Assign roles to a group's members

This page is for administrators. To manage groups for your own account, visit Google Groups help.

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As a Groups administrator, you can assign roles to members of any group in your organization, whether or not you created the group. Within a group, each role has certain permissions that determine who can view, post, and moderate content and manage members in that group.

Where can I do this? You can assign and customize default roles in either your Admin console or Google Groups. You can create and manage custom roles using Google Groups.

Default roles

Each group has 3 default roles that can be assigned to members.

Owner

By default, members with the owner role have all permissions for a group. Many of these permissions can be assigned to other sets of users. Review all member and content management permissions.

Only an owner can:

• Delete a group.
• Make another group member an owner.
• Change another owner’s settings.
• Export group messages using Google Takeout.

Only group owners and managers can change a group’s settings.

If you’re signed into a work or school account, for a given group, an administrator can remove some owner permissions, but not others:

• Can remove—Post messages or add, invite, or approve new members.
• Cannot remove—View members or conversations or contact other owners.

A group can’t be the owner of another group.

Administrators are automatically assigned the owner role for all groups in an organization, including groups that users create.

Recommended

Assigning someone the owner role gives them the greatest control over the group, so we recommend keeping the number of owners low. 

Manager

By default, managers can do everything that owners can do except:

• Delete the group.
• Make another member an owner.
• Change an owner’s role or subscription settings.

Group owners can set any permission to owner-only, further limiting what managers can do. However, managers always have the ability to adjust permissions to include managers.

A group can’t be a manager of another group.

Member

By default, group members have basic permissions. Depending on the organization and group settings, these permissions might include viewing and posting to conversations and viewing members. Group owners and managers can add to or limit members’ permissions. Any permissions that are set for the member role are automatically given to managers and owners.

Assign a default role to a member

Using the Admin console

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  DirectoryGroups.
3. Click the name of a groupMembers.
4. (Optional) To filter the list of members, at the top, click Add a filter and select a filter. Enter text to search and click Apply to filter further.
5. To assign a role to a single member:
   1. Under Role for the user you want to change, click the Down arrow select the new role.
   2. Click Save.
6. To assign a role to multiple members:
   1. Check the box next to each member whose role you want to change.
   2. At the top, click Bulk Change Role.
   3. Select a role and click Apply.

Using Google Groups

Requires turning on Groups for Business

1. Sign in to Google Groups.
2. Click the name of a group.
3. On the left, click Members.
4. To assign a role to a single member—Point to a member and in the Role column, select a role.
5. To assign a role to multiple members:
   1. Point to each member whose settings you want to change and check the box next to their name.
   2. Above the list on the right, click Change role .
   3. Select the new role.

Tip: Get more help using Google Groups to manage your organization's groups at the Learning Center.

Create and assign custom roles

Using Google Groups

Requires turning on Groups for Business

If you want a role that’s different from the default roles, you can create a custom role. Members who have the Who can modify custom roles permission can also create and delete custom roles. Some permissions can only be given to owners, managers, and members and not to custom roles.

Get steps at the Learning Center: Create custom roles

View or change permissions for roles

Using the Admin console

You can change basic group membership settings in the Admin console. For example, you can set who can view and post to conversations, who can view members, and who can add, invite, and approve new members.

For details, visit Change access settings.

Using Google Groups

Requires turning on Groups for Business

You can change what owners, managers, and members can do in your group, such as approve messages, view members, or delete posts. Depending on your organization’s group settings, you can allow everyone in your organization or everyone on the web to perform certain tasks. Also set permissions for any custom roles you create.

Get steps at the Learning Center: Assign permissions to a set of users

Understand dynamic group roles

Admins, group owners, and group managers can assign roles in dynamic groups. Admins and owners can assign any role (owner, manager, or member), while managers can assign the manager or member role.

Group owners and managers in dynamic groups have the following restrictions:

• A manager or owner cannot manually add or remove users. Membership is based on the dynamic group query only.
• A manager or owner cannot change the dynamic group query. Only an administrator can change the query using the Google Admin console or the Cloud Identity Groups API.
• If a manager or owner gets removed from and then readmitted to the group (because of changes to the dynamic group query or their user attributes), they rejoin with the member role, not their previously assigned role.
• If a group is deleted and re-created, any previous managers or owners join with the member role, not their previously assigned owner or manager role.

For the steps to assign roles in a dynamic group, go to Assign a default role to a member above on this page.