Microsoft Teams: Creating a Shared Channel

There may be times when you need to collaborate with YSU users that do not belong to your team. This article explains how to setup a channel that can be shared with an individual(s) or another team.

How do I create a channel that can be shared with someone outside of my team or with a different team?

There may be circumstances in which your team needs to collaborate with users who are not members of your team. This can be a project, collaboration with another department, or a channel that shares information in a cross-departmental circumstance. 

To create a shared channel, take the following steps:

1. In your Team, click the ellipses (3 dots) next to the team name and click Add channel.

2. Next, give the channel a name and if desired, a description. In the below example, we are creating a channel in a demo HR team for collaboration on a wellness project. Though the channel will reside with the HR team, collaborators should not have access to the rest of the HR team contents.

3. Change the privacy settings of the channel. Click the drop down for the privacy settings, and select Shared- People you choose from your org or other orgs have access, and then click Add.

Note: While Teams inherently allows for channels to be shared outside of the organization, our settings are such that we can only give access to YSU accounts.

4. Specify whom should have access. You may or may not know who needs access at this point, or you plan to share it with another team. If you need to, click the Skip button to skip adding members at this time. If specifying individuals who should have access, you may start entering their information in the box. Click Add to continue. This channel will become part of the team. Check the box to Automatically show this channel in everyone's channel list if you want the channel to appear on the channel list of your team members. 

5. After adding members or skipping above, the channel is created and is now part of the team. To adjust parameters, including access to the channel (such as sharing with another team). click the ellipses (3 dots) next to the channel name, and click on Manage channel. 

 

6. At this screen, you can further adjust parameters, especially who the channel is shared with. Click the drop down next to Share with people to specify:

 

Shared with people- specify individuals at YSU who should have access.
Share with a team- Share with a Team that you have access to. This is useful if you are a member of another department's team and the two teams collaborate.
Share with a team you own- Share the channel with any teams in wish you are an owner (administrator) to. 

Also at this same screen you can adjust additional channel parameters, such as the name. To do this, click the 3 dots (ellipses) next to the channel name above, and click on Edit channel.

Make any adjustments as you see fit to the Name and/or description. Click Save to save your changes.

If you have any questions regarding shared channels, please contact IT Training Services at ITtraining@ysu.edu. Be sure to check out or training workshops on Teams or schedule a consultation with us.