Restricted Account and Single-Channel Guest FAQ
What is a Restricted Account?
A Restricted Account allows you to add a team member who is only able to see a subset of your team's channels and members. A restricted user will not be able to browse the team's channel list or join any channels on their own — they must be invited by a Team Owner or Admin. Restricted Accounts will only see team members who are in at least one common channel.
What is a Single-Channel Guest?
A Single-Channel Guest is a type of Restricted Account that can only access a single channel. Like Restricted Accounts, they will only see team members who are in their common channel.
Single-Channel Guests are unable to use custom slash commands, or slash commands for added apps such as /hangouts.
When would I want to use one of these instead of making a regular account?
| Restricted Accounts | Single-Channel Guests |
| Paid (same per-user cost as a regular account on the team) | Free for paid teams (limited to 5 accounts per paying team member) |
| Contractors working on a large-scale project with activity across multiple channels | Clients with whom you would like to share your work; useful for everything from mockups and concepts to finished products |
| Freelancers, interns, and other temporary staff members who should not have access to all team communications | Friends, family members, or industry colleagues for water cooler chat |
| Members of smaller groups within a large organization that uses Slack as a single team | Contractors working on a small project for your team where activity is confined to a single channel |
| Members of other teams within the same large organization with whom you collaborate frequently | Members of your organization who don't need access to much team information, but who should be able to receive announcements and direct messages |
How can I create new Restricted Accounts?
Administrators and Owners of paid teams can create new Restricted Accounts and Single-Channel Guests from my.slack.com/admin/invites.
Can we change an existing account to a Restricted Account?
Administrators and Owners can switch existing accounts to Restricted Accounts or Single-Channel Guests using the controls on the right side of the page at my.slack.com/admin.
How many Restricted Accounts can I have on my team?
You may have an unlimited number of Restricted Accounts on your team. Single-Channel Guests are limited to 5 accounts per paying team member.
What messages and files can a Restricted Account see?
Restricted Accounts, including Single-Channel Guests, can see the entire message history for all of their open channels and groups. They will also be able to see all files shared into those channels and groups.
Can Restricted Accounts send direct messages?
Users with Restricted Accounts, including Single-Channel Guests, can send direct messages to anyone they can see — that is, anyone who is currently in one of their open channels or groups. (Regular members of the team will be able to see restricted users.)
Which Slack features are unavailable to Restricted Accounts?
Restricted Accounts do not have access to these Slack features:
- The IRC and XMPP gateways
- Creating, renaming, archiving, and deleting channels
- Creating and modifying apps and custom integrations
- Setting channel topics and purposes
- Team statistics
- Access logs
- Configuring custom emoji
By default, Restricted Accounts can use @channel, @group, and @everyone commands. Team Owners can restrict this at my.slack.com/admin/settings.
My team uses Google Apps authentication. Can we still have Restricted Accounts and Single-Channel Guests?
Yes. If these users don't have a Google Apps account with your organization, you can still allow them to log in by adjusting your Google auth settings. See the Enabling Google Apps authentication article for instructions.
Note that Restricted Accounts and Single-Channel Guests may access the profile of any team member via the API or 3rd-party clients.