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)

17,051 votes

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We’ll send you updates on this idea

Angela Sze shared this idea · November 01, 2016 · Flag idea as inappropriate… · Admin →

working on it ·

AdminAlex (Teams Engineering, Microsoft Teams) responded · February 04, 2019

Hi Everyone – thank you for your patience. As was commented by someone below, Suphatra is no longer at Microsoft, but rest assured we are working on this feature.

~ Alex

Show previous admin responses (15)

needs your feedback ·

Suphatra responded · October 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.

working on it ·

Suphatra responded · September 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 ·

Warren responded · August 06, 2018

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

working on it ·

Warren responded · June 01, 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 ·

Warren responded · March 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 ·

Warren responded · February 06, 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 ·

Warren responded · February 05, 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 ·

Warren responded · January 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 ·

Suphatra responded · November 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 ·

Suphatra responded · October 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 ·

Suphatra responded · September 07, 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 ·

Suphatra responded · June 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 ·

Suphatra responded · April 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 ·

Suphatra responded · March 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 ·

Suphatra responded · February 08, 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

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Anonymous commented · February 18, 2019 14:31 · Flag as inappropriate

I think this is getting very crucial , I understand the quality of release matters - however this has taken a longer time to be implemented! Please expedite this
Natasha Arksey commented · February 18, 2019 09:29 · Flag as inappropriate

Looking forward to this permission per channel - not all members should be privy to all information not should they have to see every channel not relevant to them...
Anonymous commented · February 16, 2019 14:04 · Flag as inappropriate

It's 2019 guys. You said it'll be ready early 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"
Anonymous commented · February 15, 2019 11:09 · Flag as inappropriate

Any ETA at all at this point? A year ago the ETA was "Early 2018" which obviously didn't happen. Should we hope for sometime in 2019? First half? Q2? Anything?
Mike commented · February 15, 2019 09:36 · Flag as inappropriate

Any ETA at all at this point? A year ago the ETA was "Early 2018" which obviously didn't happen. Should we hope for sometime in 2019? First half? Q2? Anything?
Rafał commented · February 15, 2019 06:21 · Flag as inappropriate

Without that feature we are thinking about moving to Slack. Private chans are a must have.
Ronald Welz commented · February 15, 2019 05:55 · Flag as inappropriate

Go Alex Go ! Teams is a great product and we expect this feature as soon as possible. Of course we understand that quality is first priority.
Priyanka commented · February 14, 2019 14:45 · Flag as inappropriate

Almost thinking to ditch the teams for my team. We needed this functionality, without this work will be impossible.
Jason Lacovara commented · February 14, 2019 10:47 · Flag as inappropriate

November 01, 2016 .... wow, Microsoft this is beyond disrespectful to your customer base.
Terry Walters commented · February 14, 2019 07:54 · Flag as inappropriate

This is becoming even more crucial as our staff are actively using Teams and the various features that come with it. Even having an update from MS would be beneficial rather than the silence we have at the moment.
Anonymous commented · February 14, 2019 06:42 · Flag as inappropriate

Hello there, I would like to add my view on this as well please - that we really need channels to have permissions on them as within teams there are levels of confidentiality and levels of access that need managing. Please can you give us an ETA so we can begin designing with this in mind ? Thank you very much.
Anonymous commented · February 14, 2019 03:58 · Flag as inappropriate

Hi Alex, is MICROSOFT doing some actual developments, or just managing this thread?
Any ETA for this feature?
Seb Ferraro commented · February 14, 2019 02:15 · Flag as inappropriate

Even for only a 150 person organisation, being able to have permission based channels is ideal.

I don't want to create 6+ teams for the different areas (finance/sales/accounts/development/ops), it's a nightmare. Is there any ETA on when this might be done, or even what state it's at now (planning/dev/test).
Jeremie commented · February 14, 2019 00:20 · Flag as inappropriate

Please please please, this should be number one priority. I can't deal with being included in private group chats that mess up private one to one conversations because of the inability to create a private channel in a team.
Pierre commented · February 13, 2019 14:21 · Flag as inappropriate

MS: Please provide an update for the ETA. Thanks.
Anonymous commented · February 13, 2019 12:23 · Flag as inappropriate

When we need a date, I have seen it in an MS test environment so it must be close to release...
Alex commented · February 13, 2019 10:03 · Flag as inappropriate

@Alex (MS): The opposite is actually true. Rest assured that the community is - NOT.

Considering this has been almost ready/worked on for 2 years, we are on the hook with yearly enterprise license fees, the impression this creates is very clear:

Actually we (MS) don't really care.

As Teams is part of all the Office license models and people pay anyhow to use the other products thus there is zero motivation to put focus on improving Teams. Since probably no one signed-up for Office for Teams alone...
Jon commented · February 13, 2019 07:26 · Flag as inappropriate

Zsornbor Fritz has hit the nail on the head with the comment today. Having a lot of different Teams is heavyweight and not a productive solution from a user experience.

This thread has been open for over 2 years! A company with the might of Microsoft should not be taking this long to implement a change with this much demand. Granted there may be a hundred reasons as to why it's difficult but to average Joe customer, we don't need to care! Not having this feature is creating a whole host of problems and workarounds for us!

There are (at current count) 16,844 customers asking for this. 16,844 customers that have spent 2+ years O365 subscription. Of those 16,844 customers I'm certain that we represent A LOT more users. My single vote up is on behalf of an organisation of nearly 3,000 users.

Frankly I'm sometimes surprised that we all hang around when there are alternatives out there.

@Alex, we are not resting assured...
Anonymous commented · February 13, 2019 07:16 · Flag as inappropriate

is there an ETA for delivery? Thks
Anonymous commented · February 13, 2019 07:06 · Flag as inappropriate

Hi Alex,

Thank you for your note above. Per the other comments in the thread, is there an ETA for delivery?