---
title: Start a free community chat on your portal
sidebarTitle: Free community chat
description: >-
  Open a free chat room on your portal where anyone can join, talk with you and
  meet each other.
audience: luminary
feature: chat-spaces
type: guide
availability: live
last_verified: '2026-10-14'
keywords:
  - free chat room
  - public chat
  - open group chat
  - free community chat
  - chat with followers
url: >-
  https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/offerings/chat-spaces/free-community-chat
---

# Start a free community chat on your portal

> Open a free chat room on your portal where anyone can join, talk with you and meet each other.

## When to use this

- You want a warm, always-open place for your audience to gather between sessions.
- You want to grow your community before you ask anyone to pay.
- You want new visitors to feel the energy of your community before they subscribe.

## Steps

**Step 1: Create the chat space**

Go to [Offerings → Chat Spaces](https://portal.bringsoul.life/chat-space) and click Create Chat
Space. If this is your first one, click Create Your First Chat Space.

**Step 2: Name it and say what it's for**

Add a Title and a Description. Be specific about the purpose: *"A daily check-in for anyone
walking the grief path with me"* invites more than *"Community chat"*. Optionally add a Cover
Image (16:9).

**Step 3: Set it to Public and Free**

Under Visibility, keep Public (*"Visible to everyone, can be joined by anyone"*). Under Pricing,
keep Free.

**Step 4: Create it**

Click Create Chat Space. Soul opens the new room.
**Step 5: Write the first message**

The empty room says *"It's quiet in here"*. Write a welcome: who the room is for, how you'll
show up, and one easy question to answer, like *"Tell us your name and what brought you here."*

**Step 6: Pin your welcome**

Open the … menu on your welcome message and choose Pin. It stays at the top of the room under
Pinned, so new members see it first.

**Step 7: Put it on your portal**

Go to [My Portal → Design](https://portal.bringsoul.life/portal) and turn on the Chat Space
section. Drag it near the top. See [Help members find your chat
space](https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/offerings/chat-spaces/make-your-chat-space-easy-to-find).

## Tips

- Seed it. People join rooms that already have life in them. Post a few prompts in the first week: a weekly intention, a reflection question, a photo from your practice.
- Show up on a rhythm. A predictable "I'm in the chat every Tuesday morning" builds habit better than random bursts.
- Keep the purpose narrow. Two focused rooms work better than one room about everything.
- Soul only suggests your chat space to people browsing other portals once you've written in it, so post before you promote.

**Warning:** 
You can't turn a free chat space into a paid one later. If you might want to charge, create a
separate paid space for that, or start paid from day one.

## What your members see

The space appears in the Chat Spaces row on your portal and at `https://bringsoul.life/portal/<your-handle>/chat-spaces`. Visitors who open it see Join for Free and _"Join this free chat space to start conversations with other members."_ If they're not signed in, Soul asks them to sign up or log in first. Once joined, the space appears under Chat spaces in their [Messages](https://bringsoul.life/inbox).

## Related

- [Chat Spaces introduction](https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/offerings/chat-spaces/introduction)
- [Give subscribers a members-only chat](https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/offerings/chat-spaces/subscribers-only-chat)
- [Moderate a chat space](https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/offerings/chat-spaces/moderate-a-chat-space)