We extend some recent results about bounded invariant equivalence relations and invariant subgroups of definable groups: we show that type-definability and smoothness are equivalent conditions in a wider class of relations than heretofore considered, which includes all the cases for which the equivalence was proved before.

As a by-product, we show some analogous results in purely topological context (without direct use of model theory).

We generalise the main theorems from the paper “The Borel cardinality of Lascar strong types” by I. Kaplan, B. Miller and P. Simon to a wider class of bounded invariant equivalence relations. We apply them to describe relationships between fundamental properties of bounded invariant equivalence relations (such as smoothness or type-definability) which also requires finding a series of counterexamples. Finally, we apply the generalisation mentioned above to prove a conjecture from a paper by the first author and J. Gismatullin, showing that the key technical assumption of the main theorem (concerning connected components in definable group extensions) from that paper is not only sufficient but also necessary to obtain the conclusion.