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Guides and answers for everyone using Hives, from your first collection to admin settings.
Getting started
New to Hives? Signing in, finding your way around, your profile and notifications.
Hives explained: hives, collections, ideas and steps
New to Hives? Learn the building blocks: your hive, Home, pages, collections, ideas, steps, surveys and the four roles.
How to sign in to Hives
Sign in with a one-time email code, Google or Microsoft. Find your hive's address and learn how long you stay signed in.
Trouble signing in
Fix common sign-in problems: a code that doesn't arrive, "Invalid code", "Too many attempts" and "You don't have access to this hive".
Joining a hive and switching between hives
How to join your organisation's hive, what the Connected and Recommended lists mean, and how to move between hives.
What guests can see and do in Hives
Guests only have access to specific things in a hive, not the whole hive. Here's what a guest can see and do, and how to become a member.
Finding your way around Hives
A tour of Hives: the top bar, Home, pages, collections, the profile menu, and the extra Menu and + button for Admins and Managers.
How to search in Hives
Search ideas, collections, surveys and people in your hive, filter the results, and find out why something might not show up.
Your profile, language and dark mode
Change your name, picture and group, switch language or dark mode, and see who can see your details.
Notifications and emails from Hives
What Hives notifies you about, how to read and mark notifications as read, and which emails Hives sends.
Sharing ideas
Submit ideas, add files, comment, like or vote, and follow what happens next.
How to submit an idea
Learn how to share an idea in a collection: where the Contribute button is, how to fill in the form and what happens when you submit.
Why can't I submit my idea?
Find out why the Contribute button is grey or the submit button won't work, and what you can do about it.
Hidden ideas, hidden names and anonymous collections
Learn the four ways an idea or a name can be hidden in Hives, and exactly who can still see it in each case.
Submitting an idea through a share link
What you see when you open a collection's share link or QR code, and how to submit an idea with or without signing in.
How to edit or delete your idea
Learn how to change the answers in an idea you submitted, and when you can delete it yourself.
Adding files to an idea
How to attach files when you submit an idea, and how to add, replace or remove files on an idea afterwards.
Liking and voting on ideas
How to like or vote for an idea, how to take your reaction back, and why the button is sometimes missing or grey.
Commenting on ideas and replying
How to write, reply to, edit and delete comments on ideas, and who can read what you write.
What happens after you submit an idea
Follow your idea from the Inbox through the steps, learn what the step labels mean, and find your ideas again on your profile.
Reviewing and moving ideas
For collection managers, reviewers and assignees: move ideas through steps, rate them and keep things tidy.
Managing an idea: the Manage tab
What collection managers and Admins can do from the Manage tab of an idea, and how it differs from the View tab.
How to move an idea to another step
How to move an idea between the Inbox and the steps of a collection, who can do it, and who gets notified.
Assigning people to an idea and adding contributors
How collection managers assign people to take an idea forward, add co-authors, and what assignees and contributors can do.
Reviewers and panels
How panels and reviewers work on a step, how to assign a reviewer to an idea, and how a reviewer marks an idea as reviewed.
Rating ideas and answering step questions
How collection managers, Admins and panel members rate ideas and answer step questions, and how to compare scores across ideas.
Choosing who sees a comment, and moderating comments
How collection managers and Admins post comments for a smaller audience, change who can see a comment, and delete comments.
Hiding, unhiding and deleting ideas
How collection managers and Admins hide an idea from other members, make it visible again, or delete it for good.
Moving an idea to another collection
How to move an idea to a different collection, who can do it, and what is kept and what is deleted when you do.
Collections
Create and run collections: who can see and contribute, sharing, dashboards, summaries and exports.
How to create a collection
Create a new collection in Hives, then set it up so people can find it: description, cover, workflow, page and sharing.
Choosing who can see a collection
How the page a collection sits on decides who can see it, what unpublished pages and folders do, and how share links fit in.
Collection settings explained
What each collection setting does: who can contribute, likes and votes, hidden ideas, and hiding or anonymising contributor names.
Collection managers: who they are and how to add them
Who counts as a collection manager, how to add or remove one, and what collection managers can do compared with Admins and Managers.
How to change a collection's title, cover and thank-you message
Use the Edit tab to change a collection's title, description and cover, and set the message people see after they submit an idea.
Sharing a collection with a link or QR code
Switch on a collection's share link and QR code, decide whether people can contribute without signing in, and turn the link off again.
Letting people submit ideas by email
Give a collection its own email address so members can send in ideas by email, and learn how the email becomes an idea.
Your collection's dashboard: charts, wordcloud and filters
What the charts on a collection's dashboard show, how to use the wordcloud to spot themes, and how to filter and sort ideas.
AI summaries of a collection
Ask Ida, the Hives AI assistant, to summarise the key themes in a collection, and learn what goes into a summary and what is left out.
Exporting a collection to a spreadsheet
Download all ideas in a collection as an Excel file, and see which columns are included and how contributor privacy affects the export.
Closing or deleting a collection
Close a collection to new ideas, hide it from members, or delete it for good. Also why collections can't be archived or duplicated.
Workflows, steps and questions
Set up the steps ideas go through and the questions people answer along the way.
What is a workflow?
Learn what a workflow is in Hives, how it becomes a collection's steps and questions, and who can create and change workflows.
How to create a workflow
Create a workflow in Hives, see what it starts with, change its settings and delete it without affecting existing collections.
Adding and setting up steps
Add, reorder and delete steps in a workflow or a collection, and learn what Panel, Reminder days, Hide ideas and the other step settings do.
The submission form and the Inbox
Find and edit the questions people answer when they submit an idea, add Inbox questions and set up the Inbox panel and settings.
Question types and settings
Add questions to a submission form, the Inbox or a step. Learn the five question types, their settings, and what deleting a question removes.
Who can see and answer a question
Understand the Visible to and Answered by settings on questions, the defaults, and why a submitter sometimes cannot see their own answer.
Changing the steps of one collection
Change one collection's steps and questions, apply a different workflow, and know exactly what is lost when you delete a step or switch workflow.
Surveys
Create surveys, share them, and read the results.
How to create a survey
Create a survey in Hives from the + button or a folder, then add an introduction, questions and a way for people to answer it.
Changing a survey's name, folder and introduction
Rename a survey, move it to another folder, and edit the introduction title, cover image and description that respondents see first.
Adding questions to a survey
Add Text, Number, Options and Rating questions to a survey, reorder them, and know what happens to answers when you edit or delete questions.
Sharing a survey: page, link, QR code and kiosk mode
Let people answer your survey by putting it on a page, sharing a link or QR code, or running it on a tablet in kiosk mode. Preview it first.
Who can see, manage and answer a survey
Learn what survey managers can do, how Admins add them, and who can see, answer and read the results of a survey in Hives.
Answering a survey
How to answer a survey in Hives or through a link, pause and continue later, change your answers, and why your answers stay anonymous.
Survey results, results link, export and AI summaries
Read survey results in Hives, share them with a read-only link, export all answers to an Excel file and create AI summaries of the answers.
Home, pages and announcements
Shape the start page of your hive, group content on pages and share news.
How to edit the Home page
How Admins change the Home page cover, welcome text, page layout, page order and pop-up announcement, and publish the changes.
Pages: how to create, publish and choose who sees them
Learn what a page is, how to create one, how to choose who can see it, how to publish it and what happens when you delete it.
Adding a collection or survey to a page
How to place a collection or survey on a page so the right members can find it, and what changes when you do.
Posting announcements and pop-ups
How to post, edit and delete announcements, who can read them, and how to show one as a pop-up on the Home page.
Folders, Managed by me and Dashboard
Organise collections and surveys, find the ones you manage, and follow activity across your hive.
Folders: what they are and who can see them
Learn what folders are for, who can see them, how to create one and how the Folders page, Archived tab and Uncategorized work.
Working inside a folder
How to add collections, surveys, subfolders and files to a folder, move existing items into it, and find your way around a folder.
Giving people access to a folder (folder managers)
How to add or remove folder managers, what they can do with the collections and surveys inside, and how access passes to subfolders.
Moving, archiving and deleting folders
How to rename, move, archive and delete a folder, and what happens to its collections, surveys, subfolders and files.
Managed by me: your collections and surveys
How to use the Managed by me page to jump straight to the collections and surveys you look after.
The Dashboard: hive statistics
What the Dashboard shows about members, ideas, comments and workflows in your hive, and who can open it.
Ida, the AI assistant
What Ida can do for Admins and Managers, and what it can see.
What is Ida?
Ida is the AI assistant in Hives. Learn who can use it, what it can help with and what it can't do.
How to use Ida
How to ask Ida a question, focus it on specific collections, and find or delete your earlier chats.
What Ida can see and how your data is handled
Ida only reads what you are allowed to see. Learn what Ida reads, who can read your chats, and how AI features are turned on or off.
Admin: people and access
Roles and permissions, who can join, invitations, users, groups and onboarding.
Roles and permissions in Hives
What Admins, Managers, Members and Guests can do, how collection, folder, page and survey managers fit in, and who can see what.
Choosing who can join your hive
How the Who can join setting works: Invite only, Anyone can join and Allowed email domains only, and what each means for new people.
Inviting people to your hive
How to invite colleagues to your hive by link or email, and how your Who can join setting affects the link.
Finding users and changing roles
How to find people in Admin > Users, change someone's role or group, and what Managers can and can't do on this page.
Creating and managing groups
How to create, rename and delete groups, put people in them, and what groups are used for in Hives.
Asking new members for their group and consent
How to make members pick a group and accept your terms when they open your hive, who gets asked, and what they see.
Removing someone from your hive
Removing or deactivating a user isn't possible in the app. How to ask Hives to do it, and what it means for the person.
Admin: sign-in and hive settings
Sign-in methods, the login page, branding, AI and Microsoft Teams.
Hive settings: access, sign-in and the login page
A tour of Admin > Hive: who can join, external sharing, sign-in methods, the login page message and the language filter.
Setting up sign-in with Microsoft
How to let people sign in to your hive with their Microsoft work account, how accounts are matched, and which accounts are refused.
Setting up sign-in with Google
How to let people sign in to your hive with their Google Workspace or Gmail account, and how Google accounts are matched.
Logo, colours, hive name and AI features
Your hive's logo, brand colour, name, web address and AI features are set by Hives. How to ask for a change and where branding appears.
Hives in Microsoft Teams
Add the Hives.co app to Microsoft Teams so colleagues can reach your hive without leaving Teams. What you need and how to install it.
Product updates
New features and changes in Hives.
What's new in Hives: October 2026
The October 2026 release of Hives: a faster platform, clearer permissions, simpler sign-in and many smaller improvements. Here is what changed for you.
We are shifting gears for the next step in your innovation journey
Hives has modernized its platform infrastructure to ship new features faster. Here is what changed and why nothing changes for contributors on hives.co.
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