Set up space access for Chat

You can control access to spaces across your organization by setting the default access for new spaces and adding target audiences. Target audiences are groups of people—such as departments or teams—that you can recommend for users to share their items with. These sharing settings apply to spaces users create in your organization.

Set space access

Sets the default access for new spaces users create:

Sign in with a super administrator account to the Google Admin console.
If you aren’t using a super administrator account, you can’t complete these steps.
Go to Menu Apps > Google Workspace > Google Chat.
Requires having the Service Settings administrator privilege.
Click Sharing settingsSpace access default.
Choose a setting:
- Primary Target Audience: Anyone in this group can find and join the space. By default, the primary target audience for spaces is all users in your domain.
- Restricted: Only added people and groups can join the space.
Click Save.

Manage target audiences for your discoverable spaces

Supported editions for this feature: Business Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Essentials Starter, Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus. Compare your edition

You can add target audiences to users' sharing settings in Chat to automatically assign target audiences to newly created spaces. By default, the primary target audience for newly created spaces is all users in your domain.

Sign in with a super administrator account to the Google Admin console.
If you aren’t using a super administrator account, you can’t complete these steps.
Go to Menu Apps > Google Workspace > Google Chat.
Requires having the Service Settings administrator privilege.
Click Sharing settingsTarget audiences.
The Audiences list shows any target audiences that are already applied to the service, in the order they appear in users' sharing settings.
Add one or more audiences:
1. Click Add target audiences.
2. Choose an option:
  - Check the box for up to 5 target audiences you want to apply to the service.
  - Search for an audience by entering the first few letters of its name.
(Optional) To remove a target audience, next to the audience, click Remove.
(Optional) To change the order that target audiences appear in users' link-sharing settings, choose an option:
- Drag the audience to a new position.
- Enter the order in which you want it to appear in the box to the left of the audience's name.
  Note: The first position is the primary (default) target audience, which appears first in a user's list of sharing recommendations.
Click Save.