Private Microsoft Teams groups to become searchable in upcoming change

Microsoft will soon make it easier for Microsoft Teams users to discover and join private teams. Today, the company explained that starting March 23, 2018, all private teams will become searchable within the team communication app, and all users will be able to request access to them.

Once the change is implemented, all private teams will appear in search results as well as the Suggested teams gallery, which appears when you click the “Add team button.” If a user discovers a private team he wants to join, the team admin will get a notification and have the choice to approve or deny the request.

To prepare for this change, Microsoft is recommending team owners to make sure that team names or descriptions don’t include sensitive information that team members could discover after March 23. If necessary, it will still be possible to hide select teams or groups from search results: To do so, Office 365 admins will have to use the the HiddenFromAddressListsEnabled parameter with the Set-UnifiedGroup PowerShell cmdlet.

Do you think it’s a good idea to make private teams more discoverable within Microsoft Teams? Sound off in the comments below.