MS Teams - How to Create Teams and Channels

In Microsoft Teams, a Team is a group of people who collaborate together, usually consisting of the entire organization.

Meanwhile, Channels are segregated conversations, where each one can be dedicated to a department, project or even a task.

Here are the steps to create teams and channels in Microsoft Teams:

Create a team

For desktop

Step 1: Open the Microsoft Teams app and click on the “Join or create a team” option at the bottom of the Teams sidebar on the left.

Step 2: On the new screen that appears, click on the “Create team” button.

Step 3: On the following screen, you can choose:

• Build a team from scratch

• Create from an existing Office 365 group or team

If your team was using Office 365 before signing up for Teams, you may have existing groups that can be added using the “Create from…” option.

Otherwise, go with “Build a team from scratch.”

Step 4: Next, define who’s part of the Team.

Make your choice based on how you want to organize your platform:

• Private: If the team should only have a few specific members, select Private.

• Public: Best for teams with changing members.

• Org-Wide: If you want to host your entire organization as one “team” on the platform and use channels to divide departments, Org-wide is the ideal option.

Step 5: Once you’ve chosen the type of team you want to create, you need to give it a name.
Choose an appropriate team name, like “Marketing” or “Social Media”, and then click the “Create” button at the bottom right.

Step 6: Your new team will now appear on the left sidebar of your Teams app (“Marketing” in the image below).

To add members to the team, click on the three dots next to the team name and select “Add member.”

Step 7: Type in the names of the members you want to add.

In case these are “guests” such as external users from outside your organization, you can give them guest access through their email address instead.