Channel moderation and announcement-style channels

What it does

A per-channel setting that restricts who can start new posts to a set of moderators, with optional controls over whether everyone else can reply, pin, or have bots and connectors post. It's how you turn a channel into a broadcast or announcements channel without creating a separate team.

Key facts

Team owners have moderator capabilities by default and can't be removed as moderators.
Team owners can assign team members as moderators in a channel, and moderators can add or remove other moderators in that channel.
Moderators can start new posts and control whether team members can reply to existing channel messages.
With moderation on, the per-channel switches cover: members replying to channel messages, members pinning channel messages, bots submitting messages, and connectors submitting messages.
Without moderation, the "who can start a new post" setting is "everyone except guests"; turning moderation on restricts new posts to moderators.
Microsoft's end-user guidance says channel moderation is available for standard channels on Teams desktop and web — not for the General channel or private channels. The General channel has its own owner-controlled posting options instead.
Team owners separately control, in team settings, whether members can create standard, private and shared channels, add tabs and connectors, @mention the team or channel, and use GIFs, stickers and memes.
Announcement is a post type in channels (headline and background image) — it's a formatting choice anyone allowed to post can use; it doesn't restrict anything on its own.

When to use / skip

Use moderation for any channel whose job is to publish: company news, IT service notices, policy updates, change-freeze announcements. Restrict new posts to moderators, decide whether replies are allowed (they usually should be — people will ask questions somewhere, and you'd rather it was under the post), and switch off bots and connectors unless a specific workflow needs them.

Skip it for working channels. Moderation on a project channel is a sign the team has a culture problem, not a channel problem. And don't build a whole org-wide comms strategy on moderated channels in a big team when Viva Engage or SharePoint news is the better fit — Teams channels are good for the operational "this is happening now" message, less good for long-lived content people need to find later.

Configuration decisions

Which channels are moderated, and whether that's a standing rule in templates (an "Announcements" channel with moderation on is a common template element).
Who moderates — owners only, or a named comms group added as moderators.
Whether members can reply to posts in moderated channels. Usually yes for announcements, no for alert-style channels.
Whether bots and connectors can post. If the channel receives automated notices, decide whether those come from Workflows (Power Automate) and whether that's allowed under moderation.
What to do with the General channel, since moderation as such doesn't apply there — use its own posting restrictions or leave it as the open chatter channel.
Whether team owners can restrict @team and @channel mentions to stop notification fatigue.

Gotchas

People want to moderate the General channel. They can't use channel moderation there; it has its own, more limited owner settings. Plan the announcements channel as a separate standard channel.
Private channels don't support moderation. If the announcements need to go to a restricted audience, that's a different design.
Guests can't start new posts in the default "everyone except guests" setting regardless — don't promise external partners a posting route that doesn't exist.
Automated posts that suddenly stop are often a moderation change switching off bot or connector submissions. Check the channel settings before debugging the flow.
Moderators are per channel. Adding someone as a moderator in one channel gives them nothing elsewhere in the team.
The mobile clients don't expose moderation settings in the same way; set them from desktop or web.

Consultant notes

Put a moderated Announcements channel in the standard team template so you're not configuring it by hand on every team.
Give the comms team a short guide: announcement post type, cross-posting to multiple channels, and when to pin.
When moving incoming notices from Office 365 Connectors to Workflows, re-check each moderated channel's bot/connector switches so the new flow can still post.
Write moderators into the team's ownership record — when the comms person leaves, someone has to inherit the role.
If a client wants "broadcast to everyone, reply nowhere", talk them out of it. Closed channels just push questions into private chats with the poster.

Revisit if Microsoft brings channel moderation to the General channel or private channels, or reshapes channel settings in the new channels experience