1. A method comprising: identifying, by a processing device, two or more target channels to merge into a result channel; grouping users of the target channels into sets of users based on an indication that the users viewed a similar set of the content items from the target channels; in response to determining that a number of the sets satisfies a number of sets threshold condition and in response to determining that a number of the users in each of the sets that are subscribed to the target channels satisfies an overlap threshold condition, generating the result channel; subscribing, by the processing device, the users of the target channels to the result channel; associating, by the processing device, the set of the content items of the target channels with the result channel; generating, without channel owner interaction, a user interface (UI) for the result channel utilizing formatting and UI elements of the target channels; and updating activity information provided to a user of the target channels to reflect the result channel, wherein the activity information provided to the user of the target channels comprises a subset of content items from the result channel and other channels to which the user of the target channels is subscribed, and wherein updating the activity information further comprises updating, in the activity information of each of the users of the target channels, the items corresponding to the target channels to point to the result channel as an originator of the items, wherein the activity information is separate from the result channel.