Microsoft is going to make it easier for Teams users to create their own name for the General channel of a Team. Today, people who are part of the Microsoft Teams Public Preview can now rename the General channel for a current team to a custom name, or they can type in their own name for the first channel when a new team is created.
In a blog post, Microsoft stated:
Up until now, every team in Microsoft Teams had a default General channel. All team members are part of this channel, and it can’t be archived or deleted. We’ve heard from users that they wanted the option to retitle this channel to something more meaningful. So, we made it happen! The General channel can now be renamed by the team’s owners. It will then show up in alphabetical order like other channels in the teams and channels lists for all members.
If you already have a Team and want to change the channel name to one of your choosing, the team"s owner can now navigate to the General channel and select the More options button. The team"s owner should then click on the new Rename channel option. Then, just type in the new custom name in the Channel name field and click on the Save button.
There are other options as well. Microsoft says you can rename that General channel by going to the Manage channel settings page. You can also do it by going to the context menu from the channel header on the onboarding page.
If you or someone else wants to create a new Team, first click on the "+" button and then click on the New Team in the menu. After that, you can name the first channel for that team, and you can choose whatever you want. Keep in mind that your custom name for this first channel cannot be deleted or archived.
As usual, this custom channel option is currently available only to Teams Public Preview or Microsoft 365 Targeted release members. There is no word on when it will be released to all Teams users.