Chat, Channels and Private Channels in Teams

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Microsoft Teams has multiple ways of managing conversations and information. This article will compare chat, channels and private channels. Everyone has access to chat. When a person is added to a team they will have access to channels and private channels.

Chat

Chat is useful for short-lived communications. Read our Group Chat article for details on group chat.

  • You can chat with anyone with an Evergreen account.
  • Group chats can be named and organized.
  • Files uploaded to a chat are stored in the OneDrive of the member who uploaded files.
  • There are limited options to add apps to a chat.

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 channels on a team.
  • Users can hide channels 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 SharePoint storage.
    • By default all members of a team will have read and write access.
    • Each channel has a folder in the Documents folder of the corresponding SharePoint 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 users of a team. We recommend to use chats vs. creating private channels. For more details, Microsoft has an article on Private Channels.

  • Each team can only have 30 private channels.
  • Each private channel has its own SharePoint site.
  • Some apps can be added to private channels, but this is limited.
    • E.g. You cannot add tabs for Planner and Forms to a private channel.
  • Private channels do not have a Microsoft 365 group like a Team.