Channel Types in Teams

Learn best practices for Teams channel architecture to maximize communication and streamline user management and access.

Teams Architecture Best Practices

When to use what type of Team channel and when?

• Standard - Content in Standard channels is available to all Team members. Teams that primarily use standard channels greatly simplify managing access to content.
• Shared - collaborative connectors across work teams, good for cross-area projects/work. Members can be added individually or entire Teams / M365 groups can be added.
• Private - very limited features, good for small private limited discussion (does not create a group).
  • Membership must be individually managed by the Team owner; groups cannot be used.
  • If there are a lot of private channels on a Team with common members we recommend creating a separate Team or use a group chat.

For an in-depth review of the different features available with each channel type, see: Overview of Teams and Channels - Microsoft

Standard Channels

When a Team is created, it corresponds to a Microsoft 365 group, Outlook calendar, email, and SharePoint site for file storage. Apps such as Planner and Forms are only available with a group and cannot be used in a private chat or private channel.

• Each Team can have multiple channels.
• Each person can belong to multiple Teams.
• All members of a Team can see all standard channels on a Team.
• Users can hide infrequently used channels.
• Each channel has a Posts tab for conversations.
  • Only members of a Team can see posts.
• Files uploaded to a channel are added to the channel's SharePoint storage.
  • By default, all Team members will have read and write access.
  • Each channel has a folder in the Documents folder of the corresponding SharePoint Team site.
• There are more options to add additional app tabs to a channel.

Private Channels

A Team can also have private channels that are limited to specific Team members. Private channels have limited features. We recommend to instead use group chats to share messages, or create a separate Team if you need to share documents, depending on the scale of use. For more details, Microsoft has an article on Private Channels.

• Each team can only have 30 private channels.
• Each private channel has its own child SharePoint site.
• Private channels don't support connectors and tabs in Stream, Planner, Tasks by Planner and To Do, and Forms.
• Private channels do not have a Microsoft 365 group like a Team, meaning membership has to be individually managed by the Team owner.
• Channel meetings can't be scheduled. Channel calendars aren't available.

Shared Channels

You might want to use a shared channel to collaborate with a group of people who are all members of different teams. For example, projects that include people from different divisions can use a shared channel to collaborate. To learn more in-depth about shared channels, visit the Microsoft article Shared Channels

• Only members of shared channels can see and participate in shared channels that they're added to. Other members of the Team to which the shared channel is connected can't see the channel.
• When a shared channel is created, it links to the parent Team and can't be moved to a different Team. Additionally, shared channels can't be converted to standard channels and vice versa.
• Each shared channel has its own child SharePoint site. The separate site is to ensure access to shared channel files is restricted to only members of the shared channel.