Format your messages

Zulip uses a variant of GitHub Flavored Markdown to allow you to easily format your messages.

Emphasis

**bold**, *italic*, and ~~strikethrough~~ text
***~~All three at once~~***

Lists

Bulleted lists

* bulleted lists
  * with sub-bullets too
  * sub-bullets start with 2 spaces
    * start sub-sub-bullets with 4 spaces
* multi
line
bullet
- dashes and
+ pluses are ok too

Numbered lists

1. numbered lists
1. increment automatically
1. one more

Zulip auto-linkifies URLs and valid stream names. You can also add a custom linkifier to link patterns like #1234 to your ticketing system.

Auto-detected URL: zulipchat.com
Named link: [Zulip homepage](zulipchat.com)
Stream: #**announce**
Custom linkifier: #1234 (links to ticket 1234 in your ticketing system)

Images

See Share and upload files to learn more about dropping, pasting, and attaching images.

[A whale of a good time](https://your.zulip.domain/user_uploads/1/46/IPvysqXEtiTG1ZdNBrwAZODi/whale-time.png)

Code

Inline: `let x = 5`

Code block:
```
def f(x):
   return x+1
```

Syntax highlighting:
```python
def fib(n):
    # TODO: base case
    return fib(n-1) + fib(n-2)
```

You can also use ~~~ to start codeblocks, or just indent the code 4 or more spaces.

Zulip supports syntax highlighting for hundreds of languages, and a typeahead will pop up when you start typing after the ```. If you can't find your language, search for it here and try the short names listed for the lexers for your language.

Latex

Inline: $$O(n^2)$$

Displayed:
```tex
\int_a^b f(t)\, dt = F(b) - F(a)
```

Quotes

> a multi-line
quote on two lines

normal text

```quote
A multi-paragraph

quote in two paragraphs
```

Emoji and emoticons

To translate emoticons into emoji, you'll need to enable emoticon translations. You can also add custom emoji.

:octopus: :heart: :zulip: :)

Mentions

Learn more about mentions here. The numbers will be added automatically by the typeahead if needed for disambiguation.

Users: @**Polonius** or @**Zoe|2132** (two asterisks)
User group: @*support team* (one asterisk)
Silent mention: @_**Polonius** (@_ instead of @)

Status Messages

/me is away

Tables

The initial pipes (|) are optional if every entry in the first column is non-empty. The header separators (---) must be at least three dashes long.

|| yes | no | maybe
|---|---|:---:|------:
| A | left-aligned | centered | right-aligned
| B |     extra      spaces      |  are |  ok
| C | **bold** *italic* ~~strikethrough~~  :smile:  ||

Paragraphs and lines

One blank space for a new paragraph
New line, same paragraph

New paragraph

---, ***, or ___ for a horizontal line
Over the line

---

Under the line

In-app help

A summary of the formatting syntax is available in-app.

  1. Open the compose box.

  2. Click the A () icon at the bottom of the compose box.