# Create and manage an audience

Create an audience, choose or change its language, rename it, manage sharing, merge eligible audiences, and delete a list without deleting its people.

Canonical: https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/audiences/create-audience/


## What this guide is for

Create a named audience before adding people, or maintain an audience that already exists. Creating, renaming, or changing the language does not send a message or launch an ad.

## Before you start

- Open the workspace where the audience should live. A viewer role cannot create or manage audiences.
- Choose a useful name, such as the list's purpose or source. Audience names are required and can contain up to 200 characters; spaces alone do not count as a name.
- Decide whether to set **Language** to **Hebrew**, **English**, or leave it **Not set**. This is an audience preference, not a translation of every member's record or a change to your app language.
- To change an existing audience, you need management access. An audience you own or one shared with you is manageable by a non-viewer. Workspace owners, admins, and members can manage workspace-visible audiences.

## Create an empty audience

1. Open **Audiences** at `/audiences`. You see the audience list or its empty state.
2. Click **New audience**. A dialog opens with **Name** and **Language**.
3. Enter **Name**. The **Create audience** button remains unavailable while the name is empty or contains only spaces.
4. Choose **Language**: **Hebrew**, **English**, or **Not set**. Leaving it unset is allowed.
5. Click **Create audience**. While the request is running, the button shows **Creating…** and the form cannot be edited.
6. After success, the dialog closes and the new audience's detail page opens at `/audiences/<id>`. Its name appears in the header; **People** is the initial tab.
7. Continue with **Add person** or **Import**, either directly on larger screens or through **Actions**. Follow [Add and manage people](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/audiences/add-people/) for those flows.

Click **Cancel** before submitting if you do not want to create the audience. A successful creation does not automatically populate the list.

## Rename an audience

1. Open its detail page from **Audiences**.
2. Click the audience name in the header, or choose **Actions** → **Rename**. The name becomes an editable **Name** field.
3. Enter the new name, up to 200 characters. **Save** is unavailable for an empty or spaces-only name.
4. Click **Save**. After a successful request, the editor closes and the header shows the new name. **Cancel** leaves the existing name unchanged.

Renaming changes the list's name, not its membership. If the name is not clickable and **Rename** is absent, check your management rights rather than creating another audience as a workaround.

## Change the language and other preferences

1. Open the audience and select **Preferences**.
2. Change **Language** to **Hebrew**, **English**, or **Not set**.
3. Review the remaining settings before saving: **Preferred channel**, **Only send during these hours**, **Sending days**, **How the assistant should write to them**, and **Topics they care about**.
4. Click **Save** in the preferences form. The saved settings belong to this audience.

Language is optional. For the rules on sending hours, fields, and the email-click promotion switch, see [Use audiences](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/audiences/use-audiences/). These settings do not themselves start a send.

## Share an audience

Sharing management is available to the audience owner, or to a workspace owner/admin for a workspace-paid audience. It is not granted merely because the audience was shared with you.

1. Open **Preferences** and find **Shared with**. If the section is not shown, your current access does not expose share management.
2. Select the people in the candidate list who should have an explicit share, or clear a selected person to remove their explicit share.
3. Click **Save** in that section. The explicit sharing list is updated.

Up to 100 users can be selected. The screen states **Shares never expire. Remove someone to stop sharing.** Removing an explicit share does not remove any separate access the person already has through workspace visibility or ownership. Sharing the audience does not grant unrestricted access to its members' private CRM records.

## Merge existing audiences

Merge when several lists should become one, not merely when one person belongs to several useful groups. Merging moves people, notes, and shares from the source audiences into the audience you keep.

1. Return to **Audiences**.
2. Select the checkboxes for at least two and at most 21 eligible audiences, including the audience to keep. Shared audiences are not selectable for merging. Workspace-visible audiences require workspace owner/admin rights for this action; an audience owner can select their own audience.
3. Click **Merge audiences**. The dialog shows **Audience to keep**.
4. Select the surviving audience carefully. That is the audience that opens after the merge.
5. Optionally enter **New name (optional)**, up to 200 characters. Leave it empty to keep the survivor's existing name.
6. Click **Merge audiences**. While saving, the button shows **Merging…**. On success, the survivor's detail page opens.

This is a consolidation operation, not a copy. If you want to retain both audiences separately, use the member-level **Copy to audience…** action instead; see [Add and manage people](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/audiences/add-people/).

## Delete an audience without deleting its people

> **Important:** **Delete audience** removes the audience. It is not **Delete person**, which removes selected people from all audiences.

1. Open the audience you intend to remove and verify its name and source.
2. Choose **Actions** → **Delete audience**. This command requires the audience owner's rights, or workspace owner/admin rights for a workspace-paid audience.
3. Read the confirmation: **Delete this audience? The people stay in your contacts and other audiences.**
4. Click **Confirm** to delete the audience, or **Cancel** to keep it.
5. After success, you return to `/audiences`.

Deleting a WhatsApp-sourced audience also disconnects its retained source from that audience. It does not turn a WhatsApp label into a source of CRM contacts. If the goal is only to remove a few people, use **Remove from audience** instead.

## If something goes wrong

| Symptom | What to check and do |
|---|---|
| **New audience** is missing | Check the selected workspace and your role. Viewers have read-only access. |
| **Enter an audience name.** appears | Enter at least one non-space character in **Name**. |
| The creation or save request shows an error | Read the displayed error; the dialog stays open. Correct the problem before submitting again. Do not assume an audience was created just because the button was clicked. |
| **You can't change this audience.** appears | Your current access does not authorize the operation. Check ownership, sharing, and workspace role. Ordinary management and deletion are different permissions. |
| An audience checkbox cannot be selected for a merge | Shared audiences cannot be merged by you; a workspace-visible audience requires owner/admin rights. |
| **Select up to 21 audiences to merge.** appears | Reduce the selection to at most 21 audiences, including the survivor. |
| Preferences will not save after changing language | Check the rest of the form: sending hours must differ and at least one sending day must remain selected. |
| The audience loads, but some people show **Private contact** | Audience access does not override CRM privacy. Ask for access to the underlying contact if needed. |

## Related pages

- [Audiences overview](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/audiences/overview/)
- [Add and manage people](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/audiences/add-people/)
- [Use audiences](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/audiences/use-audiences/)
- [Team and workspaces](https://docs.lead-knight.com/en/team/overview/)


## Create an audience

[Create an audience](https://kwqpaiaguxkmadaipfrf.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/guide-videos/guides/videos/K1/nadlanite-en-cb107e791f8b.mp4)

1. An audience is a list of people you want to reach together. Click New audience.
2. Give it a name.
3. Choose the language you’ll write to them in.
4. Click Create audience.
5. The audience opens, ready for people.