Channels are dedicated sections within a team to keep conversations and files organized by specific topics, projects, disciplines and more! Files that you share in a channel, or upload to your Team files area will be stored in SharePoint.

There are 3 types of channels that you can create based on your

• Private Channels limit the number of users who have access or see a channel within the team. So subsections of the Team members can collaborate on particular projects or responsibilities without the rest of the team getting notifications.
• Shared Channels can allow you to collaborate with other teams and share files, have conversations and more.
• Standard Channels allow any member of the team to collaborate, and update projects, or start and reply to conversations within the channel.

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 it’s 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
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

Channel Policies

Policy	Description
Create Private Channels	When On, team owners and members can create private channels. (Team owners can control if members can create private channels in each team.)
Create Shared Channels	When On, team owners can create shared channels. Teams apps that are available for your organization are also available in shared channels.
Invite external users to shared channels	When On, owners and members of shared channels can invite external participants from organizations where a cross-organization trust has been configured. Teams policies for your organization apply to these channels.
Join external shared channels	When On, users can participate in shared channels created by other organizations where a cross-organization trust has been configured. Teams policies for the other organization apply to these channels.