Spaces are the next evolution of Community Groups. They’re designed to feel more intuitive and familiar for students, with a scrollable feed, threaded conversations and a more visually-rich experience.
Spaces are different to Groups as they introduce a more social, feed-style experience. They are built for sustained engagement, not just bursts of chat.
Conversations are organised into threads, so replies don’t get lost.
Find answers instantly: Search makes it easy to browse past discussions, reducing repetitive questions.
Students can like and comment, lowering the barrier to engagement.
Multiple conversations can happen at once without becoming chaotic.
The experience supports both real-time and asynchronous participation.
✨ What’s coming next ✨
Community Spaces is evolving quickly, with ongoing improvements focused on making the experience simpler, more intuitive, and more engaging for users. Read on to see what’s already live, and what’s coming next...
Now Live
❗To use the new student-facing features below, Students and Ambassadors will need to update their Unibuddy app manually, or if auto-updates are enabled, it will update automatically via the App Store or Google Play❗
🗑️ Deleting threads - live 17th July
In addition to deleting Admin created posts, admins can now delete threads.
📝 Community name labels - live 17th July
Community name labels have been added to the To-dos screen to make it easier for users to distinguish what they relate to
💡"Create Group" button - live 17th July
To remove issues with users in multiple communities, the Create Croup button has been moved from the Inbox to the Connect tab.
👀 💡 Spaces Requests - live 17th July
Admins can now :
see the first and last name of the user who has requested a space.
decline a space request with a reason which is then sent to the user via email
edit a space before approving it
❎ Bulk remove community members - live 17th July
Admins can bulk remove community members
🔕 Mute notifications - live 17th July
Users can now mute notifications from new posts in spaces and new replies in threads
Coming Soon
📝 Post Editing
Users will be able to edit their posts after sending.
🗑️ Deleting Posts
Admins will be able to delete posts created by other users
🚩 Reporting replies
Admins will be able to report threads which will go through to Moderation.
🔧 Additional Changes
Ambassadors being able to react to posts
Ambassadors being able to delete their own posts
Users being able to copy text from posts
Users being able to share links to spaces
Notification badges to highlight requested spaces / remove requested public groups
How do I create a new Space?
Creating a new Space for your Community is quick and easy. Simply follow these steps:
Log into your University Dashboard
Navigate to the Community tab in the left-hand menu
Select the Community you'd like to add a new Space to
Go to the Spaces tab
Click + Create a space
Give your new Space a title, description, and a cover photo.
The upload limit for a cover photo is 15mb, and accepted formats are jpgs, jpegs and .pngs.
Please note: Cover images will automatically resize to fit different screen sizes and devices. We recommend using a landscape image where possible. However, because the available display area varies across screens, we cannot guarantee a single aspect ratio that will display perfectly in all cases.To achieve the best results, use an image with some space around the main subject and avoid placing faces, text or logos too close to the edges of the image. This helps ensure important parts of the image remain visible when it is automatically resized and cropped across different devices.
Your title can be up to 200 characters - and should offer a clear and concise overview of what this Space is - i.e. Find a Roommate, or Life in Manchester.
Your description sets the scene - what can a student expect from this Space, and why should they join it?
Click Create space
🌐 Admins can also access Spaces via the web. This enables you to view and manage Spaces from your desktop, respond to posts, and oversee multiple Spaces.
What about my existing Community groups?
Your existing Community groups will not be affected. They will remain as Groups - but you will still be able to create Spaces, so your Community members can benefit. Students will still be able to find and join your current Groups.
You won't be able to create new Groups, but your existing Groups can still be managed in the Community tab within your University Dashboard - the tab will be relabelled as Spaces. Any Spaces you create will be displayed first in your dashboard, with Groups stacked underneath.
What does it look like if I have both Spaces and Groups in a Community?
Groups will remain editable, but new engagement will naturally shift towards Spaces.
This phased approach allows you to move at a comfortable pace without disrupting active Communities. Spaces will live under the Spaces tab, and Groups will still live under the Connect tab.
The below video shows that user experience for students in a Community with both Groups and Spaces.