Chats, teams and channels in Microsoft Teams

Watch the steps

1. 1New message
2. 2New items
3. 3Private
4. 4Team name
5. 5...
6. 6Channel name

Chats, teams and channels in Microsoft Teams (0:23)

Teams has two ways to talk: chats for quick conversations with one person or a small group, and teams with channels for a department or project. Both are in Chat on the left bar.

Chat with one person or a group

Chats are private to the people in them.

1. Select Chat on the left, then New message (the pencil icon) at the top of the list.
2. In To, type the names of the people you want to chat with.
3. For a group, select the group name icon at the far right of To to give the chat a Group name.
4. Type your message and press Enter or select Send.

The other person sees your chat under Chats on their side, with a notification, and answers in the Type a message box at the bottom.

To add someone later, select the people icon at the top of the chat, then Add people. You can choose whether they see the earlier messages.

Get someone’s attention with @mentions

Type @ and start typing a name, then pick the person from the list. They get a notification in Activity. In a group chat, @everyone notifies the whole chat. In a channel, a team owner can let members use @team and @channel.

Create a team

Create a team for a department, such as Sales or Accounts, or for a long project. The person who creates it becomes its owner.

1. Select Chat (or Teams if your Teams uses separate views), then New items (the arrow next to the pencil) → New team.

   

2. Type a Team name and a short Description.

3. Under Team type, choose Private (only people you add) or Public (anyone in the company can join). Admins may also see Org-wide.

   

4. Name the first channel in First channel name. It is the team’s main channel and cannot be deleted later.

5. Select Create.

   

6. In Add members to your team, type names and select Add, or select Skip to add people later.

Each team gets its own SharePoint site to store its files. See SharePoint basics.

Add people to a team

As the owner, open the team’s More team options (the three dots next to its name) and select Add member. Type the names and select Add. Typing an email address from outside the company adds them as a guest, if your company allows it.

Add a channel

Channels split a team into topics, such as “Quotations” or “Customer A”. Microsoft offers three types:

• Standard: everyone in the team can see it.
• Private: only people you add, for sensitive topics.
• Shared: can include people from other teams or companies. Only team owners can create these, and they cannot be changed to another type later.

To add one, open the team’s More team options and select Add channel, or use New items → New channel. Give it a Channel name, open Choose a channel type and pick the type, then select Create. Teams also asks for a Layout: Threads looks like a chat with replies on the side, while Posts suits announcements. The channel owner can change it later.

Chat and channels in one list

Newer versions of Teams can show chats, teams and channels together in one list. To switch, open the options at the top of the list, choose Customize view, then Combined or Separate.

Still stuck

WhatsApp our support team at +60 16-916 3324.

Common issues

I cannot create a team.

Your company can limit who creates teams. Ask your admin to create it for you, or to let you create teams.

Should we use a group chat or a team?

A group chat suits a small, short-lived conversation. A team suits a department or a long project: it has channels for topics, a shared place for files and a membership that the owner controls.

@team and @channel do not work.

A team owner has to turn these mentions on first, in the team's settings.

Related articles

• Get started with Microsoft Teams
• Schedule, join and record Microsoft Teams meetings
• SharePoint basics - team sites and shared files
• Share a OneDrive file or folder & stop sharing