Moving Answer Boards to Collections
Why the change is happening, the migration plan, impacts on permissions, and what you need to do.
Introduction
Glean is simplifying content organization by sunsetting Answer Boards and moving all legacy Answer Board content into Collections. This unified experience will make it easier to group, manage, and find information across your organization.
None of your answers will be lost - they will move to a Collection of the same name.
Table of Contents
- Why Are Answer Boards Being Sunset?
- Answer Boards vs. Collections
- Migration Plan and Timeline
- What Is Changing in the Glean UI?
- Changes to Permissions & Access
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Best Practices for Collections
1. Why Are Answer Boards Being Sunset?
- Simplified experience: Having both Answer Boards and Collections created confusion for users and extra work for admins.
- Broader capabilities: Collections allow grouping not just Answers, but also documents, URLs, and more.
- Operational efficiency: Simpler product structures helps Glean spend less time in maintenance of multiple products.
2. Answer Boards vs. Collections
| Feature | Answer Boards | Collections |
|---|---|---|
| Content Types | Answers only | Answers, documents, links, more |
| Viewer Permissions | Boards allow restricting who can see the board | Collections are always viewable by all |
| Permission Inheritance | Board can influence permissions of the answers contained | Collections cannot influence individual item-level permissions |
| Editors | Board-level editor permissions | Collection editors manage the collection |
Note: Only legacy customers still see Answer Boards. Collections are now the only default for all new customers.
3. Migration Plan and Timeline
Key Dates:
- June 17, 2025: Creating new Answer Boards is disabled. Users are notified of the upcoming migration.
- July 10, 2025: Migration of Answer Boards to Collections begins.
- July 17, 2025: All Answer Boards migration will be completed.
Migration Highlights:
- All existing Answer Boards will become Collections of the same name.
- Answers within boards are preserved — they are never lost or deleted. They willl move over to the new collection.
- Boards with restricted audiences (not visible to everyone) will become viewable by everyone as a collection, but users can update audience settings.
- Specific editors set on boards will transfer to the new Collections.
4. What Is Changing in the Glean UI?
- “Move to Board” and “Add to Board” actions will become “Move to Collection” or “Add to Collection”.
- Banners will appear in the Answers and Answer Boards pages to highlight the changes.
- After migration, the URLs for boards will change to their Collection equivalents. However, you don’t need to change your URLs. Your existing URLs will automatically redirect to the new collection after migration is complete.
5. Changes to Permissions & Access
- Viewer Permissions: Collections are always visible to everyone.
- Editor Permissions: If a board had editors set, these will transfer to the Collection. Editors manage the Collection but do not inherit edit rights to content within.
- Answer Permissions: Answers will continue to be viewable by the same set of users as before the migration. In Collections, permissions are set per-item, not by Collection.
6. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: What happens to my existing boards and their answers?
A: All Boards will become Collections with the same name. Answers, their permissions, and editor settings transfer automatically. Nothing is deleted.
Q: What if my board had restricted audience settings?
A: Those boards are migrated and will be set as viewable to all. You can delete the answer board before July 10, 2025 if you don’t want to migrate it.
Q: Do permissions on answers change?
A: Answers will continue to be viewable by the same set of users as before the migration.
Q: Will the URL for my board remain the same?
A: No, the Collection will have a new URL. But if you navigate to the old Answer Board URL, it will automatically re-direct to the new Collection URL.
Q: How do I add answers to a Collection now?
A: Use the “Add to Collection” button from the answer or within search — just like with boards.
Q: Can I restrict who views a Collection?
A: No, Collections are always visible to everyone in your organization. You can restrict access to individual items within a collection.
7. Best Practices for Collections
- Use Collections to group related answers, docs, URLs, and key resources on a topic or for a team/department.
- Assign Collection editors for trusted content curation.
- Take advantage of Collection previews to view content quickly from search.