Shared channels are now available in Microsoft Teams. Shared channels allow you to collaborate with people both inside and outside of your team. Note that you will only be able to use shared channels with other people and teams at UCF at this time.
How to create and manage membership in shared channels:
Table of Contents
- What is a shared channel in Teams?
- Why use a shared channel versus other channel types in Teams?
- When should I use a shared channel?
- Who can share a channel?
- Who can create a shared channel?
- What is a host team?
- Create a shared channel in Teams
- Manage shared channels in Teams
- Manage channel owners and members
- Manage channel settings
- Delete a shared channel
- Restore a deleted shared channel
What is a shared channel in Teams?
A shared channel is a place to collaborate with people inside and outside your team.
Why use a shared channel versus other channel types in Teams?
Use a shared channel to collaborate with people inside your organization. People outside your org cannot participate in a shared channel at this time.
When should I use a shared channel?
|
To collaborate with: |
Shared channel |
Standard channel |
Private channel |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Everyone on your team |  | | |
|
Specific people on your team | | | |
|
People outside your team | | ||
|
People outside your org | N/A Currently not available at UCF | *Guest Access only | *Guest Access only |
|
People outside your org (without them switching orgs) | N/A Currently not available at UCF |
Who can share a channel?
Channel owners can share a channel with teams they own, with people inside UCF.
Note: Shared channels are currently only available to teams inside UCF.
Who can create a shared channel?
A team owner can create a shared channel. When a team owner creates a shared channel, they become the channel owner.
Note: You can't change a shared channel into a standard or private channel and vice versa.
What is a host team?
When a team owner creates a shared channel, that team becomes the host team. A shared channel sits inside a host team. Channel owners can share a channel with the host team or add people to a shared channel without adding them to the host team.
Note: Once you create a shared channel, you can't change the host team.
Create a shared channel in Teams
Create a shared channel if you want to work with people inside and outside your team or organization.
Only team owners can create shared channels. As the team owner who creates the shared channel, you become the channel owner, and the channel inherits labels from the host team.
Note: Create shared channels from Teams for desktop or web. The Teams mobile app doesn’t support creating shared channels.
Note: You can't change a shared channel into a standard or private channel and vice versa. Once you create a shared channel, you can't change the host team.
Go to the team you want to create the shared channel for and select More options 
> Add channel.
Enter a name and description for your channel.
Under Privacy, select the down arrow on the right, and then choose Shared - People you choose from UCF have access. Then select Create.
Note: The default setting is Share this channel with everyone on the team.
Type the names of the people in your org you want to add to the channel and select from the list. Then select Share.
To change a Member to an Owner, select the down arrow to the right of Member, and choose Owner. Then select Done.
Note: At this time people from outside of UCF cannot be members of a shared channel.
Manage shared channels in Teams
As a shared channel owner, you can manage owner roles, member roles, channel settings, and more.
Manage channel owners and members
Go to the shared channel you own, and select More options > Manage channel.
From Manage Channel, you can:
-
Select a Role for each person. You can only change a Member to an Owner if they’re in your org.
-
View the number of Members in a team. Select the number to the right of the team to view the members.
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Remove members or remove teams.
Manage channel settings
-
Go to a shared channel you own, and select More options
> Manage channel. -
Select Settings.
You can manage Member permissions, @mentions, and Fun stuff.
Delete a shared channel
Go to the shared channel you own, and select More options > Delete this channel.
Restore a deleted shared channel
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Go to the host team for the shared channel, and select More options
> Manage team. -
Select Channels > Deleted > Restore.
