Prevent Inactive Channels from Cluttering User Views

In another step in Microsoft’s overhaul of Teams channels, message center notification MC804771 (24 June 2024, Microsoft 365 roadmap item 325780) announces the implementation of a new housekeeping function to clean up user channel lists by hiding unactive channels (Figure 1).

The change will only be effective in commercial and government tenants. Education tenants won’t have their channels cleaned up. The update to the Teams 2.1 client for Windows, MacOS, and browsers will appear in mid-July for targeted release tenants and reach general availability for commercial tenants in mid-August 2024 with worldwide deployment scheduled to complete by mid-September. GCC, GCC High, and DoD tenants will see the update about a month later.

Channel clean up happens for both member and guest user accounts.

The Chaos of Inactive Channels

Tenants are well aware of the problem of digital rot caused by too many teams. Each team can now have up to 1,000 channels, and Microsoft is keen for customers to create channels rather than teams to reduce the amount of digital debris in their tenants. A shared or private channel can often replace a team, especially as both come with a dedicated SharePoint Online site to store documents.

It would be nice if those who created channels always maintained those channels, but this doesn’t happen in the real world. Like teams, channels can be created only become inactive or uninteresting to users quickly. It might be that the channel isn’t needed, that people discuss the topic created for the channel in a group chat instead, or that the topic simply isn’t worth a separate channel. For whatever reason, people lose interest and inactive channels find their way into user channel lists.

To solve the problem, Teams will automatically detect and hide inactive channels that users have not interacted with recently. Microsoft hasn’t said what period is used of inactivity Teams uses to make the determination or what interaction means. Based on experience with the preview version of the feature, interaction seems to mean open a channel to view conversations. Microsoft says that 45 days is the point used to decide if a user is active in a channel. It seems like Teams checks for inactive channels every couple of weeks.

When Teams detects inactive channels, it offers the chance for the user to review the set and make the call to unhide some of the channels (Figure 2).

It’s a good idea to review the set of inactive channels selected by Teams because useful channels that are temporarily inactive will appear in the list.

Settings for Channel Cleanup

The Teams Settings app includes the ability for users to opt out of automatic channel cleanup as well as an option to initiate the cleanup process on demand (Figure 3).

If you opt to clean up now, Teams checks the current channel list and displays any that it believes to be inactive.

The important thing to remember is that a hidden channel is still available to a user and can be unhidden at any time by viewing the set of channels for a team and unhiding any that they want to see.

Inform Users About Channel Clean Up

Automatic clean up processes are usually a good idea and hiding inactive channels is an example of one that’s worthwhile. However, like anything else that affects users, some explanation is necessary for people to understand why and what is happening. No one wants a bunch of help desk calls asking where a favorite (but inactive) channel has gone.

So much change, all the time. It’s a challenge to stay abreast of all the updates Microsoft makes across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Subscribe to the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook to receive monthly insights into what happens, why it happens, and what new features and capabilities mean for your tenant.