Add Group Chat As A Channel

[ohanoch]

Hi all,

I am wondering if there is a way to make a channel in a team that behaves the same as a group chat.

I understand the advantages and disadvantages of conversations vs chats. Basically I like having conversation for work related things, the threads are good for organizations etc. At the same time I would prefer having a channel for general chit chat that behaves like a group chat (with the reply behavior of a chat and the general flow of a chat.)

Yes I could just make a group chat that has the same members as my team but it is less comfortable to continuously go between the Teams tab and the Chats tab, and also inviting members to both the Group and the Chat can be annoying when there are many of them.

Is there a way to do this that I missed?

[#2]

Nothing built-in for this scenario afaik, perhaps look into Teams add-ins?

[#3]

@Vasil Michev  Thanks for your reply! Unfortunately I didn't find anything in the add-ins...

[#4]

Hi there,

I've just posted a topic like this. I guess it will become a feature request ;).

There is my question and no, no add-in can do this unfortunately

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams/conversations-chats-under-team-channels/m-p/3...

[#5]

This seems like such an obvious feature I hope it gets added at some point. No one in my org uses the discussions interface because it is clumsy and unfriendly. We presently use the chat of our recurring standup meeting for our social "water cooler" interactions, but it's not ideal and would be nice if Teams supported this natively in channels.

It also occurs to me that much of the clumsiness could be avoided if they just got rid of the "New Discussion" button and defaulted to showing a text field with a post button. Then it would actually behave very similar to group chat and people wouldn't be afraid to start new topics. Unfortunately that still doesn't fix the fact that replies would be chronologically out of order.

[#6]

@ohanoch This is a must. I hope they work on this feature soon. I joined a project where they started using group chat as a method of communication and I am desperately looking for the day I get the feature to convert this to a teams channel. 

[#7]

July 2023 - we're still searching the whole Internet for answers - HOW TO CREATE FREAKING GROUP CHAT WITHIN THE TEAMS CHANNEL. WE CAN'T AND WE'RE SAD. YES - SO SAD THAT WE NEED TO USE CAPS LOCK TO EXPRESS OUR SADNESS. MICROSOFT, WHY?

[#8]

@winicjusz I think that feature would be great, I was just looking for it, however I hope they make it an option and not a full blown requirement. The discussion style interface with threading is great for teamwide communication with announcements, and other stuff. I've used it for submissions to ensure everyone has synced their work before we package things up, or important announcements. Much better than generic chat. I recently switched firms and we use google chat and I absoolutely hate it because the "spaces" in google chat are essentially just what a group chat was in teams and there are no true "teams". We are looking into teams now, but I imagine some would prefer a chat like interface for the teams.

[#9]

I think the simplest way to do it would be either to add an option when creating a channel whether you want chat or posts format, or even simpler just allow Chat tabs to be added to channels. Either way would go a long way towards engagement in channels. We currently have a channel called "Social" in our team that still has the "Let's start the conversation" placeholder. I think that illustrates things pretty much perfectly.

[#10]

I am just now realizing this is not an available function in Teams Channels, which begs the question "how is this not an available function in Teams Channels?" I have recently been told I need to migrate my team chat from a 3rd party app to Teams (bc that's our company standard). If you are working in an office setting using even a small monitor this may not seem like a big deal. If, however, you are managing a field-based operations where remote stand-alone members are trying to use Teams to stay abreast of fast paced operations and need a "stream of activity" chat-type functionality via phone then the "Posts" feature in a Channel just isn't going to cut it. This seems like a no-brainer winner of a solution, so what am I missing here?

[#11]

Still looking for this to become available...but how about if they just give us a way of Linking an entire chat thread to a specific channel. Any files, tabs, conversations, etc that happen in the chat are automatically added to the linked channel. I feel like it's too easy to miss out on stuff happening in the channels v/s chats.

[#12]

@Matt_Norton If you need a  chat experience, why not use a chat then and not a channel?

[#13]

@Marisa_Thompson I would add your support and explain how this would add value to this thread on the suggestion site, so the developers will consider this for development. 
Create "Chat Channels" in Teams · Community (microsoft.com)

Until then I would mention that with the new Teams you can open a single conversation within a channel then have a more chat-like experience.

[#14]

@Marisa_Thompson I believe what you describe would work for what I'm trying to do so long as the looks and feel is closer to group Chat and not the Posts inside of a Channel. 

@Steven Collier You are correct. I could just do a simple Chat with 75-80 participants. The drawback to this on my end is that our Chat conversation archive is limited to 30 days, while anything in a Channel I create preserves a year's worth of activity. While I could probably get by with only 90-180 days of Chat  archive, I definitely need more than a month. On my end, as I understand it, the Chat archive settings cannot be altered just for my singular needs. My only real issue with using the Posts inside the Channel setup is the sheer amount of real estate is takes up on the phone screen, even using the larger sizes available. Inside the Team Channel, I'm also able to more easily manage who is in there as folks transfer in/out of the operation. Hope this description helps.

[#15]

@Steven Collier My organization uses individual 1-off chats as well as group chats that represent teams and are ongoing conversations, meetings, etc. It seems very disconnected. For example, we have the "Support Team" channel where all of our Support Help material (documents) live and other information vital to the team yet we run our daily support operations/communications out of the "Support Team" group chat. The conversation piece in the channel is impossible to stay on top of unless you @ everyone on everything you type, the switching between the Teams & chat tabs/windows, and the general disconnect. For example, someone posted a quick guide in the chat for an issue that was occurring. That info should be auto-included in the team's channel but it's not unless done manually.

I think that the communication piece should be removed from the channels entirely. Instead, each channel should auto-create a group chat that includes all the channel members. Any files, tabs, etc should be auto-added on the channel side when created in the group chat. Channels would remain the hub for team management, organization, and information while chat is for communication within specific channels or 1-off threads of communication outside of any specific team/channel.

[#16]

We'd also love to have the ability to create a group chat without the need for creating posts. Having this as part of a Team or channel makes it easy to have new members automatically added when they are added to the Team.

[#17]

"Until then I would mention that with the new Teams you can open a single conversation within a channel then have a more chat-like experience."

How do you mean that this can be done?

[#18]

@Sandra_Abi-Khalil  hi is joseline

[#19]

hi how are you guys doind to day

[#20]

Absolutely agree. This basically means we need to create and pin a Chat Group separately and rename it for the Team channel. Really weird and feels disconnected and hard to navigate.