Private channels in Microsoft Teams create restricted spaces for collaboration within your teams. Standard (Public) channels can be accessed by all team members, whereas private channels can be viewed and accessed by only the members and owners of the private channel. In this post, we will explore the differences between the private and public channels in Teams.
Membership
- All team members will be members of the standard channel.
- Private channels will have separate members and owners who are already part of the team (Team members or owners).
- A user can be added as a member or owner to a private channel only if the user is already available in the channel’s associated team membership, outside of the team members can’t be added to the private channel.
Files Storage – SharePoint Online
- The files added in a standard channel will be stored within a folder on the team’s associated SharePoint site. A sub folder with the name of the standard channel will be created under the team’s site.
- Private channels have their own SharePoint Online site to store files.
- When you create a private channel, a new SharePoint site collection will be created for the channel and this site collection will have a template type of “TeamChannel#0“. All the files added to the private channel will be stored on this dedicated SPO site.
Accessibility and Permission
- Standard channels can be visible and accessible to all the team members and owners.
- Private channels can be visible and accessible to only the members and owners of the private channel.
- Team owners can view the private channel and delete them if needed, but they cannot view or post any conversations if they are not a member of the private channel.
- Only users who are a member (or owner) of the private channel will have access to the content in the private channel’s associated SPO site.
Teams connectors, tabs, and apps
- All connectors, tabs, and apps can be added to standard channels.
- Currently, private channels support most of the connectors and tabs (except Stream, Planner, and Forms).
- Not all Teams apps work with private channels. Microsoft team working on full apps support for private channels, including messaging extensions and bots.
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