While more and more people are moving to online platforms, the number of security breaches is increasing rapidly.
Sharing confidential files is too risky because of numerous reasons. However, MS Teams offers a private channel feature to keep your secrets a secret.
If you cannot create a private channel for your team, keep reading till the end to create a private channel for your classified files and conversations.
Tag Along!
How to Create a Private Channel in Microsoft Teams
Select the team for creating a private channel in Microsoft Teams and navigate to More options > Add channel. Insert a name and description for the private channel. Choose Private – Specific teammates have access under the Privacy option and select Create.
If you are a guest on a team, you can’t create a private channel like the guests can’t chat because of limited access. Only the owners and members of the team have access to create a new private channel.
The files shared in a private channel are only accessible by the channel members. Usually, the files are stored in a separate SharePoint site from the public channels and Microsoft Teams recordings.
Consider the following instructions for creating a private channel for your teams on Windows, Web or Mobile.
Here are the methods to create a private channel in MS Teams:
On Windows Desktop App and Web
- Launch Microsoft Teams on your computer or go to Teams.
- Select the team you want to create a private channel for.
- Click on the three dots (More options) and choose Add channel.
- Enter a name and description.
- Click on the dropdown menu under the Privacy option.
- Choose Private – Specific teammates have access.
- Select Create to add the private channel to your team.
- Enter a name or email in the Add members to the (Channel Name) channel window to add members.
- Click Add and then Done.
On Mobile App
- Launch Teams on your mobile.
- Tap on More options next to the team name.
- Select Manage channels.
- Click on the Plus icon (+) at the bottom of the screen.
- Enter a name and description for the channel.
- Click on Privacy and choose Private.
- Select Done from the top-right corner.
- Enter a name or email next to Add: field to add members to the channel.
- Tap Done.
The ability to create a private channel in a team is limited to 30 private channels. A private channel can have multiple owners and up to 250 members. Luckily, the private channels still support the beautiful Teams emojis.
MS Teams allow users to edit, delete, hide, or leave a channel effortlessly. Though Teams doesn’t allow you to delete an entire team conversation for all, you can remove messages for yourself.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can’t I create a private channel in teams?
If you are a guest on a team, you will not be able to create a private channel. By default, MS Teams allow the owner and team members to create a private channel.
What happens when I create a private channel in teams?
Private channels are separated spaces inside a team that is used to collaborate with team members. When you create a private channel, you can add members of the team to the private channel.
Can a team owner see private channels?
Team owners can only see the files and the conversations of a private channel when they are members of that private channel.
Concluding Words
A private channel has a lock button next to the channel name to help identify it at a glance. And the channel is only visible to the members of the channel, not to all team members.
Use the private channel to share and discuss secret topics you may not want to share with all team members.
For further assistance regarding this issue, drop a comment below.
