Teams: How to Invite External Partners with Shared Channels

You work with external partners, agencies or suppliers on a regular basis, and every time it is the same story: guest accounts have to be set up, the other person has to switch tenants, files end up on five different platforms and nobody knows which one is the current version. 😤

I know this from practice, and I know the solution: Shared channels in Microsoft Teams. With this feature you invite external people straight into a single channel, with no guest account and no tenant switching. The other side works in their own Teams account, you work in yours. Everything still happens in the same channel.

In this post I show you how Shared channels work, when you should use them and how to set up your first one in just a few minutes.

What are Shared channels?

A Shared channel is a special Teams channel that you can share with people who are not members of your team. That can be colleagues from another internal department, or external partners from a completely different organisation.

The decisive difference compared with normal guest access: the external person does not have to sign in to a different Microsoft 365 tenant. They see the channel directly in their own Teams, as if it belonged to their own organisation. No switching, no second account, no friction. 🎯

The technical basis for this is Microsoft Entra B2B Direct Connect, a modern, secure connection protocol between two organisations. As an ordinary user you do not have to configure any of it, IT sets this up once at organisation level.

Shared channel vs. guest account: which one when?

Guest accounts still make sense when you want to integrate someone into your team deeply and for the longer term. For project- and task-based collaboration with a clear scope, Shared channels are the cleaner, safer solution.

Step 1: Check whether Shared channels are switched on

Before you can get started, the feature has to be enabled at admin level. As an ordinary Teams user you can spot it like this: in a team, click the «...» menu next to the team name and select «Add channel». If the «Shared» option appears there, you are ready to go. 🟢

If the option does not appear, get in touch with your IT team. It is enabled in the Teams admin settings under Teams policies > Create shared channels. For collaboration with external organisations, both sides also have to have B2B Direct Connect enabled in Microsoft Entra, a one-off step that takes a few minutes.

Step 2: Create a Shared channel

This is how you set up your first Shared channel: 🛠️

1. Open Microsoft Teams and go to the team where the channel should live.
2. Click the «...» menu next to the team name and select «Add channel».
3. Give it a meaningful name, for example «Project Acme Q3-2026», «Supplier Meyer» or «Agency campaign».
   Tip: build the time frame into the name, it helps later when you clean up.
4. Under «Privacy», choose the «Shared» option.
5. Click «Create».

The new channel appears in your list straight away, recognisable by the small arrow icon that distinguishes it from standard and private channels.

Step 3: Invite external people

Now comes the most important part: inviting the external partners. 📨

1. In the new channel, click «Members» at the top right.
2. Select «Add member» and type in the person's work email address.
3. Teams automatically searches for the account in the partner organisation.
4. As soon as the person is found, you decide whether they join as a member or as a channel owner.
5. Confirm, and the person gets a notification and sees the channel directly in their own Teams.

Important to know: Shared channels only work between two Microsoft 365 organisations. Personal accounts such as Gmail or Hotmail cannot be invited, and for those, normal guest accounts remain the right choice.

Step 4: Work productively in the channel

What can you do in a Shared channel? Exactly the same things as in any other Teams channel: 💬

• Write messages, use @mentions and react to posts
• Upload files and edit them together in Word, Excel or PowerPoint straight in the browser
• Set up tabs for Planner tasks, Loop pages or external references
• Start video calls straight from the channel

The channel's files sit on a separate SharePoint site that is only accessible to channel members. External people see only the files in this channel, not the rest of your team's storage. That is a substantial security advantage over classic guest accounts, where more files can accidentally be visible than intended.

Step 5: Actively manage the channel lifecycle

A common mistake in practice: Shared channels get opened and are never cleaned up again. Three simple measures help: 📋

1. Choose channel names with context: «Agency X campaign Q2-2026» instead of just «Agency X», so you can see at a glance what it is about and whether the channel should still be active.
2. Archive once the project is finished: click the «...» menu on the channel and select «Manage channel > Archive». The channel and its content stay intact, but nobody can post any more.
3. Review the member list regularly: who still has access? Do you still need it? As a channel owner you see the members directly in the channel. IT administrators can monitor this across the whole organisation in Microsoft Entra.

A well-maintained channel is also a security win: external people do not keep their access long after the project has finished.

Practical tip: use a Loop page as the project starting point

When you set up a new Shared channel for a project, here is what I recommend as your first step: add a tab in the channel with a Microsoft Loop page. 🔗

Here is how: in the channel, click «+ Add a tab», choose «Loop» and create a new page. There you enter the project agenda, the contacts, the important links and the meeting notes. All channel members, internal and external, see the same current state, in real time, without version conflicts.

That saves at least twenty minutes of «who has which version?» and «who is sending the minutes?» in the first kickoff meeting. One simple tab, big effect.

Conclusion & call to action

Shared channels are one of the underrated features in Microsoft Teams, even though they solve exactly the problem that many companies face every day: how do I work efficiently with external partners without sacrificing security, clarity or usability?

Try it now: set up a Shared channel for your next partner project and invite the other side straight in. You will notice how much more smoothly the collaboration runs right from the start. 🚀

Have you already worked with Shared channels, or are you wondering whether this is even possible in your organisation? Write to me, I am happy to help.