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About this lesson
Learn how to join an existing public or private team.
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Quick reference
Join an Existing Team
Explore the different methods for joining an existing team.
When to use
Join a public or private team whenever you find a team that interests you or is related to your work or organization.
Instructions
When a team is public, we need to join it but it doesn't require any approval from the team owner. When a team is private, we need to request to join and the team owner needs to approve the request.
Join a team via an invite
We can join a team via a link sent by the team owner. Teams owners can generate links to teams and email these to colleagues, internal and external.
If the team is private, the team owner will need to approve the request for access. If the team is public, the invitee will immediately join the team when they click on the link.
Join a public team
When someone adds us to a team, we will receive a notification in our Activity Feed. If the team is public, it will automatically appear in our teams list once we've been added as a member.
When a new public team is created by someone within our organization but we haven't been added as a member, we can see the team when we click on Join or create a team. To join a public team, we can simply click Join team.
Join a Team with a Code
Team owners can generate a unique code and send it to colleagues. This code can then be used to join a team. The advantage of using a team code to join a team is that team owners do not have to approve any requests for access.
Generate a team code
- Click the three dots next to the team in the teams list.
- Click Manage team.
- Click the Settings tab.
- Expand Team code.
- Click the Generate button.
- Click Copy.
- Paste the team code into an email and send to invitees.
Join with the team code
- Click on Join or create a team.
- Enter the code into the empty field.
- Click Join team.
Hints & tips
- Guests cannot join a team using a team code.
- 00:03 As we saw in previous lessons, teams can be public, private or org-wide.
- 00:10 If a team is org-wide,
- 00:12 anyone who is part of that organization is automatically a team member.
- 00:18 If a team is public, we need to join it but
- 00:21 it doesn't require any approval from the team owner.
- 00:25 Whereas if a team is private, we need to request to join and
- 00:29 the team owner needs to approve that request.
- 00:32 So I guess the flip side of adding members to a team is joining a team yourself.
- 00:38 So how do we join existing teams?
- 00:41 Well, there are a few different ways.
- 00:44 You could be invited by the team owner via a link.
- 00:48 So this will be a link that you receive via an email and
- 00:52 you can simply click on the link to join the team.
- 00:56 The other way that you can join a team is to go down to join or create a team at
- 01:00 the bottom and you could simply search for the team that you want to join.
- 01:05 So using the search bar at the top, I could search for a team, and
- 01:09 I'm just going to search for an existing team so let's go for SharePoint Online.
- 01:14 Now because this is a public team, it's coming up in search.
- 01:18 If this was a private team, I wouldn't be able to search for it.
- 01:22 So I'd need to be invited by the owner, or I would need to request access from them.
- 01:27 Now because SharePoint Online is public, if I wasn't a member of this team,
- 01:32 I could simply click on it and then choose join.
- 01:36 And, as I said, there are no approvals that are required so
- 01:39 you should see that automatically pop up in your team's list.
- 01:42 Now, notice here that I have a new notification in my activity log.
- 01:49 So if I click on activity, let's see what's going on.
- 01:54 Well, Ben has added me to Ben's Friday Lunch Club.
- 01:59 So my colleague, Ben, has created a new team and he's added me to this team.
- 02:04 So I've received a notification that I've been added to the team and
- 02:09 because it's a public team, it automatically appears in my team's list.
- 02:14 So I haven't had to join this team because it's public.
- 02:18 Now if we go back to join or create a team,
- 02:21 something's changed on this page since we were last here.
- 02:26 Notice I now have a new team, HR Team Hub.
- 02:30 So this is a public team that my colleague, Ben, has created.
- 02:36 He hasn't invited me to the team, but because it is a public team and
- 02:40 he's within my organization, I can see that team listed there.
- 02:45 So if I decide, actually, you know what?
- 02:47 I want to be part of this team, I can click the join team button.
- 02:53 As soon as I do that, that team is going to appear in my team's list.
- 02:59 The third way that you can join a team is by using a team code.
- 03:04 And notice here, we have join team with a code.
- 03:08 So what is this magical code?
- 03:11 Well, team owners can generate a team code and
- 03:14 then send that code to you to make it really easy for you to join a team.
- 03:19 And there is a big advantage to joining a team using a team code,
- 03:23 particularly for team owners.
- 03:26 If a code is generated and someone joins using that code,
- 03:29 it means the team owner doesn't have to approve the request.
- 03:33 So that's particularly going to come into play if you have people wanting to join
- 03:37 a private team.
- 03:38 Sometimes if you're getting a lot of requests as a team owner,
- 03:42 it's quite time consuming to have to go through and approve them all.
- 03:46 So a team code kind of bypasses that whole scenario.
- 03:49 Now I just want to show you how team owners can generate a team code.
- 03:55 So, for example, if I go to Northwind Traders,
- 03:58 I can click on the three dots and select manage team from the contextual menu.
- 04:04 Now if we go to the settings tab,
- 04:07 you'll notice that we have a section here for team code.
- 04:12 So if we expand this, what I could do is generate a team code.
- 04:17 Notice that it says that guests won't be able to join using this team code.
- 04:21 It's purely for people within your organization.
- 04:24 So what I could then do is simply choose copy to copy this code to
- 04:28 the clipboard and then I could maybe paste that into an email and
- 04:32 send it to the person that I want to join the team.
- 04:36 And they would just use that team code on this page and
- 04:40 enter into the box in order to automatically join this team.
- 04:45 So it is really straightforward.
- 04:47 So three different methods there,
- 04:49 you need to be invited by the team owner via a link which will be shared via email.
- 04:55 If the team is public you can search for the team and choose join.
- 05:00 Alternatively, your team owner can generate a code and
- 05:04 send that to you so you can join the team.
- 05:07 Alternatively, if you have a colleague who's already part
- 05:10 of the team that you want to join, you can get them to request access on your behalf.
- 05:15 And that's simply a case of clicking on those three dots again,
- 05:19 clicking add member, and typing in your email address.
- 05:23 And, of course, this relies on the fact that the team member that you've asked to
- 05:28 do this has the relevant permissions in this team.
- 05:30 It's not always the case that any member can add other members to the team, but
- 05:35 a lot of the time that setting is turned on.
- 05:38 So when it comes to joining teams, there are really three methods.
- 05:42 You will see any public teams that have been created within your organization and
- 05:48 you can join them simply by clicking on the button,
- 05:51 org-wide teams you'll automatically be a member of, and
- 05:55 private teams require an invite from the team owner.
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