Forum Discussion
Add Group Chat As A Channel
Hi all,
I am wondering if there is a way to make a channel in a team that behaves the same as a group chat.
I understand the advantages and disadvantages of conversations vs chats. Basically I like having conversation for work related things, the threads are good for organizations etc. At the same time I would prefer having a channel for general chit chat that behaves like a group chat (with the reply behavior of a chat and the general flow of a chat.)
Yes I could just make a group chat that has the same members as my team but it is less comfortable to continuously go between the Teams tab and the Chats tab, and also inviting members to both the Group and the Chat can be annoying when there are many of them.
Is there a way to do this that I missed?
ohanochI joined specifically to show my displeasure with this still not being a thing, and it has been years being asked for. Very frustrating!!
- I just don't get why this isn't a thing. I would use chat in a team frequently. It all pertains to the team you're speaking within. In a group chat, there is no point to name the group chat because then you are constantly changing the name to match your topic...
- Just stumbled upon this discussion, and I must say, adding group chat as a channel in Microsoft Teams sounds like a game-changer! It's like bringing a cozy coffee shop vibe into our digital workspace.
ohanoch This makes so much sense, I can't believe it's not an option yet
- We'd also love to have the ability to create a group chat without the need for creating posts. Having this as part of a Team or channel makes it easy to have new members automatically added when they are added to the Team.
Marisa_Thompson I believe what you describe would work for what I'm trying to do so long as the looks and feel is closer to group Chat and not the Posts inside of a Channel.
StevenC365 You are correct. I could just do a simple Chat with 75-80 participants. The drawback to this on my end is that our Chat conversation archive is limited to 30 days, while anything in a Channel I create preserves a year's worth of activity. While I could probably get by with only 90-180 days of Chat archive, I definitely need more than a month. On my end, as I understand it, the Chat archive settings cannot be altered just for my singular needs. My only real issue with using the Posts inside the Channel setup is the sheer amount of real estate is takes up on the phone screen, even using the larger sizes available. Inside the Team Channel, I'm also able to more easily manage who is in there as folks transfer in/out of the operation. Hope this description helps.- Still looking for this to become available...but how about if they just give us a way of Linking an entire chat thread to a specific channel. Any files, tabs, conversations, etc that happen in the chat are automatically added to the linked channel. I feel like it's too easy to miss out on stuff happening in the channels v/s chats.
Marisa_Thompson I would add your support and explain how this would add value to this thread on the suggestion site, so the developers will consider this for development.
Create "Chat Channels" in Teams · Community (microsoft.com)Until then I would mention that with the new Teams you can open a single conversation within a channel then have a more chat-like experience.
- "Until then I would mention that with the new Teams you can open a single conversation within a channel then have a more chat-like experience."
How do you mean that this can be done?
I am just now realizing this is not an available function in Teams Channels, which begs the question "how is this not an available function in Teams Channels?" I have recently been told I need to migrate my team chat from a 3rd party app to Teams (bc that's our company standard). If you are working in an office setting using even a small monitor this may not seem like a big deal. If, however, you are managing a field-based operations where remote stand-alone members are trying to use Teams to stay abreast of fast paced operations and need a "stream of activity" chat-type functionality via phone then the "Posts" feature in a Channel just isn't going to cut it. This seems like a no-brainer winner of a solution, so what am I missing here?
- July 2023 - we're still searching the whole Internet for answers - HOW TO CREATE FREAKING GROUP CHAT WITHIN THE TEAMS CHANNEL. WE CAN'T AND WE'RE SAD. YES - SO SAD THAT WE NEED TO USE CAPS LOCK TO EXPRESS OUR SADNESS. MICROSOFT, WHY?
- this is such a good response I signed up to TechCommunity just to give it a thumbs up. This HAS to happen. Don't make us manage Team and chat membership separately, it goes without saying that one should be able to follow the other.
- same here, will get back in a year to see how many of us was igno.. eh "not enough inspirational" by MS 🙂
- Absolutely agree. This basically means we need to create and pin a Chat Group separately and rename it for the Team channel. Really weird and feels disconnected and hard to navigate.
ohanoch This is a must. I hope they work on this feature soon. I joined a project where they started using group chat as a method of communication and I am desperately looking for the day I get the feature to convert this to a teams channel.
