How to Create a Shared Channel in Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams has evolved significantly since its launch, and one of the most useful additions in recent years is the shared channel. If you have ever needed to work closely with a partner company, a freelancer, or colleagues in a different part of your organisation without granting them access to everything in your Team, shared channels are exactly what you need. They let specific people collaborate in a focused space that appears directly in their own Teams client — no guest invitations, no switching tenants, no friction. This guide walks you through everything you need to know about creating and managing shared channels in Microsoft Teams.

Standard vs Private vs Shared Channels

Before diving into the setup steps, it helps to understand how shared channels differ from the other channel types available in Teams.

• Standard channels are visible to every member of the Team. If you create a channel in Microsoft Teams without changing the privacy setting, it will be standard by default. Everyone in the Team can post, read, and access files.
• Private channels are restricted to a subset of Team members. Useful when a group within the Team needs a space to discuss sensitive matters without the rest of the Team seeing it. Only people explicitly added to the private channel can access it.
• Shared channels are designed for collaboration that crosses Team or organisational boundaries. Introduced in 2022 as part of Microsoft Teams Connect, shared channels allow you to invite specific people — including people from entirely different companies — without those people becoming full members of your Team or tenants in your Azure AD directory.

The right choice depends on your situation. Use standard channels for general team communication, private channels for sensitive internal discussions, and shared channels when you need to bring in external collaborators or members from other Teams within your organisation without opening up everything else.

Requirements for Shared Channels

Shared channels do not work out of the box in every scenario. There are a few prerequisites worth checking before you try to set one up.

For internal shared channels — where you are inviting people from other Teams within your own organisation — there are no additional requirements beyond having Microsoft Teams. Any team owner can create a shared channel and add internal colleagues from other Teams.

For external shared channels — where you want to collaborate with people at another company — the following must be in place:

• Both organisations must be using Microsoft 365.
• External sharing must be enabled by the IT administrator in the Microsoft Teams Admin Center. This is found under Teams > Teams settings > Shared channels.
• Azure AD B2B direct connect must be configured between the two organisations. This is distinct from regular guest access — it uses a different trust mechanism that allows external users to appear in each other’s Teams clients without being added as guests in the host directory.
• The external organisation must also have configured their tenant to allow incoming shared channel invitations.

If you are unsure whether your organisation has this configured, speak to your IT administrator before attempting to invite external members. Without the correct admin settings on both sides, the invitation will fail silently or return an error.

How to Create a Shared Channel

Once your organisation has the necessary settings in place, creating a shared channel is straightforward. You will need to already have a Team to attach it to — if you do not have one yet, read our guide on how to create a Team in Microsoft Teams first.

1. In the Teams sidebar, find the Team where you want to create the shared channel.
2. Click the three dots (…) that appear to the right of the Team name when you hover over it.
3. Select Add channel from the dropdown menu.
4. Enter a channel name and, optionally, a description. A clear description is helpful when external members see the channel in their own Teams client for the first time.
5. Under the Privacy dropdown, select Shared.
6. Click Create.
7. You will then be prompted to add members. You can add internal users from other Teams or skip this step and add people later via channel settings.

Note that shared channels are attached to a specific Team for hosting purposes, but the Team’s existing members are not automatically added to the shared channel. Membership is managed separately, giving you precise control over who can access it.

How to Add External People to a Shared Channel

Adding external collaborators to a shared channel is one of its most powerful features — and it works differently from the standard guest access model.

1. Click the shared channel name in your Teams sidebar to open it.
2. Click Manage channel (found in the top-right area or via the three dots next to the channel name).
3. Go to the Members tab and click Add members.
4. Type the external person’s work email address. Teams will attempt to resolve it against known external tenants.
5. Select the person from the results and click Add.
6. The external person will receive an invitation and can accept it directly within their own Microsoft Teams client.

The critical distinction here: external members of a shared channel do not need to be added as guests in your Azure AD tenant. This is the key difference between shared channels and traditional guest access. With guest access, the external person is provisioned as a guest user in your directory, which carries broader implications for licensing and access policies. With shared channels, the connection is peer-to-peer between the two tenants via B2B direct connect. For a comparison with the guest approach, see our guide on how to add an external guest to Microsoft Teams.

What External Members Can and Cannot Do in a Shared Channel

External members of a shared channel operate within a clearly defined scope. Understanding those boundaries helps you decide whether a shared channel is the right tool for your collaboration needs.

External members CAN:

• Post messages and reply to conversations in the channel.
• Share and access files stored in the channel’s document library.
• Use any apps or tabs that have been pinned to that specific channel.
• Join meetings that are scheduled within the shared channel.

External members CANNOT:

• See or access any other channels within the host Team.
• View the full membership list of the Team.
• Access the host organisation’s SharePoint site beyond the dedicated folder created for the shared channel.
• Access any other resources in the host tenant, such as other SharePoint sites, mailboxes, or internal apps.

This scoped access model makes shared channels well-suited for long-term partner relationships where you want structured, ongoing collaboration without exposing your organisation’s internal environment.

Managing a Shared Channel

Day-to-day management of a shared channel works similarly to other channel types, with a few nuances specific to the shared model.

The person who creates the shared channel becomes the channel owner. Channel owners can add and remove members, change the channel name and description, and pin or remove apps and tabs. Team owners can also manage the channel, but the channel owner role is separate — a team owner who is not explicitly added to the shared channel cannot see its contents.

To add or remove members after the channel is created, open Manage channel from the channel’s three-dot menu. From there you can see a full list of members and use the remove option next to any individual name.

If the channel owner leaves the organisation or is removed from Teams, another member of the shared channel should be promoted to owner before that happens if possible. If no owner remains, a Team owner can reassign ownership via the Teams Admin Center. It is good practice to always have at least two channel owners to avoid access issues.

Shared channels can be archived when a project concludes, which prevents new messages while preserving the history. This is done from Manage channel > Archive channel.

Shared Channel Files and SharePoint

Every shared channel has its own document library, but the files are stored in the host Team’s SharePoint site rather than in a separate SharePoint site created just for the channel. Within that SharePoint site, a dedicated folder is created specifically for the shared channel, and access to that folder is scoped to the channel’s membership list.

External members are granted direct access to that SharePoint folder only. They cannot browse up to the parent SharePoint site or access any other document libraries. This is enforced automatically by the B2B direct connect permissions model.

From a data governance perspective, this means your organisation’s SharePoint administrator retains control over the underlying storage. Files shared in the channel are subject to your standard data retention and compliance policies, and they appear in Microsoft Purview eDiscovery searches if required. For organisations with strict data handling requirements, it is worth confirming with your compliance team that sharing files with external members via a shared channel aligns with your policies.

Common Problems With Shared Channels

If you run into issues creating or using shared channels, these are the most common causes and how to address them.

• The Shared option does not appear under Privacy when creating a channel. This usually means your organisation’s Teams policy does not permit shared channels, or you are running an older version of the Teams desktop app. Ask your IT administrator to check the shared channels setting in the Teams Admin Center, and make sure your Teams client is up to date.
• You cannot add an external person — Teams says the address is not valid or the invitation fails. This is almost always an admin policy issue. Either external sharing is not enabled in your tenant, or the external person’s organisation has not configured their tenant to accept B2B direct connect. Both sides need the configuration in place.
• The external member receives the invitation but gets an error when trying to join. This typically indicates that the cross-tenant trust (Azure AD B2B direct connect) has not been fully configured between the two organisations. Your IT team will need to set up an outbound trust in Azure AD and the external organisation will need to configure an inbound trust.
• The channel appears for the external member but shows no content. This can happen if the channel has not fully synchronised, particularly immediately after the invitation is accepted. Closing and reopening Teams usually resolves it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I share a channel with someone at a company that does not use Teams?

No. Shared channels require both parties to be using Microsoft Teams as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription. If the external person uses a different platform, you would need to use a different collaboration method. There is no way to add someone to a shared channel using a personal Microsoft account or a non-Microsoft work account.

How is a shared channel different from adding a guest to a Team?

With traditional guest access, the external person is added as a guest user in your Azure AD directory, giving them access to the whole Team (and potentially other resources depending on your policies). With a shared channel, there is no guest account created in your directory. The external person accesses only the shared channel through their own organisation’s Teams client, using B2B direct connect. Shared channels are generally more secure and less administratively burdensome for ongoing partner relationships.

Can I convert a standard channel to a shared channel?

No, Microsoft Teams does not currently support converting an existing channel from one type to another. If you need a shared channel, you will need to create a new one. You can manually move files from the standard channel to the new shared channel, but conversation history cannot be migrated.

How many people can be in a shared channel?

A shared channel can have up to 50 members if you are sharing with external organisations. For internal-only shared channels (people within your own Microsoft 365 tenant), the limit is higher — up to 5,000 members, in line with standard Teams channel limits. For most practical use cases, particularly cross-company collaboration, 50 external members is more than sufficient.