Managing Teams and Channels in Microsoft Teams

Tags Teams

This article offers a detailed overview of teams and channels in Microsoft Teams, covering their purpose, types, and functions. It also explains how to manage members and guests, adjust team settings, and renew an expiring team.

What is a Team?

A team in Microsoft Teams is a collection of people, content, and tools centered around different projects and outcomes within an organization. Teams are designed to bring together groups of people who work closely to achieve common goals. They can be dynamic for project-based work or ongoing to reflect the internal structure of the organization, such as departments and units. Conversations, files, and notes across team channels are only visible to team members, ensuring a focused and secure collaboration environment.

Types of Teams:

  • General Team: Ideal for departments, units, organizations, clubs, and interest groups to enhance communication and collaboration. General teams allow members to share content, organize virtual or face-to-face meetings, and streamline workflows. By default, a general team is private and open only to invited users. However, there is an option to create a public team, allowing anyone within the organization to join and participate.
  • Classroom Team: Designed specifically for educational settings, classroom teams facilitate collaboration and communication between faculty and students. These teams support assigning, tracking, and reviewing student work, as well as administering quizzes and polls. By default, a classroom team is private and open only to invited students, ensuring a secure learning environment.

What is a Channel?

A team is composed of channels, which are separate spaces for conversations and files. Each channel can be dedicated to a specific topic, idea, or project, where the actual work gets accomplished. Channels help organize the team's work and make it easier to find relevant information.

Types of Channels:

  • Standard Channel: Open to all team members, standard channels are ideal for general discussions and collaboration. Anything posted in a standard channel is searchable by other team members, making it easy to find and reference information.
  • Private Channel: For discussions that should not be open to all team members, private channels provide a secure space for sensitive conversations. Only invited members can view and participate in a private channel. Files shared in a private channel are only viewable by its members and are stored in a separate SharePoint from the rest of the team's files.
  • Shared Channel: Shared channels are designed for collaborating with people both inside and outside your team or organization. Only owners or members of a shared channel can access it, and they must be invited to join. Owners of the shared channel can invite or add other teams and members. When a team owner creates a shared channel, that team becomes the host team. A shared channel resides within a host team, providing a flexible and secure collaboration space.

Managing Members and Guests

Adding Members

  1. Open Microsoft Teams and navigate to the team you want to manage.
  2. Click on the three dots next to the team name and select Manage team.
  3. Click on Add member and search for the person's name or email address.
  4. Select the person from the search results and click Add.

Adding Guests

Sometimes, you need to collaborate with people outside of Ithaca College. You can add them to your team in Microsoft Teams as guests. Guests have fewer capabilities than team members or owners. When a guest is invited, they receive a welcome email with information about the team and what to expect. They must accept the invitation by selecting "Open Microsoft Teams" in the email to access the team and its channels.

  1. Follow the same steps as adding members, but enter the guest's email address.
  2. Guests will receive an email invitation to join the team. They need to accept the invitation to gain access.

Removing Members

  1. Go to the team and click on the three dots next to the team name.
  2. Select Manage team.
  3. Find the member you want to remove and click on the "X" button next to their name.

Removing Guests

Follow the same steps as removing members. Guests can be removed in the same way as members.

Changing Roles

To change the role of a member:

  1. Go to the team name, select More options > Manage team > Members.
  2. To change a member's role, click the dropdown next to the member's name. Select Owner to promote them or select Member to demote an owner.

Managing Team Settings

To manage team settings:

  1. Go to the team name, select More options > Manage team > Settings.

In the Settings tab, you can:

  • Add or change the team picture.
  • Set member permissions, such as allowing them to create, update, or delete channels and tabs.
  • Enable or disable @team or @[team name] mentions.
  • Enable or disable @channel or @[channel name] mentions.
  • Set guest permissions.
  • Allow team members to use GIFs, emojis, and stickers.

Renewing an Expiring Team

Every team in Microsoft Teams has an annual expiration date. Active teams are automatically renewed upon reaching this date. However, inactive teams risk deletion if not manually renewed by the team owner. For active teams, they are automatically renewed on the expiration date. Inactive teams must be manually renewed by the team owner to avoid deletion.

If a team is not renewed by the expiration date, it enters a "soft-deletion" state, as indicated by an email notification. During the 30 days following soft-deletion, the team can still be renewed and recovered. If not renewed within the 30-day period, the team and all associated data will be permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.

Renewal Methods

Renew in Microsoft Teams

  1. Open Microsoft Teams.
  2. Select the ellipses (...) next to the expiring team and choose Manage team.
  3. Go to the Settings tab.
  4. Under Team Expiration, select the Renew Now button.
  • Warning Triangle Icon: If a warning triangle icon appears next to your team, it indicates that the team is scheduled to expire within the next 30 days. To renew:
    1. Click on the warning triangle icon and select Renew Team.
    2. Under Team Expiration, select the Renew Now button.

Renew via Email

  • Email Reminders: You will receive email reminders 30 days, 15 days, and one day before the expiration date.
  • Renewal Steps:
    1. Select the Renew Now button in the reminder email.
    2. You will be directed to a web page. On this page, select Yes to confirm your team's renewal.

Deleting a Team

Deleting a Team

If you are the team owner, go to the team's name, select More options > Delete team, and confirm the deletion. This action permanently removes the team.

To view all the teams you own, select More options > Your teams and channels > Settings.

  • Deleting a team also removes its mailbox and calendar from Exchange.
  • The associated SharePoint site and all its files will be deleted.
  • Any linked OneNote notebook, Planner plan, Power BI workspace, or Stream group will also be removed.
  • Team owners and IT admins can recover deleted teams for up to 30 days.

Further Reading

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