Difference between revisions of "Chat Versus Channel Posts in Teams"

Revision as of 12:37, 13 March 2025

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
Private channels do not have a Microsoft 365 group like a Team
- You can not add tabs for Planner and Forms to a private channel

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 === Chat ===
-Chat is useful for short-lived communications between specific people. Read our [[Group Chat with Teams|Group Chat]] article for details on group chat.
+Chat is useful for short-lived communications. Read our [[Group Chat with Teams|Group Chat]] article for details on group chat.
 * You can chat with anyone with an Evergreen account
-* You can with people that you are not on a team with
 * Group chats can be named and organized
-* Files uploaded to a chat are stored in the OneDrive of the uploader
+* Files uploaded to a chat are stored in the OneDrive of the member who uploaded files
-* There are fewer options to add apps to the chat
+* There are limited options to add apps to a chat
 === Channels ===
-When a team is created additional behind the scenes tools are created. A Microsoft 365 group is made for the team.  Also, a SharePoint site is created for file storage.  While working in Teams you often won't need to be aware of things like groups and Sharepoint, you can do most of the work in Teams.  There are some Microsoft 365 services like Planner and group forms that require a group.  These services will work in channels but not chat or private 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 could belong to multiple teams.
+* Each person can belong to multiple teams.
 * All members of a team can see all channels on a team
-* Users can hide channels that they do not need to check regularly
+* Users can hide channels infrequently used channels
 * Each channel has a Posts tab for conversations
-** Only members of a team can see the posts
+** Only members of a team can see posts
-* File uploaded to a channel are added to the channels SharePoint storage
+* Files uploaded to a channel are added to the channel SharePoint storage
-** By default all members of the team will have read and write access
+** By default all members of a team will have read and write access
-** Each channel has a folder in the Documents folder of the SharePoint site
+** 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.  People that are used to using private channels in Slack might want to think of using group chats instead of a private channel in teams. For more details, Microsoft has an article on [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/private-channels 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 [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/private-channels Private Channels].
 * Each team can only have 30 private channels
 * Each private channel has its own SharePoint site
-* Some apps can be added to tabs
+* Some apps can be added to private channels, but this is limited
-* Private channels do not have a Microsoft 365 group like a Team does
+* Private channels do not have a Microsoft 365 group like a Team
 ** You can not add tabs for Planner and Forms to a private channel

Difference between revisions of "Chat Versus Channel Posts in Teams"

Revision as of 12:37, 13 March 2025

Chat

Channels

Private Channels

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