Now in Public preview & Targeted release: New channels experience in Teams

[Jan_Steberl]

Channels in Teams enable workgroups and teams of all sizes to come together in one dedicated space to exchange ideas, build collective knowledge, make decisions, and get work done. Last year, we announced a new channels experience, built with an intuitive design that allows teams to focus, stay on task, brings everyone up to speed, actively engages real-time. The new channels experience is now enabled in Public Preview!

The following features are unlocked for Public Preview to try out:

• The compose box and recent posts will appear at the top of the page. So now, it’s much easier to start a new post, keep up with the latest conversations and participate - giving you the confidence that they’ve not missed anything.
• Every post is now a true conversation you can focus on. You can navigate to a conversation view that makes the discussion more engaging and synchronous, just like a chat. You can also pop out the post, keep an eye on the discussion, while continuing to work on other topics.
• Hashtags referencing Viva Topics will provide context right in the channel on organizational topics without having to ask anyone else.
• A streamlined information pane will include all the important contextual information like a channel’s members and pinned posts so new team members can quickly on-board and for all members to find the information they need, right in the channel.
• Pin posts to make it easy for everyone to know what’s important in the channel and quickly reference it.
• Simplified badging makes it easier for users to understand when there are new unread activities in teams. In addition, the simplified design helps users focus on the specific channels which require the most attention, like channels in which the user was @mentioned.

Check out more details here:

Get to know the new channels experience in Teams!

Flighting status

Rolling out incrementally.

Note 1: If you need information about enabling the public preview itself, see “Enable the public preview for Teams” below.

Note 2: To be able to use this feature, users needs to be in Public Preview.

 

Supported clients and platforms

Windows	macOS	iOS	Android	Linux	Google Chrome	Firefox	Safari	Microsoft Edge
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes			Yes

 

Known issues

The attendance report for channel meetings is not currently available in chat and not downloadable.

 

Known limitations

• EDU users and VDI users in Teams classic will still utilize the classic channels experience. 
• Channel conversation notifications have been removed.
• Announcement posts do not support uploading an image.
• Safari and Firefox will continue to utilize the classic channels experience.

Enable your Teams client for the public preview 

1. First, IT admins need to set an update policy that turns on Show preview features. Learn how at Public preview in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Docs.  
2. Users then choose to join the public preview individually. Learn how at Get early access to new Teams features - Office Support (microsoft.com) 

 

Send us your feedback 

Got feedback on features in the public preview or other areas of Teams? Let us know straight from Teams via Help > Give feedback.  This is on the bottom left of your client.

Thank you,

Preview Team

Quality & Customer Obsession, Microsoft Teams

[#2]

Seems the Channel Calendar tabs are gone with the new Channels experience. How does a user get those tabs back and/or access those Channel calendars?

[#3]

@Jan_Steberl Our users are having a lot of issues with the channel meetings and calendars as well. If someone who has the old channels creates a channel meeting those with new channels cannot see it. There is also no meet now button available, will these problems be fixed before it rolls out in GA? Also if there is a better place to leave this feedback please let me know, I did leave feedback directly in the app.

[#4]

@Jan_Steberl 

I guess we're still awaiting on the following to roll out:

• Channel headers (to make it look more like a Viva Engage community?)
• Uploadable JPGs for channel conversation headings (currently only solid colours are permitted)
• A better compose box - at the moment the classic channel compose box has shortcut keys that have since been removed in the Teams Chat (e.g. pressing ">" will allow the quotation to appear (in HTML, it's wrapped around as <blockquote>...</blockquote>). 

In its current form, it's still nowhere near what was announced in October 2022:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/enhance-collaboration-with-microsoft-tea...

[#5]

Why not for VDI? MS is pushing organizations to use Teams local.

[#6]

@Jan_Steberl :
Will the new channel experience have the limitations resolved when it goes public? I understand it is in Early Access right now.

You write that channel conversation notifications have been removed. Is that going to be permanent or is it just temporary?
I know many people who use the notification feature to "bow out" of a conversation that derailed.

[#7]

I find it unfortunate that the adaptive card is omitted from the new channel experience.
I have often used adaptive cards to avoid the omission of the display.
I have provided feedback. I hope it will be improved.

[#8]

the 'Browse teams and channels'-option is not in the attachments paperclip menu of a channel conversation anymore. Can we please get it back? It is a bit of a hassle to manually copy a link to a file and paste it in the post.

[#9]

@Lou Jans I second this. It is really unfortunate that it is not trivial to pick files from the channel you are currently posting in. 

[#10]

Hi - I am having many issues with the Channels 2.0 I received last week with no warning.   First of all, All of my team channels which have a PIN to them, now have a very generic look to them after removing the images.    In the new format of 2.0, the post now looks much better than doing an annoucement as you can no longer personalize with image and topic.   Some of my channels just had the image or map and no wording.   Now, they are completely blank and generic.   Issues with meetings also.    I am not sure why the functionality has become worse with 2.0.   Thank you in Advance!   

[#11]

Another questions, if you wish to use an image in a post, what should the size be to look correct in a post. Thank you!

[#12]

Would really like to see the ability to add an image to a an announcement post.  We have particular images so that folks can visually quickly know what an announcement is about.