Microsoft began an automated background process to move Teams private channels to a new infrastructure earlier this year. Tenants should check the state of the migration as reported by the Get-TenantPrivateChannelMigrationStatus cmdlet because it is possible that the migration is stalled and waiting for administrator intervention. In most cases, the problem is because of ownerless channels, but archived teams with private channels also stop the migration.
Microsoft launched private channels in November 2019. A lot has happened since, and private channels don’t really get much attention these days. That’s a pity because private channels can be very useful in the right situation. I rediscovered this fact recently when working through an issue with a university where private channels were the right answer. Like all technologies, happiness comes from choosing the right tool.
Teams Tags Support for Private and Shared Channels should arrive in targeted tenants soon. The new tag capability uses channel memberships instead of the team roster. It’s a small but useful change, as is the option to start a chat with tagged members. On the downside, Microsoft is deprecating suggested tags. But on the upside, you can include emojis in tag names.
