Microsoft Teams – General Channel changes
Update 1: Ability to Hide the General channel
The General channel is the core channel of a team, and it cannot be removed although functionality to allow it to be renamed will be coming soon.
However, team members now have the ability to hide the General channel if they prefer.
Please Note
You will need to consider the following, before you hide or rename the General channel
- Lots of Teams features rely on the General channel for sharing updates regarding Assignments, Reflect and OneNote notifications.
- If general is the last channel in the team, then the team will get hidden as well.
Potential Benefits
- This feature is designed to free up space in the teams and channels list
- Keeps users focused on the channels that are used to share information
- Avoids unnecessary distractions if the channel is not being used efficiently
How do I do this?
You have 2 options for hiding and managing your Teams channels.
Team Home Page
From your main home landing page for your Team, select the 3 dots next to the General channel and then select Hide from the menu options.
See screenshot below,
Team Settings
Select the Manage Team from the 3 dots next to the name of your Team site.
Now open the Channels menu from the top navigation.
From here you will be able to manage the visibility of the channels for your Team and you will also be able to Hide the General channel for yourself.
Team owners cannot hide the General channel for all members. Instead, individual members decide if they want to show or hide the channel.
See screenshot below,
Update 2: Ability to rename the General Channel
It will soon be possible to rename the General Channel in a Microsoft Team or give a custom name to the first channel you create in a new Team.
Considerations
As outlined in the above information, the General Channel provides core functionality to the Team Site. Therefore, if you rename the channel, you may want to consider some of the areas below.
Once you rename the General Channel:
- All channels are then reordered alphabetically so some key updates may be missed.
- No other channel can be named General channel
- The first-created channel in a new team will have the same description as the team by default
- Once you’ve renamed the General channel you cannot change its name back to General.
- Team members may be confused as there will be a lack of consistency with other teams.
Benefits
- Allows you to give a more meaningful name to this important channel.
How do I do this?
This can only be done by Team Owners from the 3 dots next to the General Channel. See screenshot below,
More information
Please use the link below for more information regarding channels in Microsoft Teams.
