## Introduction

### Goal

Add a new channel in the Experience manager.

### Role Required

This task requires the [Site Admin](🔗) role.

### Background

Users with Site Admin privileges can add new channels in the [Experience manager](🔗) app.

Channels are created from available channel templates and can be localized by specifying a country and language.

## Add a new channel

Open the [Experience manager](🔗) app and make sure the main channels overview is visible.

Click on the _+ Channel_ button in the top right:



The New channel wizard will appear. In the first step, you must select on of the available channel templates:



You can either choose to start with a blank channel template or choose one of the supported [storefronts](🔗). Click on _Next_ to go to the next step.

In the _Channel properties_ step, you must specify a _Name_, a _Language_ and a _Country_ (together these will form the External locale), and either a _Badge color_ or an _Icon_.

Optionally, you can select a [_Translation group_](🔗) or create a new one to add the new channel to.



When choosing the Icon option, you must specify the [data URI for a base64 encoded image](🔗). For example, the URI below is for the Bloomreach logo:





Use an online base64 image encoder (for example <https://elmah.io/tools/base64-image-encoder/>) to generate the data URI for your icon.



Once you have specified all the properties, click on the _Create channel_ button and the new channel will be added to the channels overview.

## Next steps

### Configure frontend app

Once a channel has been added, it will use a generic, hosted, and shared frontend application to render the preview in the [Experience manager](🔗). This way the channel is immediately functional and users can explore the out-of-the-box pages and components.

Typically your organization will [develop](🔗) (or have previously developed) their own unique frontend app to render the channels. You must configure the newly added channel(s) to use this frontend app in the _Channel settings_. Make sure to coordinate with your organization's Site Developers.