In this post I will show you how to create a new Team from scratch in the Microsoft Teams app installed on a Windows PC.
Note: I am assuming you already have a Microsoft 365 tenant set up and have Microsoft Teams already installed on your computer and logged in.
From the Microsoft Teams app, click on Join or Create a team located at the bottom left of the app.
In the main section of the app this will start the join or create a team setup. Click on Create Team under the Create a team section.
This will open a pop out window with the heading Create a team. Here you will have several options, you can create a team from scratch, create a team from an existing group or team or create a team from a template. For now, we will be creating a team from scratch so click on From Scratch.
Up next is selecting what kind of team this will be. There are potentially three options Private, Public and Org-wide. Only Global admin can create Org-wide teams and they are limited to five per tenant. If you are not a Global admin then you will not see Org-wide as an option.
Note: Members of a Team are split in to two groups Owners and Members. Owners manage the Team settings and members, members have access to the Team but can’t do any admin tasks.
Private – Any team that is set up as Private is not visible to any users unless they are an owner or a member. User will need to be added by a team owner to have access and use the team.
Public – Anyone in your organisation can join a public team. They can either search for it and add themselves or they can join it with a code.
Org-wide – By default, everyone in the company is automatically added to an Org-wide team. Any new users created will be added to the team, any users blocked or removed will be removed from the team.
Select the type of Team you wish to create. I normally set most teams up as Private so I can control who does or doesn’t have access, I consider this to be best practice. For smaller organisations it may be tempting to use Public teams for easier admin. I would suggest you think carefully about what sort of information is in your team and who will need access to it now and in the future. A good general rule is to only give users access to what they need.
Note: For the purpose of this post I created a Private team.
Once you have selected the type of team you want you will then need to give it a name. You can also give it a description, but this is not essential. Once you have entered a name click Create.
If like me, you created a Private team the next screen you will see will be one to add members to your team. Type the name of someone in your organisation who you wish to add to the team, it will automatically search as you type for someone matching the name. Select the user as they come up and click Add. By default they will be added as a Member, you can easily change this via the dropdown to Owner if necessary. Repeat this step until all users you want in the team have been added, then simply click Close.
Note: A team can have up to 100 owners, but it is recommended to have as few owners as is necessary.
Congratulations you have successfully created your new team and will see your newly created team listed under Your teams.