Support for Private Channels

Looking for the ability to create a channel that only channel members can see. Private channels are available in slack. There is an admin for private channels who is the creator, and they are the ones who add/remove users.

Five types of public/privacy that is being asked for by users:

- Public-Open (visible anywhere including outside the org and anyone can join)
- Public-Invitation (visible anywhere including outside the org, must be invited)
- Company-Open (only visible inside the org and anyone in the org can join; outside the org must be invited)
- Company-Invitation (only visible inside the org, must be invited)
- Secret (invisible to everyone except existing members, must be invited)

15,002 votes

Your name

Your email address

Check!

invalid email

(thinking…)

Reset

or sign in with

UserVoice password

Forgot password?

Create a password

Signed in as (Sign out)

We’ll send you updates on this idea

Angela Sze shared this idea · Nov 1, 2016 · Flag idea as inappropriate… · Admin →

needs your feedback ·

AdminSuphatra (Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams) responded · Oct 17, 2018

Hey Microsoft Teams users — I want you to weigh in on new features around channels and group chats. The engineering team and I have put together this survey to find out how you want to see channels improve. You can fill it out here: https://microsoft.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_esTxHdABLQxKLvn

And I’m still waiting on approval to get you a good update about Private Channels. I can say that we ARE working on it, fervently.

Thanks and ping me any time, for anything at all: www.twitter.com/skprufo or sparavi@microsoft.com. I’m a little behind on email but catching up, so apologies for delays there!

Suphatra

Show previous admin responses (14)

working on it ·

AdminSuphatra (Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams) responded · Sep 27, 2018

Hey guys, guess who’s back from maternity leave? Your favorite Teams PM, Suphatra! I’ve been back for a few weeks and catching up on where we’re at in Engineering.

Private channels is still actively in development, and I am hoping I’ll be given clearance to share with you some more details. What would be great is if you can post in this thread any specific questions you have about the feature, besides just an inquiry on the release date.

You can also email them to me at sparavi@microsoft.com, as well as any other concerns you might have.

It’s good to be back, and good to be posting on here again. I hope you are all doing well!

Sincerely,
Suphatra

working on it ·

AdminWarren (Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams) responded · Aug 6, 2018

This feature is still actively being worked upon. I’ll let you know as we get closer to release.
-Warren

working on it ·

AdminWarren (Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams) responded · Jun 1, 2018

This feature request is still in the works. No additional details to share at this time.
But the team is hard at work to ensure it is implemented in a fashion that will meet your expectations.

-Warren

working on it ·

AdminWarren (Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams) responded · Mar 20, 2018

This feature request is still in the works.

No big updates to share, but the feedback has been a huge help. So thank you all once again. As more details emerge from the feature team on the work being done, I will be sure to share it with you here.

We understand how important this ask is to you all and we are working to ensure it is implemented in a fashion that will meet your expectations.

-Warren

working on it ·

AdminWarren (Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams) responded · Feb 6, 2018

The survey is now closed. We had an amazing response, so thank you all very much!

Please know our surveys are used to help gauge multiple things. Don’t read into it as a roadmap of what is to come.

We will review all the feedback and are reading the comments you post as well. All your feedback is appreciated and goes through consideration.

As we progress on the feature request I will provide more updates.

Thank you!
-Warren

needs your feedback ·

AdminWarren (Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams) responded · Feb 5, 2018

We are still working on this item but would like some feedback from you!

This survey would provide us with valuable insight and help drive several requests. It should only take a couple minutes to quickly fill out.
https://microsoft.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cGv5UzDjoR5idfL

We’re still aiming for early this calendar year (2018) if development and testing go well.

Thank you!
-Warren

working on it ·

AdminWarren (Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams) responded · Jan 23, 2018

This is still actively being worked upon. We’re still aiming for early this calendar year (2018) if development and testing go well.

I hope to have more details to share soon.

-Warren

working on it ·

AdminSuphatra (Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams) responded · Nov 29, 2017

Its been a while since my last update, so wanted to check in and let you know that this is well under way. We’re aiming for early next calendar year (2018) if development and testing go well. I’ll ping you again with a more exact ETA after the new year.

Meanwhile, feel free to ping me on Twitter at @skprufo if you have any questions!

Sincerely,
Suphatra

working on it ·

AdminSuphatra (Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams) responded · Oct 18, 2017

Hi everyone, quick update for you on this feature.

We’ve got lots of resources on this and we’re actively working on it. This is a top priority feature.

I haven’t gotten a firm ETA from the team but I can say this won’t hit in the next month or so. Its a complicated feature, so it will take longer than that. I’ll let you know once I get a general date from them.

Thanks for your feedback, patience, and as always, thank you for your support of Teams.

Sincerely,
Suphatra

Questions? Tweet me at @skprufo.

working on it ·

AdminSuphatra (Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams) responded · Sep 7, 2017

Hi everyone! Hope you’re having a great September.

I’m really excited to share with you the progress on this feature. To recap, we originally tried to resolve for this request by giving you Private Teams, but your feedback showed us that this was not the right solution. So we’ve gone back to the drawing board and we are in active development of private channels.

This is how we view a private channel: it will be a new channel type that allows users to create a channel with a different user roster than the parent team, that is only visible to those members. As the name implies, it is meant for sensitive discussions or for working with sub-teams.

As it turns out, private channels is a very complicated feature to deploy, because there are several dependencies external to Teams. I will keep you updated as we progress, and if you have any questions, please always feel welcome to email me directly at sparavi @ Microsoft (dot) com.

Thanks for your support of teams, and this great idea!

Sincerely,
Suphatra

under review ·

AdminSuphatra (Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams) responded · Jun 15, 2017

Hiya again folks.

I just wanted to write and let you know that I updated the idea to better reflect the vibrant discussion in the community about exactly what a private channel means. It looks like there are five definitions — shout out to user John Black who wrote it out so elegantly. I’ve included that description in the original idea.

We still have this item under review, and I’m personally interested in seeing if this request is further changed when we release guest access (coming super soon!) this summer. Stay tuned, stay cool, and as always, thanks for your support of Teams.

Sincerely,
Suphatra

under review ·

AdminSuphatra (Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams) responded · Apr 25, 2017

Hi everyone,

So a little bit of context for everyone who newly voted for this feature.

When you first asked for “Private Channels” we believed this could be solved by the new feature that we recently rolled out — the ability to create either Public or Private teams. Hence, the status on this item was “Working on it!”

However, the strong feedback from the community has been that this does not solve your original problem. So, we’re pulling this into review and evaluating ways we can implement this. It’s not an easy fix, so we’ll need some time. I’ll make sure to update you along the way.

Thanks and please continue to give us your great feedback. Your voice helps guide this product in the right direction!

Sincerely,
Suphatra

try this instead ·

AdminSuphatra (Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams) responded · Mar 23, 2017

We have enabled a new feature — Private and Public Teams. This allows you to make a team either public (anyone can join) or private (people can only be invited into the team).

This new feature should help many of you requesting private channels.

To make an existing team private or public, just click on the ellipses next to the team name and choose “Edit team”.

Thanks,
Suphatra

working on it ·

AdminSuphatra (Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams) responded · Feb 8, 2017

This is on its way.
Stay tuned for more updates as this moves along!
And if you need anything else, just ping me on Twitter or email.

Suphatra
Microsoft Teams

1287 comments

Add a comment…

Your name

Your email address

Check!

invalid email

(thinking…)

Reset

or sign in with

UserVoice password

Forgot password?

Create a password

Signed in as (Sign out)

Submitting...

Anonymous commented · December 16, 2018 12:59 AM · Flag as inappropriate

Hi, Do we have update on this?
Cool commented · December 14, 2018 2:52 PM · Flag as inappropriate

cool
Anonymous commented · December 13, 2018 11:09 AM · Flag as inappropriate

This feature missing is a little awkward.
Anonymous commented · December 12, 2018 11:00 AM · Flag as inappropriate

This is nuts. I’m sitting on a big pile of money waiting to give it to MS for O365, but without knowing this is coming VERY soon, we’re probably going to decide to stay with GSuite and Slack.

I guess a big pile of money to us is mere pennies to Microsoft...
Flo commented · December 12, 2018 5:42 AM · Flag as inappropriate

we are "fervently" waiting on this feature, for 2 years, please bring it!
Serkan Varoglu commented · December 12, 2018 3:12 AM · Flag as inappropriate

Any update on this?
Anonymous commented · December 12, 2018 2:44 AM · Flag as inappropriate

Hello, have you some news about this feature?
a commented · December 11, 2018 6:47 PM · Flag as inappropriate

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/users/303870445-suphatra - commented that eta was calendar 2018 - its December now and no update of any use save for "its being worked on" - hard to believe there isnt a more meaningful update available if ms are actually "fervently working on it ?
John K commented · December 11, 2018 8:59 AM · Flag as inappropriate

Our company has just started using MSTeams recently and this was the first snag we hit. We have private Teams, but within those teams we need to setup private channels as we have security issues we need to take into consideration.
M J commented · December 11, 2018 3:45 AM · Flag as inappropriate

I know that it is already implemented in Beta version, but when we can expect private channels in productions.
Will it be only private channels or several different options of channels?
Robin commented · December 11, 2018 3:25 AM · Flag as inappropriate

Great to hear that is getting worked on, it will open many doors for more colaborations cross functional without inviting the members to the "whole" team. looking forward to an update.
Mike commented · December 10, 2018 5:35 PM · Flag as inappropriate

Tried to answer the survey and saw that it's closed - I'm guessing that means you received enough feedback, which is great! Can you please post an update on possible ship dates etc?
Ed M commented · December 10, 2018 3:52 PM · Flag as inappropriate

Any updates on this?
Anonymous commented · December 10, 2018 2:36 PM · Flag as inappropriate

Please, Please add Private Channels
Anonymous commented · December 10, 2018 7:14 AM · Flag as inappropriate

Will MSFT let this feedback get to 15,000 votes before adding it to their roadmap?
Anonymous commented · December 10, 2018 6:08 AM · Flag as inappropriate

This feature is the one thing holding us back from switching to MS Teams right now.
Anonymous commented · December 10, 2018 4:47 AM · Flag as inappropriate

Any news on this matter?
Anonymous commented · December 9, 2018 11:45 PM · Flag as inappropriate

Please help, we are drowning in the sea of Private Teams
John Pritchard commented · December 7, 2018 8:50 AM · Flag as inappropriate

I assume the Company-Invitation allows those who are NOT on the TEAM but you want to invite them to a CHANNEL, but will not be allowed to see other channels of that team. I will be adding my vote to this feature!
Dean McGrath commented · December 7, 2018 8:32 AM · Flag as inappropriate

Still nothing on restricting users to particular channels within a team or archiving channels... it is like MS want us to go with third parties like Slack...