User Role Permissions

What are user role permissions?

Understanding roles and permissions is key to maintaining a secure, well-structured intranet. By assigning the right level of access, you ensure people can collaborate effectively without compromising sensitive settings or overloading users with unnecessary controls.

Why roles and permissions matter

By aligning licenses, permissions, and roles, you create an intranet that:

• Maximizes engagement (everyone has the right tools to contribute).
• Protects governance (sensitive areas stay controlled).
• Reflects organizational structure (ownership and editing align with responsibility).
• Saves costs (unseated roles prevent unnecessary seat usage).

The right setup ensures Happeo is both a collaborative space and a reliable source of truth.

User licenses in Happeo

Happeo provides four license levels to reflect different user needs. Assigning the right license helps you make the most of your subscription while aligning access with business requirements:

• Admin: Full administrative privileges. Admins manage the intranet environment, system settings, and user or group permissions. They keep the intranet aligned with organizational policies and structure.
• Seated: Standard license for active users. These users can create, contribute to, and view channels and pages, as well as access integrations.
• Deskless: Limited access license, designed for employees who don’t need the full Google Workspace suite but still need to consume and engage with content in Happeo.
• Unseated: No access to Happeo. These users remain in your directory but cannot log in, participate in channels, or view pages. 

User permissions

In addition to licenses, admins can grant specific permissions to shape how people interact with the platform.

• Create channels: Enables users to set up new collaboration spaces and manage them.
• Create pages: Allows users to publish and manage pages, ensuring knowledge is documented and discoverable.
• Access branding: Provides entry to Admin Settings > Branding, where users can customize the platform’s appearance (logos, colors, fonts). This ensures brand consistency across your intranet.
• Access analytics: Grants access to Happeo’s analytics tool. Users can also export data to support decision-making.

💡 Learn how to grant these permissions here: User Management.

Admins in Happeo

Admins act as the backbone of governance in Happeo. They maintain security, structure, and usability by managing:

• Users and groups: Adding, removing, and updating access.
• Access and security: Controlling login policies and permissions.
• Content governance: Defining who can create or edit pages and channels.

Admins can open Admin Settings from their avatar menu or toggle Admin Mode to adjust channels and pages directly. This dual view allows them to oversee strategy while making tactical adjustments on the ground.

Page and Channel roles

Roles in Happeo differ slightly between Pages and Channels. Together, they define how information flows and how collaboration happens.

Page roles

• Owner: The creator of the page group with full control over its content and permissions. Owners manage access, edit pages and subpages, and archive when needed. Only one owner exists per group, and this can be changed later (only for Pages 2.0. Read more). Platform admins can always see who owns a page group in Admin Settings > Pages.
• Editor: Editors maintain and update content within a page group. Depending on access, they may manage the whole group or just specific pages. Editors ensure content stays relevant and well-structured without needing full ownership.
• Author (Legacy Pages Editor): Authors create pages or subpages and have full editing rights over their contributions. They are visible in the Page Settings menu and can be reassigned if responsibilities change. This ensures accountability while keeping content dynamic.
• Viewer: Viewers consume content but cannot make changes. This role ensures broad access to knowledge while protecting accuracy and structure from unintended edits.

Channel roles

• Owner: The creator and primary manager of a channel. Owners control membership, approve join requests, configure integrations (e.g., Slack, Google Chat), and adjust discoverability. They can always post and comment, regardless of restrictions. Owners act as the gatekeepers ensuring channels stay purposeful and secure.
• Editor: Editors co-manage channels by adjusting settings, managing members, and posting content. They can also make announcements and collaborate on drafts with other editors. By sharing control, ownership of a channel doesn’t bottleneck at one person, keeping discussions active and responsive.
• Participant: Participants interact with channel content within the boundaries set by owners and editors. Posting and commenting permissions depend on restrictions:
  • Open: Anyone can post and comment.
  • Moderated: Posts may require editor approval, or only editors can post announcements.
  • Closed: Only editors can create or comment.

FAQ

Licenses

(Google): What is the practical difference between a Seated and a Deskless license?

A Seated user has full access to Happeo’s collaboration features and Google Workspace integrations, making them ideal for users who actively create and share content. Deskless licenses, by contrast, are intended for employees who only need light-touch access (for example, viewing announcements or participating in conversations) without the overhead of full Google Workspace access. This helps organizations include more employees on the intranet without using up higher-cost licenses.

(Google): Can I switch a user’s license type after they’ve been created?

Yes — admins can change a user from Seated to Deskless (or vice versa) in the Seats Overview. This flexibility allows you to optimize seat usage as roles change.

Permissions

(Google): Do user permissions (like create pages or access analytics) apply to all users equally?

Permissions are role-agnostic: both Seated and Deskless users can be granted permissions such as “Create channels” or “Access analytics.” However, Deskless users may face restrictions if the permission depends on deeper Google Workspace integrations.

Why would I give someone branding or analytics permissions if they’re not an admin?

These permissions are useful for delegating tasks without giving full admin rights. For example, a communications specialist might need branding access to keep the intranet aligned with corporate identity, while a team lead might need analytics access to track engagement in their channel.

Admins

Can multiple admins exist in the same Happeo environment?

Yes. Most organizations appoint several admins so that governance isn’t dependent on a single individual. In smaller environments, a single admin might be enough, but in larger organizations multiple admins are often essential — from managing users and permissions to overseeing branding, analytics, and content governance. This setup ensures smoother operations and avoids bottlenecks.

What is the difference between accessing Admin Settings and turning on Admin Mode?

• Admin Settings: A centralized console for managing users, groups, and environment-wide configurations.
• Admin Mode: A contextual view that allows admins to step into any page or channel and adjust content or permissions directly. This dual approach balances high-level governance with in-the-moment management.

Page roles

What happens if a page group owner leaves the company?

In the Legacy Pages Editor, ownership cannot be reassigned. To maintain continuity, a platform Admin should step in and:

• Assign new editors (and, where applicable, authors) to the relevant page group and pages.

• Ensure publishing rights and responsibilities are clearly documented so work doesn’t stall.

In Pages 2.0, ownership can be reassigned directly, making handovers cleaner and auditable. For step-by-step instructions, see Manage Page-Level Permissions in Pages 2.0 (ownership transfer).

(Legacy Pages Editor): Can a user be both a page author and an editor?

Yes. A person who initially creates a page (Author) can also be granted Editor rights. This allows them to manage not only their own page but also other content in the group, giving them broader influence.

Channel Roles

What’s the difference between a channel owner and a channel editor?

The only real difference is that the owner is the user who originally created the channel. Beyond that, owners and editors share the same permissions — both can manage members, configure settings, and create or moderate content. This design keeps channel management flexible, since editors can do everything an owner can if needed.

Can a participant ever create content in a channel?

Yes, depending on the restrictions the owner or editor has set. In an “Open” channel, participants can post and comment freely. In “Moderated” or “Closed” channels, their ability to create content is limited or removed.

Boundaries

Can permissions be restricted within roles (e.g., giving one editor fewer rights than another)?

No. Roles (Owner, Editor, Author, Viewer, Participant) come with fixed sets of permissions. If you need different levels of control, you’ll need to assign a different role.

Do user licenses automatically dictate their page or channel roles?

No. Licenses (Admin, Seated, Deskless, Unseated) define platform access, while roles (Owner, Editor, etc.) define content-level permissions. They work together but are managed separately, giving you flexibility to match organizational needs.