Glossary
An alphabetical reference of terms you'll meet across the Apollos platform and these docs.
Admin — The web app at admin.apollos.app where church staff manage content, people, giving, and settings. When these docs say "Admin," this is what they mean.
Campus — A physical church location. Larger churches may have multiple campuses (for example, a Downtown campus and a Westside campus). Members, content, and events can be associated with specific campuses, and members usually choose a campus when they create an account.
Channel / Category — A grouping of content items, similar to a folder. Examples include "Sermons," "Devotionals," and "News." Every content item belongs to a channel, which is how content is organized in Admin and in the app. See How content works.
ChMS (Church Management System) — Software churches use to manage member records, donations, groups, and attendance. Apollos integrates with Rock RMS, Planning Center, and Church Community Builder (CCB). See Integrations overview.
Church Online Platform (ChOP) — A live streaming service for broadcasting church services. Apollos integrates with it to show a live video player and "live now" indicators in the app when a service is streaming. See Church Online Platform.
Community — A group within a church for connecting members: small groups, Bible studies, volunteer teams, and so on. Each community has its own chat and member list in the app. See Communities & groups.
Configuration — Per-church settings that control how features behave for your church — which ChMS you use, which features are on, and so on. Most are managed with Apollos support during setup. See the Configuration reference.
Connected Account — Your church's own Stripe account, linked to Apollos for processing gifts. Every church has its own connected account so donations go directly to the right church. See How giving works.
Content Item — Any piece of content in your app: sermons, articles, devotionals, videos, podcast episodes, event descriptions, and more. Content items are the building blocks of the app experience.
Deep Link — A link that opens the app directly to a specific place — a particular sermon, chat conversation, or event page. Deep links are used in push notifications, shared links, and email campaigns.
Feature (Content) — A modular block within a content item: text, scripture references, images, videos, comment sections, and more. Features stack in order to build the content detail screen.
Feed — A configurable list of content that makes up a screen in your app, like the home screen. See Feeds: building your app's home screen.
OneSignal — The service that delivers push notifications to iOS and Android devices. Each church has its own OneSignal account connected to the platform. See Push notifications & messaging.
Origin — Where a record came from. A person or campus with an origin of "Rock" was synced from Rock RMS; an origin of "Apollos" means it was created in the app or Admin. The origin ID is the record's ID in the source system, which keeps data in sync between Apollos and your ChMS.
OTP (One-Time Password) — A short verification code sent by email or text for password-free sign-in. The member enters the code to prove they own the email address or phone number. Codes expire quickly and can only be used once.
Persona Feed — A personalized content feed that shows content based on a member's tags. Content tagged with the member's personas appears here, along with untagged content. See Personalization: tags & audiences.
Publish settings — The three conditions that control whether content or events are visible in the app: the item is active, its publish date is in the past (or unset), and its expire date is in the future (or unset). All three must be true. This is the most common reason content doesn't show up. See Content troubleshooting.
Shadow Ban — A moderation tool that hides a member from others without their knowledge. A shadow-banned member's content, prayer requests, and chat messages become invisible to everyone else, but they still see their own activity. See Chat & moderation.
Stripe — The payment processor behind all giving on the platform. Stripe handles payment methods, one-time gifts, recurring gifts, and refunds, through each church's own connected account. See How giving works.
Tag — A label applied to people to create audience segments. Tags can be created in Apollos or synced from your ChMS, and they drive personalized feeds, targeted content, and notification targeting. See Audience: manage your people.
Tap Tag — A physical NFC tag (with a QR code backup) that members tap with their phone to open content, feeds, or giving. See Apollos Tap (NFC tags).