The Directory for Google Workspace, Cloud Identity, and Essentials has contact information for everyone in your organization and shared external contacts. You can control which types of email addresses (primary, alias, domain) to share and which profile information to make available across Google services. When you set up Directory, you might want to disable Directory (turn off contact sharing), then turn it back on when you’re ready.
Why turn on the Directory?
When Directory is turned on (the default setting):
- Your users can find profile information in Google Contacts and other Google services.
- Individual and group addresses autocomplete as your users enter them.
- When users point to or tap someone’s profile image, a card opens with that person’s profile information.
- Google Calendar intelligently suggests meeting rooms based on the location and number of guests. For details, see Create buildings, features & Calendar resources.
- In Classroom, students can send emails to their teachers and classmates.
What addresses are shared?
When Directory is turned on, people in your organization can find:
- All users in the Directory or users in the custom directory assigned to their organizational unit
- Group addresses that are set as visible
- Contacts that are delegated to them by other people
What information is never shared?
- Personal contacts that people add themselves
- People you suspend or delete
- People you hide from the Directory
What’s shared when the Directory is off?
When the Directory is off, users might see each other’s details as they interact across Google Workspace. For example, when users join a Chat space, they can see one another’s profile details.
Turn off the Directory
You usually turn off the Directory only when you first set up Directory or to troubleshoot.
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Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
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In the Admin console, go to Menu
Directory
Directory settings.
- Click Sharing settings
- Uncheck the Enable contact sharing box.
- Click Save.
Changes can take up to 24 hours but typically happen more quickly. Learn more
Turn on the Directory and set sharing options
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Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
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In the Admin console, go to Menu
- Click Sharing settings
- Check the Enable contact sharing box.
- Select which email addresses to include in the Directory:
- Show all email addresses—Show the user's primary email address and any alias addresses.
- Show only secondary and alias email addresses—If a user has either a secondary email address (an address that is outside your domain) or an email alias, show only the secondary and alias addresses, not their primary address.
- Show only primary email address—Include only the user's primary email address. Don't show alias or secondary email addresses.
- Show only email addresses in the user's primary domain—If you have a domain alias, show email addresses in the user’s primary domain. Hide addresses from any domain aliases.
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Select which profiles appear in the Directory in Contacts on the web. If you have many domain profiles or external contacts, show only certain types of profiles to find addresses faster and help the Directory load faster.
- Show only domain profiles—Include profiles of internal users (people with addresses in your domains) and exclude any external contacts. Note: This setting still shows domain shared contacts in autocomplete and search.
- Show only domain shared contacts—Include only shared external contacts.
- Show both domain profiles and domain shared contacts—Include internal and shared external contacts.
- Click Save.
Changes can take up to 24 hours but typically happen more quickly. Learn more
