Shared Channels

What are Shared Channels?

• Shared Channels are created from within an existing Team, but are totally independent of its membership 
• Share with people, groups and other Teams
• For now, they can only be shared with people in the University’s tenancy

shared_channels_web_graphic.png

When to choose a Shared Channel

• When you want a shared, cross-Team internal collaboration space.
• When you want to collaborate with just a few people in your Team – unlike a Private Channel, you can share with people outside the Team, too.
• When you want to collaborate with other University people without adding them to your Team.

Example University scenarios

Webinars

You own a Team for collaborating on a project and want to host a webinar for people who are not in your Team. Hosting the webinar in a Shared Channel lets your non-Team members have access to the meeting, recording, chat and supporting files afterwards. 

Committee Papers

You use a Team to collaborate on a project. The project manager needs to share some committee papers with the comms team and Project Board, who are not members of the Team. Putting the papers in a Shared Channel lets a subset of the host Team’s members (for example, just the project manager) collaborate with the non-members. The non-Team members can’t access the other Channels in the Team space.

How to create a Shared Channel

1. Create a new Channel in a Team you manage and select the 'Shared' option:
   teams_shared_channel_creation.png

   

    

How to invite people/groups/Teams to join the Shared Channel

1. Go to the channel and select the 'More options' (three dots icon):
   
   shared_channels_-_select_more.png

   
2. Select 'Share channel'
    
3. Select either 'With people', 'With a team' or 'With a team you own':
   shared_channels_-_invite.png

   

    

4. Add the names of people or Teams, or select a Team that you own
    
5. Select 'Send invite'
    

Collaborating with external people (not in the University tenancy)

Shared Channels can also let you collaborate with external users without them having to switch between their Microsoft tenancies. UIS has not yet enabled this capability because it requires co-ordinated action between both tenancy administrators. We did not want this to delay you getting the benefits of Shared Channels for collaboration with other University people in the meantime.