Microsoft Teams has become an essential application in the business niche which gained its popularity with the emergence of the COVID-19 Pandemic which made Companies work remotely. This shift to the virtual space found a gap for a one-stop center – a platform, which increases collaboration, communication as well as document management. This gap is effectively filled in by the Microsoft Team.
It gets integrated within Microsoft 365 teams permitting organizations to communicate through chat, audio, and video calls. It facilitates the conduct of conversations in real-time on various devices. MS Teams video conferencing options enable people to participate in both scheduled meetings and ad hoc discussions.
It bridges the physical gap that is created by remote work. Most businesses use channels in teams but they are not aware of it. They think, ‘what is a channel in teams’ and what purpose does it serve?
microsoft teams channels enhances collaboration in organizations. They act as a dedicated space within a team where conversations, files, and projects are organized. It allows you to. access important information in one place. In this article, we would like to about channels in teams. Read more : Successful Microsoft Teams Adoption for Your Office 365 Business
Integration of Teams with Microsoft 365 Teams
Teams is a part of Microsoft 365 Group but it can be integrated with Microsoft 365 groups. A Microsoft 365 Group is regarded as the membership and security group to provides access to a Team in Microsoft Teams and related apps. A new Team creation process involves not only the automatic creation of a Microsoft 365 Group with a SharePoint site that hosts documents, but also, an Outlook calendar and distribution list, and a task design in Planner.
Microsoft Teams leverages SharePoint for file management
It surprises many people that Teams does not have its document management capabilities. Instead, it makes use of SharePoint which has better document management capabilities. So teams make use of SharePoint. For instance, when you are uploading a document in Teams, you are automatically uploading it to a SharePoint site.
This setup assures that we avoid duplicating features between two platforms. It also takes advantage of existing tools that are effective and familiar to many users.
Learn More about : Development leveraging SharePoint and Supercharge Productivity Leverage SharePoint Automation
what are channels in teams?
As mentioned Teams and SharePoint are integrated. This integration leads to an interesting overlap in their functionalities. You must be wondering what is a teams channel. Channels are a technique for organizing conversations in teams.
microsoft teams channels examples include on a project team you might want to have a channel to discuss business requirements, finances, and so on. You must think of a channel almost like a thread on an online forum.
On the other hand, documents in SharePoint are organized by roles/access/security, function, and not conversation. For example, project documents might have few folders dedicated to business requirements. There might be folders dedicated to the whole project/team or folders that can be accessed by a few executive team members.
On top of that, you might have folders that you might have to share externally with outside partners, clients, contractors, consultants, and vendors.
team channel vs team
Learning how Teams and Channels perform within Microsoft Teams is critical to effective working together. This setup enables members to concentrate their discussions and the materials needed for such discussions. Some of the differences between them are as follows:
- A team app allows members to work collaboratively on projects of interest. Conversely, channels can be used for particular discussion and collaboration.
- Different features are incorporated into cooperative teams to enhance communication. On the other hand, through the use of channels, members can participate in discussions and present information related to such discussions.
Teams are the broader group while channels are specific areas within that group for focused discussion.
These team channel types help balance the conversational aspects of teams. They also address the need for role-based and security-based access to specific folders. Some of them are as follows:
- Standard channels: It is a channel created by default in teams while creating a new team preferably called general. You can create additionals while the general channel should be there. This cannot be deleted or even renamed.
It allows for an easy way to separate conversations within a team. For example, you can have a general channel, a business requirement channel, a go-live planning channel, etc. If your company follows the waterfall model for project management. You can create a channel for each of its phases.
- Private channel: As you all know standard channels are not secure enough. Private channels offer more exclusive space for discussion and file sharing within a team. It is useful for confidential conversations or sensitive documents that should not be visible to the entire team.
For instance, if a project managers need to discuss financial matters with only a few members. This is the purpose of creating a private channel. These channels are identified by a lock icon which indicates their restricted access.
- Shared channel: They introduce a new level of flexibility in MS Teams. They allow team owners to invite both team members and external users. This setup does not grant those external users access to the entire team.
It is beneficial when collaboration is needed on specific projects that involve people from different teams or organizations.
Who has access to these channel types?
Now not everyone can have access to channels in team. You will now know who can access these channels as follows:
- Standard channels: They do not have any unique security settings. It means that standard channels are available to all the team members. For instance, you are the team owner, and X and Y are your team members.
It means that you all can have access to standard channels. It means you can cheat, schedule meetings, and access all the channel documents.
- Private channels: Private channels can be accessed by members of the team included in private channels. You cannot invite anyone into private channels. You can only invite members who are a part of the overall team.
One of the microsoft teams channel names examples, where you can include only X and Y in the team members who are part of the team. But you cannot invite Z who is not a part of your team.
- Shared channels: It is represented by the shared icon on the channel name. It is only visible to the members who are regular team members but not members of that channel.
For example, you are the owner of the team and X and Y are your team members. You created a shared channel to include Z and W who are not part of your team. Then this shared channel would be visible to you and Z and this will not be visible to X and Y.
Where are the documents stored within the channel?
In MS-Teams, documents within channels are stored in SharePoint ensuring centralized access to everyone in the organization. Each team channel has a specific storage requirement that supports secure file management.
- Standard channel:
Documents in the standard channel are usually stored on a SharePoint site. When you click the “files” tab in Teams you will see the channels document. By clicking on the open button in SharePoint.You can access these files directly.
For every Standard Channel, the SharePoint Site linked to the Microsoft 365 Group that was created upon forming the Team automatically establishes a Folder with that particular channel’s name at the default Document Library. This arrangement simplifies the bulk storage of documents that are related to a particular channel.
- Private channel:
In Private channels, documents are stored in a separate SharePoint site. If you select "Files" followed by "Open in SharePoint", you can see that specific site and its name which follows the pattern of [team name]-[name of the private channel].
There is also a Document Library where a folder with the channel’s name is kept and this folder stores the files. This individual site is important in preventing location-based access since Team Owners can be site managers and have general access to all contents even where there are some restrictions.
- Shared channel:
File management in shared channels resembles that of private channels. Similar to private channels, a separate SharePoint site is created. It has the same naming conventions:[name of the team]-[name of the shared channel].
On the SharePoint Site in Shared Channel Sites, the documents are saved in the Document Library. This is unlike Private Area Channel Sites where the documents are kept in a folder on the Document Library.
Use cases of these channels:
Some of the use cases of these team channels are as follows:
- Standard channel: It is used to separate topics for the whole team. When you want to separate files and conversations these channels can be used. You can even split conversations into separate phases of the project.
- Private channels: They are used when you want to hold a private conversation with team members if you have a larger team.When you want to create unique security for documents on a Team/Project.
- Shared channels: Shared Channels present a great opportunity because of the very nature of their membership. Below are a few of the possible use cases:
When you are required to share other employees/colleagues into your Team restricting their access to the entire team.
When there is a need to invite external users, for instance, consultants, or contractors, to the project but do not want to provide access to the entire team, other discussions, files, and applications of Microsoft 365 Group.
When you are looking for a lower number of teams to have/own and do not need to set up a separate M365 Group.
When you are seeking a temporary environment for conversations and file management; a workspace that only needs to be created for the task.
shared channel vs private channel
In MS Teams, it is very important to choose the right type of channel for your collaboration needs. This is necessary for effective communication and project management. However, these visibility and access levels have been discussed above Some of the differences between them are as follows.
- Membership Requirement: All members of Private Channels are members of their particular team.Unlike Shared Channels which can invite guests or users from other teams enabling increased cooperation without complete team access.
- Purpose: Private Channels are used to hold discussions as well as share documents with their team. On the other hand, cross-team collaborations or collaborations with external users on particular projects and topics use Shared Channels.
Limitation of teams' channel
While exploring the various types of ms teams channel. You need to be aware of their limitations. A few of them are listed below:
Limits on the number of channels
You can create a certain number of channels in a single team:
- Standard channels:200 channels per team
- Private channels:30 channels per team
- Shared channels:200 channels per team
For instance, if you have a team for managing multiple clients and want a channel for each client. You will reach the 200-channel limit and will have to create a separate team for additional clients.
Limitation on App
Private and shared channels have restrictions on the apps that you add. While standard channels allow you to add any app from the Teams App Store, Private, and shared channels do not support adding planners, forms, or calendar apps.
This limitation is because of security concerns as these apps are tied to the Microsoft 365 Group. This cannot be restricted to private or shared channels.
Control the ability to create new channels.
Both team owners and team members can create standard and private channels, You can change this setting in Microsoft Teams to allow only Team Owners to create new channels.
In summary, it can be stated that team channels can increase the level of collaboration within an organization. By selecting a channel to suit your needs, the level of efficiency in communication and project management will be maximized.
FAQs:
- How can you manage channels in MS Teams?
- What are the roles in the Microsoft Teams channel?
- How can you activate channels in teams?
You can manage channels in MS Teams by adjusting channel permissions and setting the roles in channels. You can create, delete, or access channels. Team owners can customize these settings to ensure appropriate access and organize the content effectively.
There are 3 roles in Microsoft Teams channel team owner, channel owner, and channel member.
Some of the ways to activate channels in teams are as follows:
You can tap the home tab button in the Teams app. You can tap the channel you want to delete. At the top of the screen, you can select delete channel to delete the channel created already. You can also cancel it before submitting any changes.
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