It’s live: What we know about private channels

Latest update from Microsoft

1. It’s been the most requested feature since the launch of teams

Almost 23,000 people have requested it. For a lot of companies, the lack of private channels has been the only thing stopping them from rolling out teams across their organisation. Does this mean when it launches, we’ll see another huge uptake? Teams has already overtaken it’s Google equivalent, Slack, when over 13 million users were logging in worldwide. 

2. It’s coming soon (maybe next month!)

Microsoft have committed private channels to go-live this autumn. In traditional Microsoft soft-launch fashion, we’ll know when it’s live after it’s available to all users. If you beat us to the punch and discover the feature before we’ve managed to update the blog or IT Services Twitter, help guides will be available on support.office.com. 

3. It only applies to new channels

From forums online and Microsoft’s statements about channels, it seems as though the setting to go private can only be applied at the time of creating the channel. This means if you have a current set up, like multiple teams or a few private chats, then you’ll need to:

1. Create a new private channel;
2. Invite the relevant members;
3. Migrate files from your previous team or chat;
4. Delete the previous team or chat.

We’re hoping that the new feature will encourage more colleagues to give teams a try. In October, we’ll post some usage stats to see if it’s made an impact at the University.