Managing a Microsoft Team

If you’re a team owner, you're in control of a lot of the settings and permissions of your team. Here's how to adjust them.

• Manage Team Settings and Permissions
• Creating Channels
  • Create a Standard Channel
  • Create a Private Channel
• Add Team Members
  • Add Team Members Manually
  • Invite Team Members via Shared Code
  • Invite Team Members via Shared Link
• Change a Team Privacy Setting
  • Change a Team Privacy Status
• Make Someone a Team Owner
• Remove Someone from a Team
• Team Owner, Member, and Guest Capabilities

Manage Team Settings and Permissions

1. Go to the team name and click More options (...) > Manage team.
   
    
2. In the Settings tab, check or uncheck the options or permissions you want to use.
   
    

Creating Channels

Divide your team down into different segments, so folks working on specific topics can work in a designated area. 

Create a standard channel

To create a standard channel, start in the team list. Find the team name and click More options (...) > Add channel. You can also click Manage team, and add a channel in the Channels tab. 

You can create up to 200 channels over the life of a team. That number includes channels you create and later delete. 

Create a private channel

If you want a focused place to discuss sensitive information such as budgets, resourcing, strategic positioning, and so on, create a private channel for your team. Only owners or members of the private channel can access it. To understand who can view what in a private channel, see Private channels in Teams. 

You can create up to 30 private channels over the life of a team.

To create a private channel for a team:

1. Go to the team you want to create the private channel for and choose More options  (...) > Add channel.

2. Enter a name and description for your channel.

3. Under Privacy, select the down arrow on the right, and then select Private – Accessible only to a specific group of people within the team.

4. Select Add. This adds a private channel to the team.

 

Add Team members

Add team members to your team or share a unique code that allows users to join themselves. 

 

Adding Team Members Manually

After you've created a team, you can go back and add more members following the steps listed below.

1. As a team owner, find the team name in the Teams list and click More options  > Add member.
   
    
2. Start typing a name, username, distribution list, or Office 365 group to add to your team. You can also add people outside your organization as guests by typing their email addresses. When you're done adding members, click the Add button.
   
    
3. By default, users are Members of the team, but you can selecting the down arrow and changing their role to Owner.
   
4. Click Close.

 

Invite Team Members via Shared Code

Give team members the power to add themselves by sharing out a Team Code. Here's how to find yours:

1. Next to your team name, select More options ... > Manage team.
   
    
2. Select the Settings tab and then Team code.
   
    
3. Select Generate to generate your unique team code.
   

Then use the buttons below your unique code to:

1. Present the team code Full screen so your audience can join on the fly.
2. Reset your team code to another unique series of characters.
3. Remove the team code, so users can no longer use it to join.
4. Copy your team code and share it via email, Canvas, or on the web.
    

Invite Team Members via Shared Link

Get the link to your team, and use it to quickly give users access. 

1. Next to your team name, select More options ... > Get link to team.
   
    
2. The link to your team will display in the Get a link to the team window. Click the Copy button to copy the URL to your computer's clipboard and then share it with your team to join. 
   
    

Change a Team Privacy Setting

Private teams can only be joined if the team owner adds someone to them. When creating a team, choose to make the team discoverable so that people can search for it in the team's gallery, or turn discoverability off so that people can only find the team if shared by you or a team member.

Public teams are visible to everyone from the team's gallery and you can join them without getting approval from the team owner.

Change a team's privacy status

To change the privacy settings for your team from public to private (or vice versa), go to the team name and select More options (...) > Edit team toward the bottom of the menu. Under Privacy, select either Public or Private.

You can now choose to make private teams discoverable when people search for teams to join. People will still require permission from a team owner to join a private team, this only allows the team to turn up in search results.

 

Make Someone a Team Owner

If you want to make someone an owner or view who's an owner of an existing team, go to the team name and click More options (...) > Manage team.

The Role column tells you if someone is a team member or owner. To make someone an owner, click Member and then select Owner.

You can also make someone a team owner while you're creating a team. When you're adding team members, designate whether each new person is going to be a team member or team owner by clicking Owner under the Member menu.

 

Remove someone from a team

If you're a team owner, you can absolutely remove someone from your team. Go to the team name and then click More options  > Manage team > Members.

From your team member list, click the X to the far right of the name of the person you'd like to remove. To remove another team owner, first, change their role from owner to member, then remove them.

Once you remove someone from a team, you can always use Add member to add them back to the team later on.

 

Team owner, member, and guest capabilities in Teams

Every member in Teams has a role, and each one has different permissions. 

• Owners
  Team owners manage certain settings for the team. They add and remove members, add guests, change team settings, and handle administrative tasks. There can be multiple owners in a team.

• Members
  Members are the people in the team. They talk with other team members in conversations. They can view and usually upload and change files. They also do the usual sorts of collaboration that the team owners have permitted.

• Guests
  Guests are people from outside of your organization that a team owner invites, such as partners or consultants to join the team. Guests have fewer capabilities than team members or team owners, but there's still a lot they can do.

Capability	Owner	Member	Guest
Create a channel
Participate in a private chat
Participate in a channel conversation
Share a channel file
Share a chat file
Add apps (such as tabs, bots, or connectors)
Can be invited via any work or school account for Microsoft 365
Create a team
Delete or edit posted messages
Discover and join public teams
View org chart
Add or remove members and guests
Edit or delete a team
Set team permissions for channels, tabs, and connectors
Change the team picture
Add guests to a team
Auto-show channels for the whole team
Control @[team name] mentions
Allow @channel or @[channel name] mentions
Allow usage of emoji, GIFs, and memes
Renew a team
Archive or restore a team