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Google Groups is an online service where you can create or join groups – and communicate and collaborate with multiple people at the same time.
There are three fundamental tasks you can accomplish in Google Groups:
1. Send Group Emails: Instead of manually selecting each person you want to email, you can send an email to a Google Group. As a result, all participants in that group will receive your email.
2. Start a Conversation Thread: Google Groups acts as a forum. Here, you can start a conversation thread – and people inside the group can reply to it with their own answers, opinions and thoughts.
3. Send Files, Media and Event Invitations: You can send documents, spreadsheets, images, videos and even calendar invites to group participants.
The highlight feature of Google Groups is that it allows everyone to communicate not just with text, but with rich media elements as well.
Google Groups for Business is an extended service available for Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) users that allows you and other members in your organization to access the main Google Groups interface located at groups.google.com.
This Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) specific version comes with functionality that is not available in the standard version Google Groups. A few examples of a few exclusive features only available in Google Groups For Business are:
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In order to access the standard Google Groups interface — where you can find, create and join any group of your choice — you will need a Gmail account.
But, if you want to access the business version of Google Groups, which includes groups created by your organization, you will need:
Currently, you cannot go to Google Groups via Gmail. To access Google Groups, you need to type www.groups.google.com in your web browser. This will redirect you to the main Google Groups webpage.
You can, however, send an email to your group via Gmail. To do so:
At its core, Google Groups allows multiple people to communicate and collaborate with each other on a single platform. Here are some practical uses of Google Groups:
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To access Google Groups:
1. Go to www.groups.google.com. This is the main user interface where you will find all your groups.
2. To see your work-based groups, sign in with your G Suite email address (or with the email address you used to join the group).
3. Once you’re logged in, on the top-left corner, click on My Groups.
4. From the list of groups, select your desired group to go on its page.
There is no dedicated Google Groups mobile application you can install. That being said, here’s how you can access Google Groups on your phone
Keep in mind that the interface you’ll see on your phone will be different than what you see on a computer. This is because on your phone, you get the mobile version of Google Groups by default.
When you create a new group, you will be asked to choose what type of group you want to create. Your choice determines how you and your members will be able to interact with each other within the group.
That being said, here are the four types of Google Groups you can create:
1. Email List
In this type of group, members can communicate with each other using a single email address. This makes it a perfect group type for sending messages, making announcements and sharing files with multiple people at the same time.
2. Web Forum
A web forum allows a group of people to initiate and respond to conversations. In this type of group, ideally, multiple people can both make posts and reply to them. All messages and replies are available on groups.google.com. This group type is perfect if you want to facilitate group conversations between coworkers working in the same department, team members collaborating on one project or simply a group of people with common interests in a particular subject.
3. Q&A Forum
The Q&A forum works exactly the same way as a web forum. The only difference is that it is focused on members asking and answering questions. Answers can be marked as ‘best’ or ‘resolved’. This makes such a group ideal for a help desk or a public FAQ page.
4. Collaborative Inbox
When you create a collaborative inbox, people can send emails directly to the group. This effectively turns the group in an inbox where members can read and reply to emails. This type of group is great for running your customer support channel, processing requests and inquiries.
To be able to use Google Groups for customer support, you will need to create a Collaborative Inbox.
Here’s how you can do that:
1. Login to groups.google.com with you Google Workspace email address.
2. Click on Create Group.
3. Type in your group name, email address and description. Also select the primary language for your group.
4. In group type, choose Collaborative Inbox.
5. If it is a public support channel, set the visibility of your group to Anyone on the web. Otherwise, select Members of this group.
6. Similarly, set permissions for who can View Topics, Post Messages or Join the group. (You can always change these settings later depending on your requirements).
Once done, click Create on the top-left corner of your screen.
Next, go to your new customer support group page. Here:
1. Click on Manage Members on the top-right corner.
2. In the left-hand navigation menu, click Direct Add Members.
3. Type in the email addresses of your customer support agents. Optionally, type in a welcome message and click Add on the top-left corner.
Once done, go to Roles on the left-hand navigation menu. Here, you will find three roles: Owner, Manager and Member.
Click on each role and assign what each type of member can do – and what their role will be. After setting up your group and its member roles, click on a message a customer has posted i.e. a support ticket.
You’ll find the option to:
Choose the appropriate option and start answering the customer support request.
Here’s a bit of bad news. The Collaborative Inbox is more of a workaround — it was not designed to work for customer support teams.
Most teams have a hard time using Collaborative Inboxes for managing support@ emails. Emails go unattended. People end up sending duplicate replies to emails. Customers suffer.
The good news is that there is a way to make Collaborative Inboxes work for delivering outstanding customer service.
There are two ways you can access Google Groups emails.
a) Using the Google Groups webpage:
1. Go to www.groups.google.com. This is the main user interface where you will find all your groups.
2. To see your work-based groups, sign in with your G Suite email address (or with the email address you used to join the group).
3. Once you’re logged in, on the top-left corner, click on My Groups.
4. From the list of groups, select your desired group to go on its page.
5. In the group page, you will have a list of all the emails sent to the group. Simply open the email conversation you want to read.
b) Using Gmail:
1. Sign-in to Gmail with your Google Workspace email address (or with the email address you used to join the group).
2. In your inbox, go to the Forums tab (or click on the forums label located on the left-hand menu).
3. Here you’ll find all the emails sent to the groups you have joined.
Pro-tip: If you know the exact message you’re looking for, you can type a few keywords from it, or the sender’s name in the search bar located on top of Google Groups and/or Gmail to quickly find the message you’re looking for.
Recommended Read
The standard version of Google Groups is free.
However, Google Groups for Business, which is a version of Google Groups created specifically for organizations, is not free. To be able to use it, you will need a Google Workspace account.
There are three Google Workspace plans you can choose from in order to access Google Groups:
After subscribing to a paid Google Workspace plan, you will be able to communicate and collaborate with other Google Workspace users within your organization using the groups.google.com user interface.
The best way to create a Google Group is through your Google Workspace admin account. This is because in Google Workspace, you already have created user profiles of your organization’s employees. This will make it easy for you to quickly add members to your group. In addition, groups created in Google Workspace can be configured to give/remove access not just to Google Group features, but also other services like Gmail, YouTube and more.
Note: Before you can create a Google Group, go to Apps > Google Workspace > Groups For Businessin your Google Workspace dashboard. Click Edit Service and click On for Everyone.By turning the Google Group service on, other members in your Google Workspace account will be able to access your Google Groups.
That being said, here’s how you can create a Google Group via your Google Workspace admin account:
1. Login to your Google Workspace dashboard with an admin account.
2. On the main admin console page, navigate toGroups.
3. In the groups page, click Create Groupon the top-left corner of your screen.
4. Enter the group details such as group name, description, email and who the group owner will be.
Once done, you will be asked to choose the settings for your group member roles i.e. owner, manager or simply a member. After setting their privileges, choose whether you want your group to be accessible only to your organization or also to the people outside it.
Here’s a brief description of the settings you will have to take care of:
1. Public: Anyone will be able to see your group.
2. Team: Only a team within your organization will be able to see your group.
3. Announcements: Only you will be able to share information within this group.
4. Private: Only the people you choose will be able to access this group.
1. Contact Owners: This allows a member to email group owners directly.
2. View Members: This allows a member to view the complete list of members within a group.
3. View Topics: This allows a member to view all the topics submitted inside the group
4. Publish Posts his allows a member to publish posts to the group.
1. Anyone can ask: This allows anyone to request you access to join your group.
2. Anyone can join: This allows anyone to join the group without asking permission or getting approved.
3. Only Invited Users: This restricts anyone from requesting or joining your group unless the group owners send them a personal invitation.
After finishing this setup process, click Create Group. After a few minutes of doing so, your new group will be active and ready to use.
There is no limit on the number of groups you can create. However, there are some limitations you should be aware of if you plan to use Google Groups For Business (the paid Google Workspace version of Google Groups):
1. You can be an owner of only 1000 Google Groups.
2. You can be a direct member of up to 2000 groups.
3. You can join only up to 30 groups in a single day.
After you create a Google Group and add members to it, you can tweak the permission each member has. The easiest way to do this is by assigning each member a different ‘role’.
By default, there are three main roles you can assign your group members:
1. Group Owner
A group owner has the highest permission level in the group. As a Google Workspace administrator, you are automatically assigned this role when you create a new group. A group owner can make any and all changes to the group, including:
Since group owners have such high level access, it is best you give the role to very few and very trustworthy members in your group.
2. Manager
After the group owner, a manager has the highest permission level in the group.
They have all the privileges a group owner has, except for the fact that they cannot perform any actions that affect group owners. For example, they cannot remove a group owner from a group, demote them into a manager or member, or assign someone the role of group owner.
Their actions are solely limited to other managers and group members. For this reason, the manager role is great if you want a member to be able to moderate the group.
3. Member
Everyone in the group is assigned the member role by default. What a member can do is completely determined by the permissions given to them by group owners and group managers. By default, they can view posts, reply to messages and share media files. However, any and all permissions the members have can be revoked by the higher level group manager or owner roles.
There are two ways you can add members to your groups:
Note: To be able to add users to a group, make sure you have administrator privileges or are assigned the role of group owner or manager.
1. By inviting members:
In this method, members will receive an invitation email requesting they join your group.
Here’s how you can invite members to your group:
1. Log in to groups.google.com.
2. Click My Groups.
3. Click on the group to which you’d like to add new members.
4. On the top-right corner of your screen, click on Manage Members.
5. On the left-hand menu, navigate to Members → Invite Members.
6. Type in the email addresses of the people you want to invite. Optionally, if you want to attach an invitation message, type it as well.
7. Click Send Invites.
Pro-tip: If you want to resend an invitation or cancel it, click Members → Outstanding Invites. Here, you’ll be able to resend or revoke invitations.
2. Directly add new members
In some instances, you might already know in advance what members you need to add. For example, if you’re creating a collaborative inbox to provide customer service, you know beforehand that you’ll be adding members of your customer support team in the group.
As such, if the group you’ve created is preplanned - and it has already been established who will join it - you can directly add members to it without going through the invitation process.
Here’s how:
1. Log in to groups.google.com.
2. Click My Groups.
3. Click on the group to which you’d like to add new members.
4. On the top-right corner of your screen, click on Manage Members.
5. On the left-hand menu, navigate to Members → Direct Add Members.
6. Type in the email addresses of the people you want to invite. Optionally, if you want to attach an invitation message, type it as well.
7. Click Add.
If you want to join a group, follow these steps:
1. Login to groups.google.com with your work (G Suite) email address.
2. Click on My Groups.
3. Click on Switch Organizational View to .yourwebsite.com. (This will ensure you join a group as a member of your organization, not as an external member).
4. Use the search bar on top to type in the group name you want to join.
5. In the search results, click on the group you searched for to go to its main page
6. Depending on how the group is configured, you will see a Join this group or Apply to join this group button. Click on it.
You will be asked to configure your settings for this group such as:
After choosing your desired settings, click the Join this group or Apply to join this group button again
Note: These instructions will only work for groups that aren’t hidden or restricted. To join hidden/restricted groups, you will have to ask its owner to send you an invitation via email or add you directly.
After becoming a part of a group, you and other members in it can either start or respond to a conversation.
Note: The owner of a group decides who can create, respond or even see the conversations in their group
To start a conversation:
1. Sign into groups.google.com with your work (G Suite) email address.
2. Click My Groups and choose the name of the group you’d like to start a conversation in.
3. Click on New Topic or New Question on the top-left corner.
4. Choose the Subject of the group andType of Post.
5. Type in your message and click Post.
To reply to a conversation:
1. In the group page, you’ll see a list of conversations posted by members. Click on the one to whom you’d like to reply.
2. At the end of the conversation, you’ll see aReply field. Click on it.
3. Type in your message and click Post.
Pro-tip: Depending on the type of group you’re in, and based on your privileges, you can also mark a reply as Best Answer or Resolved. And if you want to quickly access a conversation for later, you can open a conversation and click on the star on the left-side of a post which you will be able to access by clicking on the Starred tab on the left-hand menu.
As an owner, Google Groups provides you access to granular settings, allowing you to run your group exactly the way you want.
Before we get started, open your group’s settings page. Here’s how you can do it:
1. Go to www.groups.google.com. This is the main user interface where you will find all your groups.
2. To see your work-based groups, sign in with your Google Workspace email address (or with the email address you used to join the group).
3. Once you’re logged in, on the top-left corner, click on My Groups.
4. From the list of groups, select your desired group to go on its page.
5. On the upper-right corner, click Manage Group.
This will open a page where you’ll find different sections with different settings to manage your group.
All in all, there are six sections:
Members
In this section, you can find settings related to managing your group members. There are five setting pages in total:
1. Members: On this page, you see all the members of your group. You can sort members by All, Banned, or Bouncing. In addition, you can assign/remove roles to members, remove or ban them, choose how (and if) they receive group messages, and provide/remove their permission to post messages to the group. You can also export your list of members as a .CSV file.
2. Invite Members: Here, you can simply enter the email address of the people you’d like to invite to your group, along with an invitation message if you wish.
3. Direct Add Members: On this page, you can directly add members to your group by entering their email address, along with a welcome message. You can also set how they receive group emails.
4. Outstanding Invites: This page shows you the list of members who haven’t yet accepted your invitation to join your group. Here, you can revoke or resend invitations again.
5. Join Requests: This page will show you a list of people who have requested access to your group. You can accept or reject their request from here.
Messages
This section has only one page called Pending Messages. Here, you can see a list of messages posted by users that are pending your approval. You can either approve or deny them.
The messages show here only if you’ve enabled moderation either for the whole group or for a particular member(s).
Settings
In this section, you can manage how posts appear in your group. All in all, there are 5 subcategories in the Settings page that you can access:
1. Email Options: Here, you can add a default email subject prefix and footer. The subject prefix appears at the very beginning of the email subject. The footer text, on the other hand, appears at the bottom of the email. You can also configure where user replies are sent – or simply give users permission to choose themselves where they want emails to be sent.
2. Identity: Here, you can set how users' names appear on the posts they send in the group. It can either be the name they have chosen when they joined your group or the name in their Google profile. In addition, you can also enable a setting which forces every member to create a unique display name.
3. Moderation: Here, you can configure whether you want posts by members to be published automatically or with your approval. You can also restrict new members from posting at all – and choose whether you want the original author of the message to receive a rejection notification. Lastly, you can choose whether you’d like to moderate and go through spam messages – or reject them immediately.
4. Tags: Here, you can create relevant tags to sort group messages and choose whether you want to make it mandatory for members to tag their messages.
5. Categories: Here, you can create categories in which you can put your messages into. And if you have a lot of categories, you can organize them by putting them into category groups.
Permissions
In the section, you can set various permissions regarding how people can interact with (and inside) your group. There are 4 subcategories under the Permissions page that you can access:
1. Basic Permissions: Here, you can set permissions for who can see your group, join it, view group topics, and post messages.
2. Posting Permissions: Here, you can set permissions for who can assign messages, mark them as ‘best answer’ or as ‘no response required’. You can also configure which members are allowed to post, attach files, respond on behalf of the group, and reply to the author of a message.
3. Moderate Permissions: Here, you can select which members can manage members, moderate content, edit posts and modify roles.
4. Access Permissions: Here, you can select which members can access sensitive group information such as member list, their email address, and their topics. You can also choose the members who can directly contact the group owner(s).
Roles
The section has one page, where you can assign roles to members – and configure what privileges each role has. There are three roles by default:
1. Owner: The owner has complete access to the group and its settings.
2. Manager: The manager has limited access to the group’s settings.
3. Member: A member has no access to the group’s settings.
Information
In the Information section, there are 5 subcategories you can access. Here you can edit how information about your group is displayed.
1. In the General Information page, you can edit:
2. Next is the Visibility page. Here, you can change the group visibility to either:
3. The next page below it is the Content Control page. Here, you can:
4. The next page below it is the Web View Customization page. Here, you can simply choose whether your group allows threaded discussions (a conversation post with replies below it) or not.
5. The last page is the Advancedpage. Here, you can either Delete your group or Reset it into another group type.
By going through each of these settings, you can manage your group exactly the way you want.
If you want, you can completely remove a post. Here’s how:
1. Open a group by going to My Groups.
2. Click on a post you’d like to delete.
3. On the very right-side of a message, you’ll see a downwards pointing arrow. Click on it.
3. In the pop-up menu, click on Delete Post.
4. Click OK in the confirmation box.
Your post will be deleted.
A Google Group isn’t just a place where you can communicate, it also enables you to quickly start collaboration on projects. This means that you can:
Here’s how…
Sending emails to group members:
1. Sign-in to Gmail with your work (Google Workspace) email address.
2. Click Compose.
3. In the To: field, type in the group email address. (If you don’t remember, go to your group’s About page to see its email address).
4. Type in your message as normal and add any attachments you want.
5. Click Send.
Sending files to group members:
1. Sign-in to Google Drive with your work (Google Workspace) email address and open the document, spreadsheet, presentation or form you’d like to share with your group.
2. Click on the Sharebutton on the top-right corner.
3. Type in your group email address. (If you don’t remember, go to your group’s About page to see its email address).
4. Click Send.
Sending an event invitation to group members:
1. Sign-in to Google Calendar with your work (Google Workspace) email address.
2. Click Ctreate
3. Choose a title for your event, its time, location and other details.
4. In the Add Guests field, type in your group email address. (If you don’t remember, go to your group’s About page to see its email address).
5. Click Save.
This, in essence, is how you can use Google Groups. You join a group, participate in discussions, and collaborate with your members.
The business version of Google Groups that is geared towards organizations is not available for free. To be able to use it, you need an active Google Workspace subscription which starts at $6/month per user.
However, if you are a non-profit organization, you can get Google Groups and other Google Workspace apps and services for free through Google for Nonprofits service.
It’s important to note that not every non-profit is eligible. You have to make sure your non-profit organization is:
If these requirements are fulfilled, you can apply for a free Google Workspace (and consequently, free Google Groups for Business) account on https://www.google.com/nonprofits/.
That is up to you.
If you already have an active group, here’s how you can make it private:
1. Login to groups.google.com with you Google Workspace email address.
2. Click My Groups.
3. Click on the group you want to turn private.
4. Click Manage Group on the top-right corner.
5. Using the left-hand navigation menu, click onInformation → Group Visibility. Change the visibility status to Only members of the group.
6. Change the visibility status to Only members of the group.
If you are creating a new group, and want to make it private by default, follow these steps:
1. Login to groups.google.com with you Google Workspace email address.
2. Click onCreate Group.
3. Type in your group name, email address and description. Also select the primary language for your group.
4. In group type, choose Collaborative Inbox.
5. If it is a public support channel, set the visibility of your group to Members of this group.
6. Similarly, set permissions for who can View Topics, Post Messages or Join the group. (You can always change these settings later depending on your requirements).
Click Create on the top-left corner of your screen. Your new group will be private by default.
There is no native iOS or Android application. However, you can access the mobile version of Google Groups by opening www.groups.google.com on your mobile web browser.
1. Login to www.groups.google.com with your G Suite email address (or the email address with which you joined the group)
2. Click My Groups.
Here, you will find all the groups you are an owner/member of.
1. Login to www.groups.google.com with your G Suite email address (or the email address with which you joined the group)
2. Go to My Groups.
3. Click on the group where you want to search
4. You’ll find a search bar at the top. Here, type in a few specific keywords from the message you’re trying to search for.
5. In the drop-down menu, you’ll see an option to search for the keyword within your group. Click on it.
6. You’ll see the results of messages within your chosen group only.
1. Login to www.groups.google.com with your G Suite email address (or the email address with which you joined the group.
2. Go to My Groups.
3. Click on the group you want to delete.
4. In the group page, on the top-right corner, click Manage Group.
5. In the left-hand navigation menu, clickAdvanced.
6. On the Advanced page, click on theDelete this group button.
7. In the confirmation box, click Delete.
Your group will be deleted permanently. Note that there is no way to restore a deleted Google Group.
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