What are Communities and Channels in Microsoft Teams (free)?

Get to know Communities in Teams

Communities in Microsoft Teams (free) is a secure space for group activities. It's a place where people can engage, share information, and inspire innovation to help the community. Whether you are looking to manage meetings for your homeowner’s association, plan games for your sports league, or get tips from your local group of dog lovers, you can easily invite others to your community.

Management tools allow a community creator to adjust and manage the settings for a community, including membership roles, community name, description, and guidelines. Learn to video chat, file share, and create community events when you create a community.

Get the most out of your community with Channels

Channels in Communities is a discussion space within the main community where members can better organize different topics and conversations. Members can easily focus and find information on specific objectives or projects. Create a community a start a channel in Microsoft Teams (free).

Here are a few examples of how different members can use channels.

A community owner shares valuable information in a Q&A channel for busy parents regarding previously asked and new questions.
A community member uses an Announcement channel for major updates and to stay current on other community news.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a chat and a community in Microsoft Teams (free)?

Chats are for one-to-one or group messages. Communities allow you to have a variety of conversations, schedule events, and have more control over membership management with owners and members. Learn more about community owner and member capabilities.

What is a channel in a community?

Communities and channels help bring everyone together. A community is where the larger group of an organization connects and shares info. A channel is a specific place within the larger group where members can have focused conversations about particular tasks.

You can use a channel to post Announcements for members of your community or share updates. To learn how create a channel for you community, see Create a community and start a channel in Microsoft Teams (free).

What is Explore communities in Microsoft Teams (free)?

Explore communities is a place where you can browse through a list of communities to join.

How can I get my community to appear in Explore communities?

The Featured Community Program helps community owners boost their community's visibility and provides an opportunity to showcase it in Explore Communities in Teams. Here are some examples of topics you might consider for your community: sports, volunteering, gaming, professional/learning, arts and culture, hobbies, lifestyle, animals, meme/fun stuff, anime, and support groups.

Can anyone join a community?

There are several ways to join a community. The community owner can invite someone, a community member can share a join link, or anyone can join a visible community if the option is enabled. Members cannot join using a Teams for work or school account. Learn more about joining a community and making your community visible.

Note: Communities in Teams will no longer be accessible to minors. However, there are many other engaging features to use and participate in Microsoft Teams (free).

What are community guidelines?

As the community owner, you can use the default guidelines or set your own guidelines for how your community members should engage with each other. Your guidelines can include things such as being kind and respectful to fellow community members and as always, not posting anything that violates the Microsoft Teams (free) Community Standards. Learn more about updating your community settings.

How do I invite a member to my community?

You can invite up to 1,000 members to your community by going to the community. Learn more about how to invite and manage community members.

Will members be notified if a community member is invited or removed from a community?

Community owners and other members won't be notified if a member is invited to, removed from, or declines a join request from a community. However, the user who's invited will receive a notification of the invitation and the community owners will be notified when the user accepts an invitation.

Can I block a community member?

You can block a member from contacting you directly and block them from the community. Learn more about how to block someone in Teams or how to remove and block someone from your community.

If a member is removed from a community, will they lose access to all data for that community?

Yes, they'll lose access right away.

Is Communities in Teams free to use?

Communities in Teams is free, but you'll get improved meeting capabilities and more with a subscription. Learn more about subscriptions for Microsoft Teams (free).

What are community avatars?

Owners can personalize their community from their mobile device by uploading a community picture. This picture may be included with email invitations to join the community as well as any web pages used to inform the recipient that they are joining the correct community. Community avatars may be scanned and removed for violations of the Microsoft code of conduct. Learn more about how to update community settings.

How do I give feedback?

We need your feedback for Communities in Teams to help us deliver a great product.

On mobile- go to the Teams app and tap your profile picture, tap Settings, tap Help & feedback, then select Send feedback.
On desktop and web- go to the Teams app and select the Community tab, then select Share feedback from the bottom corner.