Shared channels in Teams create collaboration spaces where you can invite people outside your team, even outside the company. However, chances are that, in most companies, it will not yet be possible to invite externals to shared channels, as specific requirements need to be met in case of external sharing.
This blog post is about shared channels for in-company use. Sharing channels within the company can boost collaboration! Let’s first have a look on how you can get things started.
STEP 1: Create a shared channel
You need to be a team owner to be able to add a shared channel to the channels of your team.
You will need to determine whether this channel should be available to all team members, or only a few of them.
If you want everyone in your team to be able to access the shared channel, the default setting will do.
STEP 2: Share this channel with people outside your team
Once created, the new ‘shared’ channel isn’t shared yet. As a team owner, you can invite people from your organization, you can even invite an entire team. Note that externals having a guest account will not have access to shared channels, neither as a guest in your own team, nor guests in the team you invited!
Sharing is caring !
Share with people
You can share the channel with specific team members (if you unchecked the box in the previous step) or with people outside your team. The latter will have a new team in their Teams, with only one channel. You can now have conversations and share files.
Share with a team
Adding a shared channel to a team you own is easy. Just choose the team you want to share the channel with, and you’re done! Both teams can now have conversations and start sharing files.
To share a channel with a team you are not owner of, a few more clicks are needed.
Let’s say a shared channel is created in team A. Team owner A will have to enter the name of the owner of team B. An invite will be sent this way. Once team owner B has chosen his team (from the list of teams he owns), team owner A will have to confirm, after which the channel will appear in team B. Note that, in this case, the shared channel will be added to the list of channels of team B. It has an ‘link’ icon to indicate the channel is in fact part of another team.
Both teams can now have conversations and start sharing files.
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