Give a custom name to the General channel in Microsoft Teams

(Originally posted August 13, 2025 By ~ Team Public Preview Team)

Hello, Microsoft 365 Insiders! We’re excited to announce that you can now rename generic channels in existing teams in Microsoft Teams or give the first channel you create in a new team a custom name. This will give these important channels more meaningful names.

Give a custom name to a general channel in Microsoft Teams

Until now, every team in Microsoft Teams had a default General channel. All team members belonged to this channel, and it could not be archived or deleted.

We heard from our users that they wanted the option to change the title of this channel to something more meaningful, so we made it happen! Now, regular channels can be renamed by the team owner, and they will then appear alphabetically in every member’s team and channel list, just like any other channel.

How it works

1. To rename an existing team, open Microsoft Teams and navigate to that team.
2. As a team owner, choose: More options Click the button next to the General channel.
3. Choose Change channel name.

   Menu option to change channel name in Teams

4. at Channel Name Give the channel a meaningful name in the field and then select it. get button.

   Select a new name and click Save.

5. To create a new team, go to: + Select the button in the header new team From the context menu. You can now name the channel you first created in this team whatever you want (it is no longer named Generic by default). This channel cannot be archived or deleted and will appear alphabetically with other channels in that team.

   When you create a new team in Microsoft Teams, you name the first channel.

Tips and Tricks

• You can also change the name of a regular channel in: Channel Management Context menu in the channel header of the Settings page or the Onboarding page.
• General is a reserved string, and new channels cannot be named General.
• The first channel created in a new team is given a description by default that is the same as the team description.

effectiveness

To use these new features, you must be a member of Teams Public Preview or Microsoft 365 Targeted Release and use the new Teams client for Windows or macOS. Other meeting participants do not need to be members of Teams Public Preview.

To enable Teams clients for public preview, your IT admin must enable: Show preview feature According to the update policy. Learn more.

For targeted releases, global administrators can go to the Microsoft 365 admin center and grant access to selected individuals or to the entire organization. Learn more.

feedback

I want to hear your opinions! Select Settings and more > help In the top right corner of the Teams app, select: Please give feedback or Suggest a feature Share your thoughts.

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