Create Channel Connections Between Slack and Microsoft Teams

When it comes to collaboration, creating channel connections between popular messaging programs like Slack and Microsoft Teams has proved to be difficult. Along with Google Chat, Slack and Teams are arguably the most popular messaging programs that startups, scaleups and enterprise businesses use.

A lack of robust integrations and poor chat interoperability is the issue that Conclude Connect – a secure Slack and Microsoft Teams integration – aims to solve. It allows teams to connect and chat with people using Slack or Microsoft Teams inside the same organization, or set up channel links with external vendors or clients.

We are often asked about the key differences between the internal and external channel connection functionality. This blog explains that, along with some simple use cases for each.

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Connecting Channels Between Slack and Teams

Conclude Connect is focused on direct collaboration and communication between people in the same, or different, organizations. It’s suitable for large and small organizations that need to communicate with others on a global or distributed level, or for with external clients. In both cases the chat programs Slack and Microsoft Teams need to be connected to ensure smooth communication.

How Does It Work?

After signing up and going through the onboarding process you will need to activate your preferred solution (connect with internal or external connections) from the Dashboard using the toggle function.

Here you will see one of the following options on the sidebar: Connect internal > Channels and > Chat, and Connect external > Channels. Both have the same objective – to connect selected channels across different workspaces or teams, so conversations can take place.

So which one is right for your business? Below we provide some sample use cases which will help to clarify what each feature does.

External Communication Problem

Your company just landed an important new client. The client wants to limit email communication and use chat instead. This client also prefers that most communication takes place on Teams, but your organization uses Slack.

One solution is to open a Microsoft Teams account and create a team (also called a tenant), then invite your client’s team as external members to discuss your project there.

However, this creates additional challenges for your company – specifically toggling between two different chat programs with the potential to miss important communication. Not only does this increase the cognitive load, it also contributes to information silos.

Best Solution: Connect External Channels

Setting up an external connection from Slack or Teams allows you to invite users to a shared, connected channel, so both companies can communicate from their preferred platform without the need to set up separate accounts.

After completing the sign up process and activating the external connections solution from the Dashboard you will navigate to Connect external > Channels and be prompted to invite users by email.

• See our Connect External Quickstart Guide for more details.

Once an invitation is sent and accepted, the client can then invite the appropriate team members from their organization to the shared channel without requiring further approvals from your side.

Once the channel is connected, chats, images and documents are synced bi-directionally in the channel. With this solution, all information is now contained in one place to ensure smoother communication between you and your client.

If you are looking for an external support ticket solution from Slack, see our blog on Slack and Zendesk Integration for External Support.

Internal Communication Problem

Your company has a problem with teams that chat or work on both Slack and Microsoft Teams, or you perhaps have different Slack workspaces set within the same organization. This can also occur when one program doesn’t offer the required integrations for a team’s specific business needs (e.g. customer support or IT help desk tickets).

This general disconnection results in workplace silos and communication inefficiencies across the entire organization with some teams having access to information not available to other stakeholders.

Although this is more frequently seen in larger companies, it can also occur during a merger or acquisition where one company has been using a different chat program to the acquiring company.

One solution is to mandate that everyone uses one messaging program only – and in theory, that should be the end of the matter. But this is not always the reality. Many organizations have teams that strongly prefer to use Slack (we’re looking at you IT) and this may even result in shadow messaging inside the organization.

Best Solution: Connect Internal Channels

Connecting internal channelsusing Conclude Connect is the best solution to ensure better internal cross-team communication.

After creating an account with Conclude and signing in with Slack and/or Microsoft Teams, you will have access to the Dashboard. Under Admin settings, admins can access the workspaces and teams for Slack and Microsoft Teams that they want to create connections between.

In the sidebar under Connect internal > Channels you will be asked to create a new channel connection by selecting New connection.

• See our Connect Internal Quickstart Guide for more details.

After going through the process to create a new connect between channels, teams will be able to communicate seamlessly and access a range of functionalities, including editing and deleting messages, file sharing and emojis (in text), threaded messages, @mentions and language translations.

Additionally, by navigating to Connect internal > Chat, you can set up direct messaging and group chats. This feature can be used on its own and does not require channels to be connected.

Watch: Conclude Connect: How to Connect Microsoft Teams and Slack

Connecting Different Workspaces

Admins can connect, view and manage different workspaces under Settings > Admin settings > Workspaces and these can be added or removed by simply clicking on the team name.

If a team or workspace isn’t listed, admins have the option to add a new one by clicking on Sign in with Slack to add a Slack workspace, or Sign in with Microsoft to add a Microsoft tenant.

Setting up teams and workspaces in this way is only required for the Connect internal solution. All external connections are currently made by inviting users to the selected channel.

For example, if your organization is using Slack, you can invite Microsoft Teams users from an external organization to connect with your company in a shared channel. This doesn’t require you to add their Microsoft tenant to the Workspaces section.

We hope this blog has provided you with a deeper understanding of how the internal and external connecting features work.

Ready to connect Slack and Microsoft Teams? Get started here free for 14 days or sign up for a demo to learn more.

This blog was first published on August 22, 2024 and updated on Dec 12, 2024 then again in April 2025.