What are the differences between Teams channel types?
Currently, Teams has three different channel types that differ primarily on who have access to the channel content:
Standard - All members of the Team have access to the channel content (including guest accounts for people external to the University of Waterloo)
Private - Only specific members of the Team have access to the channel content (i.e. a subset of the Team members). Non-University of Waterloo Team members (guests) can have access to the channel.
Shared - Specific people are granted access to the channel content. These people may or may not be members of the Team but must be from the University of Waterloo (i.e. no external guests).
There are other differences that should be considered when choosing the type of channel that you want to create. The following table shows features for each channel type (source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-channels-overview#channel-feature-comparison)
Features | Standard channel | Private channel | Shared channel |
---|---|---|---|
People can be added to the channel without adding them to the team. | No | No | Yes |
Channel membership can be limited to a subset of the team. | No | Yes | Yes |
Channel can be shared directly with other teams. | No | No | Yes |
Channel can be shared directly with its parent team. | N/A | No | Yes |
Guests can participate in the channel. | Yes | Yes | No |
External participants (B2B Direct Connect) can participate in the channel. | No | No | Yes |
Moderation | Yes | No | No |
Breakout rooms | Yes | No | No |
Copy link to channel | Yes | No | No |
Each channel has a dedicated SharePoint site. | No | Yes | Yes |
Scheduled meetings | Yes | No | Yes |
Planner | Yes | No | No |
Bots, connectors, and messaging extensions | Yes | No | No |
Supported in class teams | Yes | Yes | No |
Tags | Yes | No | No |
Analytics | Yes | Yes | No |