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Microsoft 365 Insider Blog
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Give a custom name to the General channel in Microsoft Teams

Linda_C's avatar
Linda_C
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Aug 26, 2024

(Originally published on August 13, 2024 by Teams Public Preview team)

 

Hi, Microsoft 365 Insiders! We’re excited to share that it’s now possible to rename the General channel in an existing team in Microsoft Teams or to give a custom name to the first channel you create in a new team. This allows you to give a more meaningful name to this important channel.

Give a custom name to the General channel in Microsoft Teams

Up until now, every team in Microsoft Teams had a default General channel. All team members are part of this channel, and it can’t be archived or deleted. 

We’ve heard from users that they wanted the option to retitle this channel to something more meaningful. So, we made it happen! The General channel can now be renamed by the team’s owners. It will then show up in alphabetical order like other channels in the teams and channels lists for all members.

How it works

To rename an existing team: 

  1. Open Microsoft Teams and navigate to a team that you are the owner of.
  2. As the team owner, select the More options button next to the General channel.
  3. Select Rename channel.Menu option to rename channel in Teams
  4. In the Channel name field, give the channel a meaningful name, and then select the Save button. 
    Edit the General channel name

To create a new team:

Navigate to the + button in the header and select New team from the context menu. You are now able to name the first-created channel in this team whatever you like (it will no longer be named General by default). This channel cannot be archived or deleted, and it will appear in alphabetical order with the other channels in that team.

Tips and tricks

  • The General channel can also be renamed from the Manage channel settings page or the context menu from the onboarding page channel header.
  • General is a reserved string, and no new channels can be named General.
  • The first-created channel in a new team will have the same description as the team by default.

Availability

To use these new features, you must be a member of the Teams Public Preview or Microsoft 365 Targeted release and use the new Teams client for Windows or macOS. Other meeting participants aren’t required to be members of the Teams Public Preview.

To enable your Teams client for the Public Preview, IT administrators must enable Show preview features in their update policy. Learn more.

For Targeted release, global admins can go to the Microsoft 365 admin center and give access to a select set of individuals or the entire organization. Learn more.

Feedback

We want to hear from you! Select Settings and more Help in the top right corner of the Teams app, and then select either Give feedback Suggest a feature to share your thoughts.

 


Learn about the Microsoft 365 Insider program and sign up for the Microsoft 365 Insider newsletter to get the latest information about Insider features in your inbox once a month!

Updated Nov 25, 2024
Version 2.0
  • OzOscroft's avatar
    OzOscroft
    Iron Contributor

    This is a great idea as "General" can just become a dumping ground for people too lazy to think which channel they should really be collaborating in.  However, there's some fundamental issues with the implementation at present!

    1. It now appears to be impossible to have a channel named General ... which is important for consistency for those who still wish to use it.  You have to complete the "Name the first channel" box to create the Team, but can't use "General" as it says that's reserved.  Neither can you rename the first channel to "General" once the Team is created.
    2. Your first channel just appears alphabetically within your list of channels.  This may be great, but Owners may wish for it to always be at the top of the list, like "General" currently is.
    3. Whilst it's unlikely users would be able to distinguish the first channel from any of the other channels, it actually operates differently to subsequent channels.  For example, the moderation options are different and it gives the name as "General Channel" within those settings, even though the channel is now called something else; it can't be archived or deleted; etc.

     

    I love the idea of being able to not have a General channel, but we need the option to still have one if desired.  Also, if your first channel operates differently from the others, it may be useful to highlight it in some way as a 'special' channel.  There should be a channel setting to keep it at the top of the channel list if desired.

  • DamienS's avatar
    DamienS
    Copper Contributor

    This really should be an administrative option.  By default, the "General" channel was always the main channel. It was always pinned to the top and you knew everyone on the team had access to the channel. Removing that core functionality makes no sense, especially if there is no option to force pin the channel in the order you want for all users in the team.

     

    The biggest issue though is not allowing us to name the first channel "General" to maintain consistency with every team create since Teams launched.

     

    This is a major point of contention for our clients, almost as bad as including the general channel to be automatically hidden. Nothing is more fun to go into a team and have all your channels hidden because you have not accessed it in a while. (FYI, an admin setting here to enable, disable or set the time inactive required before adding would be nice, as well as an option to set a channel to never hide)

     

    It really should have stopped at allowing the users to rename the channel. Now when this rolls out to everyone, I get to deal with upset clients who have to adjust documentation and process around this.

     

    Now I get to start testing our automated processes we have created for various clients that create teams, add tabs, applications, etc. to the "General" channel that apparently no longer exists.

     

  • Not sure if this is by design, but it looks like the name in the moderation section doesn't reflect the actual channel name and still says 'General Channel':

     

     

     

     

     

  • HenrivdM68's avatar
    HenrivdM68
    Copper Contributor

    Whilst allowing the rename great, for backwards compatibility with training material (and habits) it is an enormous pain that the "Name of the first channel" does not default to "General" with an Option to change it!   

    For on-the-fly single channel Teams/Sites everyone is accustomed to the notion that the "general" channel is well for "general" use, and HAVING to call is something other than "General" is just adding a level of unnecessary thought.

  • supbra's avatar
    supbra
    Copper Contributor

    In addition to OzOscroft excellent points we identified some issues with how "add shortcut to onedrive" treats this first channel.

     

    When utilizing the "Add Shortcut to OneDrive" feature the shortcut is created with ONLY the new custom name we chose.

    For example we have decided to use the label "Files" instead of "General", so that is the first channel. Within Files channel in the Files section are the Directories and files we would like access to in OneDrive.

     

    It creates the shortcut in OneDrive but only as "Files" as opposed to previously it would create a shortcut "General - AnAmazingProject".

    Anyone else experiencing this?

  • meiroca21's avatar
    meiroca21
    Copper Contributor

    Great news !

     

    I have shared where i work and people get really excited about it.

     

    Do you know when the feature will be available to everyone? As for now only people in preview ring can access. 

     

    Thank you!

     

    M

  • Waldis007's avatar
    Waldis007
    Copper Contributor

    Wow! Renaming the "General" folder creates a separate "General" folder, but this time it's just a folder within document library, syncing to the Team folder in File Explorer, yet no longer appearing as a channel within Teams. The top Documents library now lists two separate names—one under "In Channels" and the other under "In Site Library"—if you rename the "General" directory from the SharePoint side. This could quickly turn into a big mess, with different names depending on how you access and rename it, and the new "General" folder existing solely in the site library.

     

    The idea has been thrown up on the wall, and now we need to figure out how to make it work. Once we've done that and everything is functioning as needed, it will likely get re-thrown up again, breaking the functionality. Then, we'll have a real mess on our hands, trying to figure out what's gone wrong and how to fix it all over again.

  • Waldis007's avatar
    Waldis007
    Copper Contributor

    The renamed "General" channel actually points to Documents > General, which was automatically created when I renamed the Teams channel, and is separate from the original "General" folder that I renamed. The channel name is "New Name," but it still points to the new "General" folder. Both folders are listed under the site library and File Explorer. So, whatever I add to the "Files" tab in Teams now defaults to the newly created General folder. No, I’m done here.

     

    P.S. Renaming the channel also renamed the newly created "General" folder, and now the new channel name points to the correctly named folder. As I mentioned, it becomes a big mess when we start renaming things...

  • AnoRnymous's avatar
    AnoRnymous
    Iron Contributor

    Renaming the "General" channel is a great option, but you should definately take into consideration the remarks of @OzOscroft and DamienS, amongst others.

     

    Please also take into consideration the non-English tenants. One of the perks of having the ability to rename the "General" channel is that the "General" folder in the document library could be renamed too. Because "General" only fits for English users, whilst it should reflect the actual name of the channel so it actually means something in other languages as well. So if the main channels name is "Abcde" the foldername in the library should be the same, not "General".

     

    Oh and Linda_C, the originally published date in the top of your blogitem shows 2025, shouldn't this be 2024?