# Private channels
“Private channels” is the tab with every private MAX channel your organization can see: your own, verified through the datool.ru bot, and other people’s, opened to you by an invite link. Such channels are not in the public catalog — only your organization sees them.
## Where to find it
The address is , the sixth tab of the “My MAX” section. The “Private channels” tile on [Overview](/en/my/overview/) shows how many you have and leads here too. The shared parts of the section (organization switcher, tabs, footer, subscription window) are described in Overview.
The tab is available after signing in (free). Like everything in the section, the list belongs to the **current organization**: your personal space and each team organization have their own private channels.
## What a private channel is
A private MAX channel can’t be found by search and has no public link — people join it by invitation. Therefore:
- we see a private channel only if its owner made the datool.ru bot an administrator and verified the channel, or if access to it has been granted to your organization by invitation;
- a private channel doesn’t appear in the public catalog, ratings or site search, and only your organization sees its page and numbers (for a verified channel — the owner organization);
- we **don’t copy** images and other attachments of private channels to our storage — on the site they open via a MAX link, so only people who are members of the channel can see them;
- posts of private channels have no reactions — only texts and views.
## How a channel gets onto the list
At the bottom of the tab are two cards, one for each path: “Your private channel” and “Someone else’s channel by invitation”.
### Your private channel
1. Add the datool.ru bot as an administrator of your private channel in MAX — the right to read messages is enough.
2. The bot will send you a verification link in MAX — open it and confirm your rights (the code and the check work as for a public channel).
3. The channel appears here and on the [My channels](/en/my/channels/) tab with the blue badge, and its posts start being collected through the bot.
If the bot was in the channel before or was only promoted from member to administrator, the link from the bot may not arrive. In that case paste the channel’s invite link (`https://max.ru/join/…`) into the “Add your channel” block on the “My channels” tab — the site will find the channel, check that the bot is an administrator and open the verification page. Details are in [My channels](/en/my/channels/#private-channel).
The **“Confirm channel rights”** button to the right of the tab heading and the “My channels” link in the card lead there as well.
### Someone else’s channel by invitation
If the channel isn’t yours but you have an invitation to it, you can’t add it yourself yet:
1. Send the channel’s invite link to support — the “Contact support” button in the card.
2. Access will be opened manually and only for your organization.
We don’t collect posts from other people’s private channels, so such a channel will only have a card — name, avatar, subscribers — without post statistics: the views and ERR columns will show dashes.
!!! warning "Access by invitation doesn’t make you the owner"
A channel opened by invitation doesn’t get the blue badge and gives no owner rights: you can’t change its categories and territory, and the owner-only blocks of its page stay locked.
## The channel list
The tab is laid out like [Favorites](/en/my/favorites/): folders, search, sorting and a period. While there are no private channels, the list shows “No private channels yet” and a hint that how to add them is described below.
### Header
The “Private channels” heading with the number of channels and a note: “Visible only to you and not shown in the public catalog” (in your personal space) or “Visible only to the organization “…”” (in a team organization). Below is a short explanation of which channels end up here.
### Folders
The folder row above the list:
- **All** — all private channels with their count;
- **No folder** — channels not yet sorted into folders (shown once you have folders);
- **your folders** — a colored dot, the name and the number of channels; clicking one leaves only that folder in the list;
- **“+ Folder”** — the “New folder” window.
In the “New folder” window enter a name (up to 40 characters) or click one of the ready-made ones — “Competitors”, “Partners”, “Buying ads”, “Selling ads”, “Post ideas”, “Clients” (names already taken aren’t offered). Then choose one of nine colors — the site suggests a color none of your folders use yet — and check the preview “This is how the folder will look”. “Create folder” saves it; “Cancel” or the cross closes the window. Private channels can have up to 20 folders; they belong to this tab and aren’t linked to the Favorites and Following folders.
In the list, channels are grouped by folder: “No folder” first, then the folders. A group header shows the name (clicking it collapses or expands the group), the number of channels, “Total subscribers” and (with a subscription) growth for the period; a folder also has a “⋯” menu that opens the folder window: rename, recolor or delete. Deleting a folder doesn’t delete its channels — they go back to the “No folder” group.
### Search, sorting and period
- **Find a channel** — search by name;
- **Sort by** — name, subscribers, growth, average views or ERR (paid columns are unavailable in the list without a subscription);
- **“Ascending” / “Descending”** — reverse the order;
- **“N of M”** — how many channels are shown out of all;
- on the right — the period selector **7 days · 30 days · 90 days · Year · All time · Custom dates** with “Figures for …” and the dates below it. The same periods are open as on another person’s channel page: without a subscription — 7 and 30 days, with Premium or Business — all of them, including custom dates. Locked ones show a padlock.
If there are more channels than fit on a page (50 rows by default), “Back”, “Next” and a “Per page” selector appear at the bottom.
### Columns
| Column | What it shows | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| ☆ | Star: add the channel to Favorites or remove it | everyone |
| Channel | Avatar, name (a link to the channel page), the blue badge for your own channel | everyone |
| Subscribers | How many subscribers now | everyone |
| Growth · | Change in subscribers for the selected period | with a subscription; for your own channel — everyone |
| Average views | Average views per post | with a subscription; for your own channel — everyone |
| ERR | Share of subscribers who see a post | with a subscription; for your own channel — everyone |
Without a subscription, the paid cells of other people’s channels show a “— Subscribe” button that opens the subscription window (see [Overview](/en/my/overview/#paid-columns-and-the-subscription-window)). For your own verified channels all numbers are open. A note under the list reminds you what exactly is open to you. “—” means there’s no data.
On a phone the table turns into cards: subscribers and growth right away, the rest under “All metrics”.
### A channel’s “⋯” menu
- **Move to folder** — choose a folder (the current one has a check mark) or “No folder”;
- **+ New folder** — the “New folder” window; the new folder gets this channel right away;
- **Add to favorites** / **Remove from favorites** — same as the star;
- **Channel page** — all the channel’s statistics;
- **My channels** — for your own channel: that’s where you can remove the confirmation.
There’s no “Remove” item here: your own channel leaves the list when you remove its confirmation on the “My channels” tab, and access by invitation is revoked by support at your request. There’s no limit on the number of private channels. A private channel can’t be added to Following — Following accepts public channels only.
## Who can use it
| What | Guest | Free account | Channel owner | Premium and Business |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The “Private channels” tab | invitation to sign in | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Folders, search, sorting | — | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| 7 and 30 day periods | — | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| 90 days to All time, custom dates | — | — | — | ✅ |
| Growth, average views, ERR of your own channels | — | — | ✅ | ✅ |
| Growth, average views, ERR of other channels | — | — | — | ✅ |
## What’s next
- [My channels](/en/my/channels/) — verifying your channel, including a private one.
- [Ownership verification](/en/max/verification/) — the code page and the bot.
- [Favorites](/en/my/favorites/) — the same folders and table for public channels.
- [Support](/en/cabinet/support/) — if you need access to someone else’s private channel.