your imported data and context.
You can update or edit context anytime within a channel. Simply open the channel, click ••• in the top-right corner, and select Context. Enter your details as a prompt, hit Save, and let the AI generate topics that focus on what truly matters to you. Updating this will only affect future classification.
When adding context to a channel:
  1. Highlight the top 2–3 goals that apply across all the data. Keep it concise and under 10,000 characters.
  2. Prompt using natural language and have a meaningful and quick-to-understand structure.
  3. We recommend to keep it relatively broad. For example, if you go too granular to say “Missing features about intuitive navigation”, you might miss out on other “Missing features” that could be interesting or have to compensate by prompting with more text than necessary.
For example:I am a Product Manager interested in feedback related to product intuitiveness in these product reviews. Highlight points where users felt confused, lost, or unsure how to proceed. Include any suggestions for improving clarity, flow, or ease of use.

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Create a topic, category, or area of interest

You can also add your own custom category, topic, or area of interest to organize themes and track what’s important to you. For a Channel, you can create up to ten topics in total that can be updated at any time.
  • To do this, select + New in the sidebar.
  • Next, add a title and a brief description to help guide how we generate themes and classify data points.
  • From there, click Create. Once created, we will create new themes and classify any existing and new data points into these.
You can also remove a topic from your channel if it is no longer needed. When removed, this will also remove any themes created within it. Data points classified under these themes will remain in your Channel.
  • To delete a topic from your Channel, hover over your topic in the sidebar, click ••• then select Move to trash.
You’re always in control of your data. Once themes have been generated, you can merge any that are overlapping, edit to refine the title, or create your own if something was missed!
  • To create new themes and keep track of what’s relevant to you, click + New in the sidebar or on the themes list.
  • From there, enter the theme name and description to help guide data classification and theme detection.

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Reconfigure meta-data fields

Rename and change your meta-data fields
You can add, disconnect, or permanently delete data sources within a channel at any time.

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Disconnect a data source

  • Open the channel and go to the Sourcedialogue.
  • Find the source you want to disconnect, click More actions
  • Select disconnect and confirm the action.
If you wish to reconnect a data source, ingestion will resume from the earliest data point within your current billing period.Please note that only integrations can be disconnected. For CSV uploads, you may delete specific entries or the entire upload to remove the data from your channel.

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Delete a data source

To permanently remove a data source and all its associated data from a channel:
  • Open the channel and click Source in the top right.
  • Find the source you want to remove and click More actions
  • Select Delete and confirm the action.
This action is permanent and cannot be undone. Deleting a source removes its data from this channel only; data in other connected channels remains intact.

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Reconnect a data source

  1. Open your channel and click Source in the top right
  2. You’ll see which sources are connected and disconnected
  3. Select Add source to reconnect your integration
Alternatively, you can also select ‘Reconnect’ in the yellow banner that might appear if it’s been disconnected. Things to keep in mind:
  • Make sure your account has proper permissions to access both the integration platform and the specific Dovetail channel
  • Verify your credentials are correct
  • When you reconnect, it will resume syncing from the earliest data point within your current billing period

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Track usage across channels

Channels is billed by the total number of data points used in all channels across a single workspace. To help you keep on top of your team’s usage, you can quickly review how much data has been used for an entire workspace.
  1. Open any channel in your workspace.
  2. Click on source next to Share  in the channel header.
  3. In the Sources dialog, you’ll see a Workspace usage card showing:
    • Your current billing period (e.g., “1 Jun – 1 Jul 2026”)
    • Total data points used and your plan limit (e.g., “4,521 of 10,000 data points”)
    • A progress bar showing usage percentage (or Unlimited if your plan includes unlimited data points for Channels.)
    • A breakdown of how many data points belong to the current channel vs. other channels
As a workspace admin:
Admins can also view usage from Settings > Billing, which shows the same data point consumption as a progress bar alongside your plan details.
Please note that deleting a data source from a channel will not reduce your total data points usage count. Any data previously ingested still counts toward your usage limit for that billing period.

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FAQs

When creating your own topics:
  • Use clear wording that immediately conveys the high-level category
  • Keep titles concise (2-3 words when possible)
  • Use customer language rather than internal jargon
  • Avoid overlapping categories that could confuse classification
  • Use consistent naming patterns across similar topics
Good examples include “Mobile App Performance”, “Billing and Payment Issues”, “Feature Requests ”, “Onboarding Confusion”Avoid examples like “Technical problems with updating the software” (too granular), “Issues” (too broad), “Stuff about our platform” (unclear)With each topic created, you will need to add a description. For these, we recommend that you:
  • Explain the theme’s scope clearly in 1-2 sentences
  • Use keywords that customers might actually use
  • Guide the AI on what to look for and what to exclude
  • Keep under 200 characters for optimal performance
  • Include specific examples but make sure the example and expectation matches the the most common meaning in general English
Once you reach the usage limit for the month, no new data points will appear in your channel. You can continue to access all data that has been imported previously, move data points, and update the themes list.This also means that there will be no extra charges for overages and if necessary, you can choose to upgrade your data usage for your plan.The usage period resets every month from the workspace original billing date. This is applicable for subscriptions billed on both a monthly and yearly cycle.
Yes. Workspace admins can increase or decrease the amount of data points included in your plan by accessing ⚙️ Settings → Billing. For more information, see our article here. If the option to increase your data points is unavailable, please contact our Sales team. There are a few important things you will need to know before upgrading or downgrading your Channels add-on:
  • If you upgrade in the current billing cycle, the new limit will apply immediately, and data points in the current cycle will be imported and analyzed in Channels (up to the new limit).
  • If you upgrade in the next billing cycle, only the data points that come in during the new cycle will appear in Channels. You will lose the data points from the previous cycle that were not imported.
  • When downgrading and decreasing your limit, the new limit will apply immediately and no new data will appear in Channels. Any historical data will still be available.
No, you cannot export data from a channel like regular project data. This includes imported data points, generated themes, or generated summaries.
For details on your data, see Responsible Use on Dovetail AI features.
The current Artificial intelligence development policy in our trust center is still relevant and covers what is required to use channels.
Disconnecting a source pauses the flow of new data but keeps existing data in your channel. Deleting a source permanently removes all previously imported data for that source from the specific channel.
CSV files don’t automatically re-sync or reprocess in the background. Instead, reclassification is mostly triggered by specific events, such as:
  • Importing new data from a CSV
  • Creating or updating topics/themes
In addition, theme regeneration can only run if:
  • At least ~24 hours have passed since the last run, and
  • More than 200 new datapoints have been added
200 data points are the minimum required to generate a theme.
Please make sure you are occupying a paid seat when connecting or reconnecting a Channel. Viewers cannot create or manage data sources within a Channel.
When a Channel integration disconnects due to an expired OAuth token or revoked access, Dovetail notifies you in three ways:

Email notification Dovetail sends an email using the “Channel Integration Disconnected” template. It includes the integration type and the reason for disconnection, so you know exactly what happened and what to do next.In-app notification A notification appears in your notification center. For ingestion failures specifically, an error toast also displays so you’re alerted immediately.Reconnect banner in the Channel UI When you visit the Channel page, a “Reconnect Integration” banner appears at the top if the integration needs re-authentication. The Sources dialog also shows a “Disconnected” badge alongside a reconnect action for any affected sources.To restore the connection, follow the reconnect prompt in the Channel UI or re-authenticate via the Sources dialog.
To restore deleted topics or themes:
  1. Open the channel
  2. Navigate to the Channel ⋯ menu → Open trash
  3. Choose from which tab to restore from: Data points, Themes, or Topics

​
Where to go next

Channel setup

Connect data sources, map your data, and manage them over time.

Channel context

Focus areas and linked docs that shape how feedback is classified.

Ideas

The ranked feed, roll-ups, trends, and saved views.

Idea actions

Send to Jira or Linear, notify customers, and reach ideas through MCP.