diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 69d51062..ab0b60a9 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -10,6 +10,18 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning][].
 
 ## [0.2.6] - TBD
 
+### Added
+
+-   Added `set_channel_names` method to `SpatialData` to change the channel names of an
+    image element in `SpatialData`
+-   Added `write_channel_names` method to `SpatialData` to overwrite channel metadata on disk
+    without overwriting the image array itself.
+
+### Changed
+
+-   `get_channels` is marked for deprecation in `SpatialData` v0.3.0. Function is replaced
+    by `get_channel_names`
+
 ### Fixed
 
 -   Updated deprecated default stages of `pre-commit` #771
diff --git a/docs/api.md b/docs/api.md
index 23312c9b..bbe05f8d 100644
--- a/docs/api.md
+++ b/docs/api.md
@@ -89,6 +89,8 @@ The elements (building-blocks) that constitute `SpatialData`.
     points_geopandas_to_dask_dataframe
     points_dask_dataframe_to_geopandas
     get_channels
+    get_channel_names
+    set_channel_names
     force_2d
 ```
 
diff --git a/src/spatialdata/models/_utils.py b/src/spatialdata/models/_utils.py
index 8f81c2a4..436043ed 100644
--- a/src/spatialdata/models/_utils.py
+++ b/src/spatialdata/models/_utils.py
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 
 from spatialdata._logging import logger
 from spatialdata._utils import _check_match_length_channels_c_dim
+from spatialdata.models.models import Image2DModel, Image3DModel
 from spatialdata.transformations.transformations import BaseTransformation
 
 SpatialElement: TypeAlias = DataArray | DataTree | GeoDataFrame | DaskDataFrame
@@ -27,7 +28,7 @@
 X = "x"
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
-    from spatialdata.models.models import Image2DModel, Image3DModel, RasterSchema
+    from spatialdata.models.models import RasterSchema
 
 
 # mypy says that we can't do isinstance(something, SpatialElement),