How to prevent users from adding and deleting channels and tabs in Teams

Teams proved to be a great collaboration application and somewhat of a lifesaver, especially with the remote aspect we have to endure due to pandemic. With that being said, the default settings in Teams are pretty liberal – team members have lots of power, from creating and deleting channels to adding and removing apps and tabs. This, however, might be a big no-no from a governance standpoint. Besides, if I am a team owner and you are a team member, I really do not want you to control the structure and set up of my team (just FYI, I am a huge control freak)! So in this article, I will explain some settings for you, my fellow team owners, so you can control who can do what in Teams.

1. Click on the three dots next to the Team Name, then Manage Team
2. Click on Settings > Member permissions
3. Uncheck the boxes next to actions you do not want users to perform (i.e., create and update channels or create and remove tabs)
4. It is important to note the above permissions apply to the INTERNAL team members, not external guests. By default, guests (external users outside your organization) cannot add or delete channels, for example. So you do not need to worry about them. With that said, if you do want your guest users to be able to do so, you would need to enable the feature. To do this, expand Guest permissions and check the appropriate boxes.