(Updated) Microsoft Teams: Capture Request to Use Shared Channels for External Collaboration

MC635987 – Updated August 16, 2023: Microsoft has updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Microsoft Teams admins will soon be able to capture and redirect requests for external collaboration in shared channels. This update of Microsoft Teams will be rolling out on Teams admin center, Microsoft Teams Desktop and Web, and will provide a way for organizations to capture and redirect requests for external collaboration when users attempt to add an external member to a shared channel where B2B direct connect cross-tenant trust has not been mutually configured between the two organizations.

When this will happen:

Microsoft will begin rollout to commercial tenants in early October 2023 (previously early August) and expect to complete rollout by mid-October 2023 (previously mid-August).

How this will affect your organization:

Organizations will be able to build an intake or support page to assist users who are attempting to collaborate with an external user when B2B direct connect cross-tenant trust isn’t mutually configured. The page can be designed to provide users with information on external collaboration through shared channels and/or include an intake mechanism that collects information on the external collaboration request that is needed for the organization to make a decision on the request.

To set up, open Microsoft Teams admin center and navigate to Team settings, then to the Shared channels section. Enable the “Provide a link to my support request page” setting and provide a valid URL that users will be redirected to.

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Now, when users attempt to add an external user when B2B cross-tenant trust isn’t mutually configured, they will be shown the below message with the link “Here’s what you can do.” When users click on the link, they will be taken to the page specified in Microsoft Teams admin center where they can learn more about external collaboration or make a request for external collaboration.

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What you need to do to prepare:

Organizations who plan to enable this feature should build a web page to capture requests for external collaboration. For example, this could be a SharePoint or Microsoft Forms page. Capture all the information that is required for your organization to decide on the collaboration request.