Google Apps

Administer users, devices, and organizations

Add users

Options for adding users

Before people at your domain can begin using their Google mail, calendar, or other apps, you need to create user accounts for them. An account provides users with a name and password for signing in to their Google apps, as well as an email address. You can also create accounts to use as mailing lists, and you can give users additional email aliases, as well.

You have several options for creating user accounts, depending on your organization's size and structure.

Options for adding users

Small or medium organizations

Large organizations with existing LDAP directories

  • Use Google Apps Directory Sync to synchronize user data in your existing LDAP directory with your Google account (syncs groups, contacts, and organizations, too).
  • Use the Google Apps Provisioning API to provision a large number of users with data from your existing LDAP directory, such as Microsoft Active Directory. This API provides more flexibility than Google Apps Directory Sync, but requires programming.
  • Use Google Apps Migration for Lotus Notes if you're migrating from Lotus Notes.
Guidelines when creating accounts
  • Each account's user name becomes that person's login name and the first part of their email address. If your domain is solarmora.com, a user whose email is jsmith@solarmora.com has the user name jsmith. If your organization's Google account has multiple domain names associated with it, you specify which domain name to use when you create the user account.
  • You can't use a plus sign (+) in user names.
  • Periods (.) are not ignored (as they are in Gmail). For details, see these tips on character usage.
  • An account's minimum password length is eight characters.
  • Each user gets 25 GB of storage space for their email and attachments.
  • It can take up to 24 hours for a new user account to appear in the searchable Google Apps Directory.
What to do next

After creating user accounts, you can:

  • Assign accounts to different organizational units, to control which apps each user can access. Learn more
  • Associate up to 30 email aliases with a user account.
  • Change the user's display name, which appears in messages they send and receive.

 

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