Microsoft Teams Connect aka Shared Channels Coming Later in 2021

MVP

Microsoft Teams Connect, a new way of collaboration based on federated shared channels, is now in private preview and should be available later in 2021. The best thing about shared channels is that you don’t need to switch tenants to access a channel in another tenant. Azure B2B collaboration (guest accounts) is still important, but this is a brand new way of working that should be very popular.

 

https://practical365.com/blog/microsoft-teams-connect-shared-channels/

68 Replies
Is there a plan to enable adding Dynamic groups for shared teams channel permissions
should it be possible to move existing channel to this state? Would be nice to keep context

@274188A You should already be able to share PBI reports with external users. They need to be a guest in your AAD tenant for it to work. 

@Tony Redmondis my understanding correct, that this feature will only work with users outside my own tenant? I am really looking forward for this feature, but I have concerns that it would not suit our needs. Our scenario is as follows:

We have "external" colleagues (near-shore developers) which have their own account in our tenant, but no access to our "Main Team". This main team has several channels (also for internals only, thats why externals have no access to the team at all). But for one single channel, we would like to invite the external colleagues as well. Would that be possible with this upcoming feature?

 

Best, Florian

Shared channels support both internal and external participants. The only caveat is that the domain the external participants come from must be allowed to use federated collaboration. We're getting close to public preview and details are changing, but I anticipate you'll be able to do what you want to.

@Tony Redmond do you have any visibility on the DLP capabilities yet.

And when we do know, we will update the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook. https://gum.co/O365IT/
Any chance Microsoft was INSPIREd to push this into public preview this week?
Hi Tony. Do you know when Shared Channels will be accessible by enabling preview features in update policies within the Teams Admin Center? Thanks

@Tony Redmond any further news on the release date. I've just watched Jared Spataro's video - The Hybrid Workplace from ignite 2021 and he lists shared channels as one of a 100 new features in Teams in 2020!

When is the Ignite conference? Think about it...
How will this affect naming policies of teams and channels? Will I be able to see which tenant a team/channel is part of, or should we provide the company name in the name of the team or channel. It needs to suit both internal and external needs.
It shouldn't affect any naming policy unless you want to name shared channels in a particular way. It's up to you.
Sorry for not being clear. As an external user, I would like to know how I see which tenant the team and shared channel is part of. If the team name for example is Event planning and the channel name Social media campaign, then it makes sense for employees of that company but could be confusing for external users, especially in the case there are several teams named the same. I am requesting a way that you can see or set the tenant name.
I'd prefer to leave details like this (for NDA reasons) until Microsoft announces shared channels as available. That is likely to happen at Ignite. Let's wait until then.

@Tony Redmond 

 

Any news on this? I've been hearing later in 2021 since March. At this point I have users asking me when it will be available, some going as far as holding off on making new Teams because they would rather user a shared channel. At this point we only have a month and a half left in 2021, so is the anticipated release still "later in 2021" or "Sometime in 2022"?

@Justin Siegard Shared Channels will be available for Public Preview in the 1st quarter of 2022. See https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/microsoft-ignite-fall-2021-innovations-c..., section titled "Shared Channels and Chat with Teams"

All:

The current status of shared channels is that they are in limited private preview with customers through Microsoft's Technology Adoption Program (TAP). Microsoft indicated at Ignite that they expect shared channels to be available in public preview in early 2022. Exactly when depends on the technology meeting thresholds for quality and functionality AND the availability of other features within Microsoft 365 that shared channels need to work. Yes, it's a pain that things are taking so long, but you'd prefer to get functionality that works well and doesn't take a huge amount of effort to implement and manage... wouldn't you?