Teams – Teams and Channels

What is a Team?

A team is a group of people gathered together to work on a project or common goal. The team might be a service or made up of colleagues from across the council. Having a dedicated team makes collaborative working so much easier.

What are channels?

Teams are made up of channels. These are the conversations you have with your teammates. Each channel is dedicated to a specific topic, department, or project.

Is a Team what you need?

A Chat can be created within Microsoft Teams for more informal discussion and collaboration where you can share and work on documents together. You might find this to be the easiest and more convenient option depending on what you are trying to achieve.

This short article explains the difference between using a Team or a Chat and has some great insights into which one you should choose.

If your preferred option at this time is to create a Chat this helpful guidance will tell you all there is to know to get started.

Creating a Team

If you have decided that a Team is required, please read this best practice article and watch the embedded video which has some great advice around how to structure cross-service or single purpose teams.

How do I create a Team?

To help keep our systems safe and to avoid duplication of information, we ask you to complete a short online form. Please let us know the purpose of the team and who will own and manage it.

The completed forms go to a 3rd Tier manager for approval. ICT colleagues will then carry out some basic checks and create the Team site. When approved, the designated administrators of your Team will have full control over channels and permissions.

Work in Teams

Learn about Teams and Channels

A team is a group of people gathered to get something big done in your organization. Sometimes it’s your whole organization.

Teams are made up of channels, which are the conversations you have with your teammates. Each channel is dedicated to a specific topic, department, or project. Read more about Teams and Channels.

Manage team settings and permissions in Teams

If you’re a team owner, you’re in control of a lot of the settings and permissions of your team

View analytics for your teams

Microsoft Teams allows you to quickly view analytics data about teams that you are a member or an owner of. This info can provide insights into the activity patterns on your teams.

Analytics data includes the number of active users, guests, and the total number of messages sent in each team for a given period. You can view analytics across all your teams, within individual teams, and in specific channels.

Show, hide or pin a team or channel in Teams

You’ve got some viewing options for teams and channels.

Use @mentions to get someone’s attention in Teams

To get someone’s attention in a channel conversation or a chat, @mention them.

Using tags in Teams

Tags let you quickly reach a group of people all at once

Adding content and notes

You can upload files directly to the Files tab in any channel

Leave a team

You can leave a team at any time.

Work in channels

Teams can have standard or private channels

You can create both standard channels and private channels

Show channel info in Teams

You are able to see information about your channels..

Customise channel notifications in Teams

If you want to adjust or fine tune the notifications you’re getting from a channel, here’s how

Check a channel for notifications in Teams

Channels notify you when you have notifications

Delete a channel

You can delete a channel at any time

Create a channel

Teams are made up of channels, which are the conversations you have with your teammates. Each channel is dedicated to a specific topic, department, or project. Read more about creating a channel.

Send a message to a channel

When you go to any channel in Teams, the first tab you’ll see is Posts. Think of Posts as one big group conversation. Read more about sending a message to a channel.

Send an announcement to a channel

Sometimes your message needs to stand out. With options for a headline and image, channel announcements help your message cut through noise. Find out how to send an announcement to a channel.

Send an email to a channel

If you want to send an email to a channel in Teams, use the channel email address. Once an email is part of a channel, anyone can reply to it to start a conversation.

For team owners

Team owner capabilities

Every member in Teams has a role, and each one has different permissions.

Add members to a team

If you’re a team owner, you can add someone to a team. If you’re not a team owner, you can submit a request, and the team owner will accept or deny it.

Change team settings

If you’re a team owner, you’re in control of a lot of the settings and permissions of your team.

Delete a team

As a team owner you can delete a team at any time.

Remove someone from a team

If you’re a team owner, you can remove someone from your team.

Add guests to a team in Teams

Sometimes you’ll want to collaborate with people who aren’t in your teams’ organisation. At lot of times you’ll be doing that in email, but if you want to collaborate with them in Teams, you can request these users are added to your team by contacting the IT Service Desk.