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Discovery Widget brings topic-based content discovery to the pages people already visit. Surface relevant community conversations on homepages, category pages, and other browsing surfaces, so people can discover the value of your community without first searching for it.Your team configures each topic here in the Console. Your app then uses the topic’s ID to display the recommended posts, either with the UIKit’s Discovery Widget carousel or with the SDK’s topic-based content discovery APIs. This page explains how to add a topic, filter which posts can appear, preview the result, and get the embed code.

Add

Create a topic and its topic ID

Filter

Limit posts by author type, role, post type, and sentiment

Preview

See the ranked posts before you save

Exclude

Stop a post from being recommended in any topic

Embed

Copy the iOS, Android, or Web snippet

Control

Activate, deactivate, or delete a topic

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Accessing the Discovery Widget

1

Open Discovery widget

In the Console sidebar, under Contents, select Discovery widget.
2

Review your topics

The page lists every topic you have added, with its Topic, Topic ID, Active state, and Actions. The subtitle shows how many of the 25 available topics you have used.
Each row has three actions:
If the Discovery Widget is not enabled for your network, the page shows Access required instead. Select Contact support to have it enabled.

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Adding a Topic

1

Start a new topic

Select Add topic. The Adding topic page opens.
2

Enter the topic

Type the subject you want to surface, for example “Skincare” or “Movies”. The topic can be up to 60 characters.
3

Check the Topic ID

The Console generates a Topic ID from the topic as you type. You can change it. See Topic ID rules.
4

Set content filters

Optionally narrow which posts can be recommended. See Content filters.
5

Preview content

Select Preview content. The right-hand panel lists the posts that match the topic and filters, in recommendation order. You need to preview before you can add the topic, and preview again if you change the topic or a filter.
6

Add the topic

Select Add topic. The Console confirms with “Topic added” and the topic appears in the list.
If you leave the page before adding the topic, the Console asks “Leave without adding this topic?” and discards your changes if you select Leave.

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Topic ID rules

The topic ID identifies the topic in the UIKit widget and the SDK, so your app needs it to display recommendations.
  • It uses lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens, and cannot start with a hyphen. The Console converts spaces and other characters as you type: “Skin Care” becomes skin-care.
  • It must be 2 to 60 characters long.
  • It must be unique in your network. If it is already in use, the Console shows “This Topic ID already exists.”
  • It cannot be changed after the topic is added.

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Topic limit

A network can have up to 25 topics. When you reach the limit, Add topic is disabled. Delete a topic you no longer need to add a new one. Deactivating a topic does not free up a slot.

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Content Filters

Filters decide which posts are eligible for a topic. They apply to the preview and to every widget that shows the topic.
Leaves out posts that Sentiment Analysis classifies as negative. The filter depends on Sentiment Analysis, and its badge shows one of these states:
  • Active: the filter can be used. It is based on your topic configuration in the Dashboard.
  • Inactive: your network does not have Sentiment Analysis. Select Contact support to upgrade.
  • Inactive until your Sentiment Analysis quota resets, if the quota is used up.
Choose whose posts can appear:
  • All author types (default)
  • Non-brand accounts: posts from community members only
  • Brand accounts only: posts from your brand accounts
Keep All roles, or choose Select roles and pick one or more roles. Only roles that already exist in your network are listed.
Keep All types, or choose Select types and pick from Text, Image, Video, Poll, and Clips.
Select Clear in the Content filters header to reset all filters.

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Previewing Recommended Content

The preview panel shows the posts a widget for this topic would display, headed Contents matching “<topic>” with the number of matches. Posts are sorted by rank, from the highest to the lowest recommendation score. Recommendations use topic relevance as the main signal, with post engagement and freshness helping order relevant conversations. They are based on the topic rather than a reader’s personal interests. Each card shows:
  • The community the post was published in
  • The author, with a badge for brand accounts, and when the post was created
  • The post text and media
  • Reaction and comment counts
  • An Exclude button
Recommendations update daily. A new post may not appear in the preview until the next update. What a reader sees in your app can differ from the preview:
  • Viewer-specific restrictions, such as blocked authors, can remove posts for that reader.
  • The UIKit widget shows only text, image, video, clip, and poll posts.
  • The UIKit widget hides itself when fewer than 3 posts can be displayed, so filters that are too narrow can make it disappear. The threshold can be changed in the widget integration.

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Excluding a post

Select Exclude on a card to stop recommending that post. The Console asks you to confirm: “This content won’t be recommended for any topic after you exclude it.” Exclusion applies across all topics, not only the one you are editing. There is a limit on how many posts a network can exclude. When you reach it, the Console shows Exclusion limit reached and no more posts can be excluded.

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Editing a Topic

1

Open the topic

Select the Edit topic (pencil) action on the topic’s row. The page opens with the saved filters and preview.
2

Adjust filters

Change the content filters and select Preview content to see the new result.
3

Save

Select Save changes. The Console confirms with “This topic has successfully been updated.”
The topic name and topic ID cannot be edited. Select the Topic ID badge under the title to copy the ID. Changes apply to every widget that already shows the topic; the embed code in your app does not need to change.

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Embedding a Topic

1

Open the embed code

Select Get embed code (<>) on the topic’s row, or Code on the edit page.
2

Choose a platform

Select iOS, Android, or Web.
3

Copy the snippet

Select the copy icon, then add the snippet to your app.
The snippet already contains the topic ID. The widget has no default destination for a selected card, so your app needs to set where a card opens, such as a post detail page or your hosted community. See Discovery Widget for the full integration.

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Activating and Deactivating a Topic

Use the Active toggle on a topic’s row.
  • Deactivate: the Console asks “Deactivate this topic?” After you confirm, the topic stops showing content everywhere it is embedded, and the UIKit widget hides itself. The topic, its filters, and its topic ID are kept.
  • Activate: the topic shows content again in every existing embed. No code change is needed.
Deactivate a topic when you want to pause it temporarily, for example during a campaign change.

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Deleting a Topic

Select Delete topic (bin) on the topic’s row, then Delete to confirm. Deleting permanently removes the topic and stops its widget from showing content in your app. This cannot be undone.
Before deleting a topic that is live in your app, remove the widget from your app or switch it to another topic ID. Otherwise the widget hides itself, and any container your app placed around it stays empty.

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Who Can Manage Topics

Access to the Discovery widget page requires the Can manage discovery widget permission, in the Discovery widget category of an admin role. Admins without it do not see the page in the sidebar. See Admin Access Control to assign it.

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Troubleshooting

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Next Steps

Discovery Widget (UIKit)

Embed the widget in iOS, Android, and Web apps

Topic-based Content Discovery (SDK)

Build your own presentation with the SDK

Sentiment Analysis

Understand the sentiment used by the filter

Branding

Set up brand accounts