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)

19,284 votes

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We’ll send you updates on this idea

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

working on it ·

AdminAlex (Teams Engineering, Microsoft Teams) responded · Feb 4, 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 (16)

needs your feedback ·

Suphatra 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.

working on it ·

Suphatra 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 ·

Warren 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 ·

Warren 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 ·

Warren 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 ·

Warren 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 ·

Warren 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 ·

Warren 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 ·

Suphatra 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 ·

Suphatra 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 ·

Suphatra 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 ·

Suphatra 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 ·

Suphatra 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 ·

Suphatra 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 ·

Suphatra 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

planned ·

Angela Sze responded · Nov 1, 2016

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Greg Petrites commented · April 19, 2019 6:59 AM · Flag as inappropriate

If this is really being worked on, why do I not see it on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap? Can we please ********* the roadmap with a projected release date?

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=
Anonymous commented · April 19, 2019 2:19 AM · Flag as inappropriate

Can we get an update please?
Paul Stephenson commented · April 18, 2019 10:34 AM · Flag as inappropriate

I found something slightly more concrete. There was a post on the microsoft teams blog on March 20th where Aya Tange said that this feature is coming later this year.
Marko Laakkonen commented · April 18, 2019 4:36 AM · Flag as inappropriate

So is the case that we have to change our plans and switch to some other application while the Teams is basically unusable **** in many ways.
- new conversation/reply takes so much space that with one screen you have only very limited amount of data/text. Not a good comparison but think about IRC clients use of space.
- User right management is straight from some free app with no reasonable design (no per channel management even promised for a long time)
- Because of the lousy user management the data storage (foldering) system is unusable
- No support for XenApp desktops

It seems that the whole app has been designed to look good without any intension to get it to work in enterprise level companies. Might be good for private use.
Michael Kirzhner commented · April 17, 2019 4:52 PM · Flag as inappropriate

Any target date for this to be completed?
Mariel commented · April 17, 2019 5:56 AM · Flag as inappropriate

How would this work? Would the list of members be created by the person who creates the private channel? Do they need to be team owners? Will other members be able to request access to a private channel? Will they show in the Channel list to all members or only those who have access to it?
FYI: I am not impatience, just curious on how would it work!
Joshua Bohlmann commented · April 17, 2019 2:39 AM · Flag as inappropriate

Please Microsoft keep us in the loop. You're developing this feature since Sep. 2017....

When do we get this feature? Employees ask me that question every week.
Anonymous commented · April 16, 2019 6:02 AM · Flag as inappropriate

This is a critical feature. I think we'd need to select Slack as a tool if we dont have a legitimate timeframe for this.
Chris Cline commented · April 16, 2019 3:14 AM · Flag as inappropriate

Can you please provide an update to this? We really need this feature to adopt Teams company-wide.
Anonymous commented · April 16, 2019 2:57 AM · Flag as inappropriate

This is a massively important feature for corporat-wide use. Last update from MS on this from Feb. Not very pro-active, given the huge number of votes. An update as when this is going to be released would be highly appreciated. Thx.!
Alison Smith commented · April 16, 2019 2:29 AM · Flag as inappropriate

The lack of this feature is stopping us, like many others, from wider adoption of Teams. a useful timebound update would be appreciate.d
Sue Pflueger commented · April 15, 2019 8:11 PM · Flag as inappropriate

A secret channel is exactly what we need for our company. Do you have an estimated time when this feature will be available?
Rob Robelo commented · April 15, 2019 5:05 PM · Flag as inappropriate

Surprised to find last reply was Feb 4th. The idea was shared on Nov 1st 2016, am i getting this wrong? if so, that's crazy!

Update on progress would be great. ETA would be even better.
Akbar Sathaar commented · April 15, 2019 3:59 PM · Flag as inappropriate

When is this coming out ?? This is an essential feature that needs to be part of Teams. Need this feature ASAP.
Alex commented · April 15, 2019 11:09 AM · Flag as inappropriate

I am surprised this wasn't done on implementation. I don't want a bunch of different teams for 1 department but not everyone needs to be in all the same channels.
Anonymous commented · April 15, 2019 8:00 AM · Flag as inappropriate

This is really one of the biggest reasons holding back some people in my organization from adopting teams because instead of having one team and customizable channel permissions, you need to just create more Teams which is more of a hassle/annoyance.
Chris WB commented · April 14, 2019 5:22 PM · Flag as inappropriate

For perspective, when this was raised; Arya had just killed the Freys, the Great Sept was destroyed and Queen Cersei was crowned.

A meaningful update (not just we're working on it) would be greatly appreciated
Anonymous commented · April 14, 2019 5:09 PM · Flag as inappropriate

Teams getting private channels is sort of becoming a meme at this point. I am extremely skeptical of if this is going to actually come to fruition or not.
Bradley S commented · April 14, 2019 3:04 PM · Flag as inappropriate

Major need for this.
Brian Owens commented · April 11, 2019 1:54 PM · Flag as inappropriate

WHEN WILL WE GET CHANNEL LEVEL PERMISSIONS?????