Channels gets promoted to a top tab beside Chats — a never-empty, location-honest discovery destination, plus a priority-first create flow. Telegram density, Nyburs green, low-literacy-friendly (icon + short label everywhere). The wedge: channels for your village, not the whole internet.
Existing Chats design is untouched (faded behind). A [ Chats | Channels ] segment promotes discovery to a first-class destination.
Never empty. Trending near you rail → Popular in India → a visible 12-category icon grid. Location shown honestly.
~56px dense row: 40px rounded-square avatar, name + location under it, category badge, members, inline Join. Normal / Official-govt / Promoted.
Tap a category → ladder scope chips [ village → district → state → India ], an honest "near Saran" banner, then Near you + All India rows.
Order: photo+name → Category picker → Reach (City default, auto-filled) → Who can post → Description/Rules collapsed at END. CTA blocked till valid.
Left state: location not picked → amber sub-row blocks the CTA. Inset: the compact category picker sheet (icon + label + 1-line desc, ✓ selected).
When your home place has no local channels yet, the feed never shows blank. The create CTA becomes a hero at the top, and Trending honestly climbs the ladder (village → district) so there's always something to join.
Every complaint from the live 6-screen review, mapped to a concrete change.
Telegram-grade density and a clean green identity, but the location ladder + place-graph make this a channel directory for your village — something WhatsApp/Telegram channels structurally can't do. Built & merged to dev (Flutter) — this mockup is the design source of truth.