A shared channel is a place to collaborate with people inside and outside your team or organization. People outside your org can participate in a shared channel without switching orgs.

Shared channels in Microsoft Teams create collaboration spaces where you can invite people who aren't in the team. Only the users who are owners or members of the shared channel can access the channel. 

You might want to use a shared channel if you want to collaborate with a group of people who are all members of different teams. For example, people from different departments who work on different aspects of the same project or product could use a shared channel to collaborate.

Only members of shared channels can see and participate in shared channels that they're added to. Other members of the team to which the shared channel is connected won't see the channel.

When a shared channel is created, it's linked to the parent team and can't be moved to a different team. Additionally, shared channels can't be converted to standard channels and vice versa.

Who can create a channel?

A team owner can create a shared channel. When a team owner creates a shared channel, they become the channel owner.

Only team owners can create a shared channel; team members cannot create them. 

The person who creates a shared channel becomes the shared channel owner; only the shared channel owner can directly add or remove people from it. However, you can add more than one owner. A shared channel owner can add anyone from the organization to a shared channel they create. Members of a shared channel have a secure conversation space and when new members are added, they can see all conversations — even old conversations — in that shared channel.

Team owners can see the names of all shared channels in their team and can also delete any shared channel in the team. Team owners cannot see the files in a shared channel or the conversations and member list of a shared channel unless they're members of that shared channel.

Team members can only see shared channels that they've been added to.

Channel owner settings

Each shared channel has its own settings that the channel owner can manage, including the ability to add and remove members, add tabs, and @mentioning for the entire channel. 

The shared channel owner can click Manage channel, and then use the Members and Settings tabs to add or remove members and edit settings.

Who can share a channel?

Channel owners can share a channel with teams they own, with people inside or outside their org, and with other teams inside or outside their org.

What is a host team?

When a team owner creates a shared channel, that team becomes the host team. A shared channel sits inside a host team. Channel owners can share a channel with the host team or add people to a shared channel without adding them to the host team.

Shared channel SharePoint sites

Each shared channel has its own SharePoint site. The separate site is to ensure access to shared channel files is restricted to only members of the shared channel.

A shared channel site inherits the sensitivity label of the parent team. This remains true even if the channel is shared directly with another team.

Membership to the site owner and member groups are kept in sync with the membership of the shared channel. Site permissions for a shared channel site can't be managed independently through SharePoint.

Considerations around file access in shared channels

Files and folders in a shared channel can be shared with people outside the channel (but not outside the organization) by using standard SharePoint file sharing. 

If a user is granted access to a file, folder, or notebook in a shared channel through SharePoint, removing the user from the team or shared channel won't remove the user's access to the file, folder, or notebook.

If an existing notebook is added as a tab to a shared channel, access to the shared channel isn't changed and the notebook retains its existing permissions.

Getting Help

Technical assistance is available through the Technology Support Center by phone at (309) 438-4357; by email at SupportCenter@IllinoisState.edu; or by using the website Help.IllinoisState.edu to either submit a ticket or use the Live Chat feature.  

See Also:

• Source (this link will take you outside of Illinois State University): What is a shared channel in Microsoft Teams?
• Source (this link will take you outside of Illinois State University): Shared channels in Microsoft Teams