Complete Guide to Using Shared Channels in Microsoft Teams

In the last year, SharePoint Online and Microsoft's collaborative workspace, Teams, have seen numerous enhancements and noteworthy features. The most striking addition of these new features is the Shared Channel. The Shared Channels are designed for streamlining communication and making collaboration more efficient within project teams, allowing information sharing without compromising security or access rights.

A Team is a workspace allowing chatting and virtual meetings, and is linked to a Microsoft 365 group that acts as a hub for applications and resources. Thus, members gain access to several features including a dedicated SharePoint site, an email distribution list, a group calendar in Outlook, and the ability to create Group Forms and Plans.

However, the core component of Teams are Channels which aid in separating discussions based on topic or function. Until recently, Teams only supported two channel types, Standard and Private. The Standard Channel could be accessed by all team members, while Private Channels were for a subset of team members.

The introduction of Shared Channels offers new possibilities. Unlike the Private Channel where members had to be part of the overall team, Shared Channels let you invite both internal and external users without needing to involve them in the broad-scale team. This new channel resolves certain challenges such as granting limited access to certain team members, external consultants, and contractors.

Creating a Shared Channel follows the same steps as with any other channel, and upon creation, a separate SharePoint site is created to store documents. This channel-specific site follows a specific naming convention derived from the team and shared channel names.

The Shared Channel experience is different for different users. When a user is added to the Shared Channel, they only see the Team Name and Shared Channel, meaning they have focused access without exposure to unnecessary information.

Shared Channels come with certain limits. Each team can have a maximum of 200 shared channels, but only Team Owners are granted the right to create these channels. As for external users, at present, invitations are limited by cross-tenant access settings in Azure AD through B2B direct connect.

The Shared Channel also supports a limited set of apps. However, despite these limitations, Shared Channels have promising use-cases. They offer flexibility in collaboration without compromising the overall structure, making them ideal when inviting colleagues or external consultants for project-specific discussions.

In conclusion, Shared Channels offer a different facet to Teams with potential to streamline and simplify collaboration, making it more engaging and effective. However, to know more about Teams and its facets, you can check here for more detailed insights.

Understanding Microsoft Teams and Shared Channels

At its core, Teams and its Shared Channels are designed to help organizations streamline their communication and collaboration efforts. The addition of Shared Channels to Teams offers a way to limit access to necessary conversations, allowing smoother collaboration with internal and external users and effectively nullifying the overheads of involving them in a broader team. As Teams continues to grow and develop, it's becoming an increasingly essential platform, providing essential communication tools within a secure and efficient interface.

Read the full article Everything you need to know about Shared Channels in Teams

Learn about Everything you need to know about Shared Channels in Teams

In our dynamic and evolving digital workspace, the rise of Microsoft Teams' Shared Channels has created ripples of excitement. Released with great anticipation, Shared Channels have revolutionized the way we perceive and work within Teams. In simplifying the process of collaboration and information sharing, they have become an indispensable tool for numerous organizations. In this article, we'll dive head-first into what Shared Channels are, their functionalities, and their boundaries.

For starters, the term "team" in the Microsoft world represents a dedicated digital workspace. It is a unified platform that brings together chat services, virtual meetings, as well as application and information integration, thereby serving as a one-stop-shop for teamwork. The underpinning structure of Teams involves Microsoft 365 groups, which act as membership or security groups to connect teams with various applications and resources part of Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

Now let's move on to the cornerstone of Teams, which is Channels. These entities are a method to categorize conversations within a team by role or topic. Traditionally, we had two kinds of channels: the Standard Channel and the Private Channel. The former is accessible to all team members, while the latter is exclusive to a specific group within the team. Every Standard channel would automatically set up a folder on the associated site for file storage, whereas a unique separate site was created in the case of Private Channels.

The age-old debate amongst users has always been choosing between the creation of a new team and a new channel. The emergence of Shared Channels in 2022 resulted in a resolution for this debate. These Shared Channels permit internal or external user participation without necessitating them to be a part of the primary team. Hence, a Shared Channel acts as a secured space for selective discussions and collaborations without granting access to the whole team or associated assets.

The creation of a Shared Channel has certain noticeable outcomes. Firstly, a visible channel is formed within the Teams interface. Secondly, a separate SharePoint site is set up for document storage. Finally, it allows for the addition of other members, both internal and external, with the benefit of not revealing other conversations or files.

However, there are limits to Shared Channels. There's a cap of 200 Shared Channels per team. Also, only Team Owners can initiate these, restricting Regular Members from doing so. A minor drawback is the restrained ability to invite external users and the limited app integration into the Shared Channel.

Despite these hedges, Shared Channels have proven phenomenal for various uses and scenarios. For instance, they're ideal when you wish to collaborate with colleagues or invite external specialists without them being a part of the primary team. They are also useful to create multiple conversation threads inspired by varying user requirements. Thus, it offers customization and selective collaboration, ultimately redesigning the way we work with Teams.

In conclusion, Shared Channels have become a highly sought-after feature of Teams. They have seamlessly simplified the way we approach teamwork and conversation segregation. Watch this space for more updates on Shared Channels and how they continue to reshape our digital collaborative practices.

More links on about Everything you need to know about Shared Channels in Teams

Shared channels in Microsoft Teams

Aug 15, 2023 — Shared channels in Microsoft Teams create collaboration spaces where you can invite people who are not in the team. Only the users who are ...

What is a shared channel in Microsoft Teams?

A shared channel is a place to collaborate with people inside and outside your team or organization. People outside your org can participate in a shared ...

Everything you need to know about Shared Channels in ...

Nov 28, 2022 — A Shared Channel is a special type of channel that allows inviting any internal or external users to it, without inviting them to the ...

Keywords

Shared Channels in Teams, Teams Shared Channels guide, Understanding Shared Channels, Teams Shared Channels knowledge, Microsoft Teams Channels information, Collaboration in Teams Shared Channels, Shared Channels details, Teams Shared Channels tips, Learn about Shared Channels, Comprehensive guide to Shared Channels.