Microsoft Teams Connect Shared Channels Are Now Available For Public Preview

In the wake of the pandemic, hybrid work has become more common. And Businesses are finding it challenging to balance the hybrid work environment and regular work routines.??

Slack and Teams are the two most popular communication tools making collaboration easier for businesses. Despite being like Slack, Microsoft Teams excels in providing real-time collaboration, workflow automation, and more. So, many businesses are migrating from Slack to Teams to make collaboration effective in the hybrid workplace.?

You may effectively collaborate with external stakeholders using Microsoft Teams. And Teams Connect makes it easier to communicate with people both inside and outside your company, allowing your extended team to work more successfully and efficiently across organizations. Multiple organizations can collaborate in a single environment via shared channels. You may have discussions, plan meetings, collaborate on apps, and share and co-author files without ever switching tenants.?

“Teams Connect shared channels is made available in public preview beginning at the end of March. It will be included with subscriptions to Office 365/Microsoft 365 Business, Enterprise, and Education.”?

Benefits of Shared Channels in Teams?

• Become One Extended Team Despite Organizational Boundaries?

Users can invite others to a shared channel without adding them to the team. When collaboration in existing channels needs to be expanded outside the team, this avoids oversharing and avoids the need to create new teams.?

• Easily Collaborate With External Partners?

Shared channels simplify sharing and collaborating on files across companies and organizations. Regardless of their organization, everyone on the channel can simultaneously upload, view, and co-author.?

• Admins Can Control the Shared Channel Settings?

Shared channels give Teams admins a variety of controls to match your organization's specific needs. Admins can manage whether users can build a shared channel, share channels with people outside the company, and join an external shared channel using Teams policies.?

• Compliant and Secure Collaborations With External Parties?

The Microsoft 365 hyper-scale, the enterprise-grade cloud, provides advanced security and compliance capabilities that companies expect. Shared channels are built on the Microsoft 365 hyper-scale, enterprise-grade cloud, which provides our customers with the sophisticated security and compliance features they need.??

For host admins to control and administer channel data, shared channels provide a rich set of Information Protection features, including eDiscovery, legal holds, information barriers, communication compliance, retention, audit logs, and DLP.?

How to Create a Shared Channel in Teams?

1. To create a shared channel, go to the team you want to create it for, choose More options, and click on Add channel.?

2. Give a name and description in the pop-up. By selecting the down arrow to the right of Privacy, select Shared - People you choose from your org or other orgs have access and click on create.?

Source: Microsoft

3. You can choose people in your organization to add to the channel by typing their names. You can add people from outside your organization by typing their email addresses and selecting them from the list. Once people are added, click on share.?

4. A Member can be changed into an Owner by selecting the down arrow to the right of Member.?