First impressions of Private Channels in Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams: Team Settings

We finally have Private Channels in Microsoft Teams, here are some of my first impressions.

👍 Private Channels are created without the Wiki tab

👉 Private Channels create a new SharePoint site collection (based upon a modern Team)

👉 A Private Channel’s site collection’s Alias (URL) is prefixed with its “parent” Team’s Alias (URL):

  • Team Name: Human Resources
  • Private Channel Name: Annual Reviews
  • https://[company].sharepoint.com/sites/HumanResources-AnnualReviews

👍 Space re removed from a Private Channel’s title when a site collection’s Alias (URL) is created:

  • Private Channel Name: Annual Reviews
  • https://[company].sharepoint.com/sites/HumanResources-AnnualReviews

👎 Private Channels’ site collections are not available to see within the ‘modern’ SharePoint Admin Center. Other site collections are listed under the Active Sites page.

💀 Deleting a Private Channel also deletes the site collections (as expected). However the site collections is not available for recovery within the SharePoint Admin Center, under the Deletes Sites page.

👉 Private Channels site collection’s logo is not inherited from the Team and cannot be updated using the Microsoft Teams App. However it can be changed using the modern SharePoint UI.

👉 A Private Channel’s site collection’s homepage is the Documents library. It does not have the Site Pages feature activated and therefore does not have a Site Pages library.



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