Private channels have been introduced to Microsoft Teams. As one of the most asked for requests on User Voice. With great power, comes great responsibility.
Who can create a Private Channel?
By default, any Team Owner or a Member can create a private channel. If there is a need to further restrict the creation of private channels in a Team, the Teams Administrator can manage users with permissions to create private channels through the Admin Center.
How many Private Channels can I have?
There are two limits you should know about.
Each Team can have up to 30 Private Channels and each Private Channel can have up to 250 members.
Do I get an Office365 Group with my Private Channel?
No. Unlike a regular channel, private channels will only provision a SharePoint site collection, not a group. This means that the Private Channel will not have all of the same benefits as a regular channel or Team. Due to the creation of a separate site collection, it is important to know that your documents are now stored in a completely separate areas and the administrator will need be aware of both when the lifecycle for the Team has finished.
Can Private Channels support extensions and bots?
Currently, Private Channels support tabs and connectors to Stream, Planner and Forms and more to come. You will not be able to use custom extensions for messaging or bots in Private Channels at this time.
Can I make a Private Channel Public Later?
No. Once a Private Channel is created, it will need to remain private. There is no way currently to make a private channel public once created. There is also no way to move a private channel to associate to a different Team.
If I restrict private channel in admin center what happens to the private channels that already exist
If you remove the ability to create private channels through the admin center in Microsoft Teams after private channels have already been created, the existing private channels will remain unaffected. They will continue to exist and function as they did before. However, users will not be able to create any new private channels going forward unless you re-enable the ability to create them through the admin center.
In essence, the change will only impact the creation of new private channels, not the ones that have already been established. Users will still be able to access, collaborate within, and manage the existing private channels normally.