Microsoft delays rollout of shared channels in teams until November

Last month, Microsoft announced that it would be Shared Channels in Teams would launch . However, it appears that the company has decided to postpone the release date of this feature to November 2021, as noted by Microsoft MVP Vesa Nopanen.

Indeed, the software giant has the Microsoft 365 roadmap list quietly updated last week to reflect the delay, and it now suggests that the Shared Channels feature (Microsoft Teams Connect) will be available sometime in November this year. Rish Tandon, CVP of Microsoft Teams Engineering, confirmed this change in a tweet, saying the team is currently working to incorporate user feedback before making this feature available to everyone.

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“Teams connect is the brand. Shared channels is the concept. We’ve received valuable feedback from people who have used shared channels in early alpha and are addressing this. Hence the delay. The team is working on it and working on the feedback,” Tandon wrote on Twitter.

Teams connect is the brand. Shared channels is the concept. We got some valuable feedback from folks that have used shared channels in early alpha release and we are addressing it. Hence the delay. Team is on it and working through the feedback.

— Rish Tandon (@rishmsft) April 22, 2021

Microsoft Teams Connect allows users to collaborate with third parties and customers in shared channels. They can access these channels in the main window of the app, in addition to standard and private channels. Shared channels provide all features such as chat, document co-authoring, and real-time content sharing with external users.

The Shared Channels experience was rolled out in a private preview during Microsoft Ignite Spring 2021. The company will continue to listen to feedback to refine functionality and infrastructure while the feature is in preview. It is one of the highly anticipated features that will allow Microsoft Teams to compete with Slack, allowing up to 20 organizations to collaborate with Slack Connect.

Source: onmsft