Switch channels between different teams

Feedback
1

It is not possible to use ctrl+k to switch to a channel or private group in another team.
Why is this restricted? I don’t think it is a good idea to force the user to use their mouse. This is not very productive.

2

Hey @T3rm1 and really sorry for the delay,

We’re considering adding support where you can use CTRL+K to switch channels across your teams. One use case we’re worried about is when someone belongs to many teams (say 10) and whether having too many duplicates and/or too many channels from different teams will become an issue.

3

It really depends on how Administration sets up the Mattermost Environment (teams / channels) right? If you have many teams and little amount of channels, with the same name, I can see the issue that you are mentioning @jasonblais. On the other hand if you have litte amount of teams and many channels this won’t be an issue. In our set up we found it frustrating to have too many teams because of the following reason:

  • slash commands have to installed for each team,
  • members have to be maintained for each team,
  • channel switching does not work in between teams.

Here are my two proposal to get back on this topic.

  1. Create a shortcut to switch teams. Then I could quickly switch the team and switch the channel afterwards. This solution would be independent from how you have set up your teams / channels.
    2 . Switch channel function (Ctrl + K, Cmd + K) shows either (a) all channels of all teams or (b) channels of the current team. We add a setting to the user account preferences. I have added an attachment how the option could look like in the account settings.

image

What do you think?

4

Thanks for the feedback!

How would we easily handle Town Square channel across the different teams?

5

The best way would be to not enforce a channel named Town Square. Also, your above mentioned situation with too many Off-Topic channels could be handled easily if channels of the current team are always listed before all other matching channels. Furthermore it would make sense that when you type “Off R” it shows you all channels with “Off” in the name (any position) that are on a team with an R (any position) in it. The logic behind that is that the second word limits the search to specific teams.

6

Thanks @T3rm1! Great points

Both Off-Topic and Town Square can in fact be renamed, but I think most teams keep the original names.

Also, your above mentioned situation with too many Off-Topic channels could be handled easily if channels of the current team are always listed before all other matching channels

True, that would be one potential approach.

The logic behind that is that the second word limits the search to specific teams.

True, although we allow spaces in channel names, so that might cause potential issues.

We could also consider a shortcut for switching teams like CTRL+SHIFT+K. While it would require two steps to switch to channel X in team Y, you at least wouldn’t need a mouse as you need now.

7

I agree. It would totally make sense to list the matching channel names of the current team prior other teams. So it could be visually separated. Similar to the horizontal line “My Channels” and “Other Channels”.

I don’t like the idea of using the second word as a keyword for the team name. Because as a user I am actually looking for a channel not a team. Also the URL of a channel is in the order: “PROTOCOL//SERVERURL/TEAM/CHANNEL”. Hence I would find it counter intuitive to search for the channel / team in the opposite direction.

On the other hand I don’t see a problem in listing 10 “Town Square” channels if you actually are member of 10 teams with a channel named “Town Square”.

Anyways I’d love to see that feature in the future.