Hi @DannyPancratz ,

I’ve just tested this out using the search tool, by putting in a few search terms that I know don’t exist in any product updates. It definitely looks like the search tool removes this filter option if it doesn’t find anything.

I did have a quick look around some of the other communities that run on the platform and managed to use Typeform as a test subject (thanks guys!). It definitely looks as if none will show up if you don’t have any configured, so I would assume that’d be the case as well if you had a particular category that’s currently empty.

After all, it wouldn’t make much sense to show an empty category until it’s got something to show you. But at the same time, you can also just not create the ones you don’t need right now, and create them only as needed. Based on Typeform, it also looks like you can post updates without assigning a specific product area to it, which also works.

You might also find this guide useful as well

thanks so much @Blastoise186. That’s all very helpful and signals potential good news. 

I’m hoping someone from the Insided team can help confirm, as I have a use case where I will have some product areas configured (for another use case), but prefer those not to show up in the product area filters because they won’t have any product updates. 

Hello @DannyPancratz and @Blastoise186 thanks a lot for raising this point. 

To answer your question, currently, all the product areas you will create will appear in the filter whether there is a product update with that area or not. It will just say "0 product updates". You could delay creating all your product areas as a workaround. 

Could you create an idea about not showing the product area in the filter if empty? I'm curious to get different points of view on this :)

Thanks Marion !

I don’t like to take credit for ideas that someone else suggested and I also like to go off a First Come, First Served basis as a way of playing fair, so I’ll let ddpancratz claim this one. 

But I’ll definitely be upvoting it however. :)

Per @Marion Frecaut 

To answer your question, currently, all the product areas you will create will appear in the filter whether there is a product update with that area or not. It will just say "0 product updates". You could delay creating all your product areas as a workaround. 

Could you create an idea about not showing the product area in the filter if empty? I''m curious to get different points of view on this :)

Here’s the idea you can vote for: