Hi there,
Here is a little news on Microsoft Teams private channels, apparently, it’s going live this month 😎.
After more than 25 000 votes in the uservoice, here it comes !
This feature allows anyone that could create a channel in a Team to restrict this channel visibility to specified members or Owners already part of the Team. Meaning you cannot invite someone to access the private channel unless he/she has already access to the Team.
How it works
You start with creating a regular channel and select Private from the new drop-down menu called “Privacy”
You will then be prompted to select members of the Team to give them access to this channel. Note that you can always edit those permissions by clicking on manage channel (right-click on the channel).
As a private channel creator you are granted the “Owner” right for this channel, allowing you to add members to it, but you can also add extra owners to manage permissions for this particular channel.
Additionally, you can customize some settings for Private channels, which are not available for regular ones
Team owners can also control who can create private channels in the Team configuration by right-clicking on the Team, choosing Manage team settings, then Member permissions :
Administration integration
Teams administrators can manage channels in the Teams admin center by selecting “Teams”, “Manage Teams”, then the desired Team.
In the Channels tab, you will see the type of channels being present in this Team
Teams Administrators will then be able to manage permissions of existing private channels
They will also be able to create private channels and set Owners from people within the Team
So far, the MicrosoftTeams PowerShell show you every channels and only gives you Channel ID, DisplayName and Description.
And for the GRAPH API returning ID, displayName, description, email and webUrl
The management of these private channels will be done through SharePoint APIs. Each private channel leads to the creation of a SharePoint site with the template “TEAMCHANNEL#0” optimized for this purpose.
A last information, unless I am missing something, you cannot transform a regular channel to private. Which is a good thing if you think about it…
I hope you found this article interesting. Personally, I think those private channels are well integrated, providing flexibility.
See you soon in the blog section 😎
