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Update a group's settings

If Google Groups isn't available in your work or school account, ask your administrator to turn on Groups for Business.

Group owners and managers can view and edit the details of their groups.

Change group settings

  1. Sign in to Google Groups.
  2. Click the name of a group.
  3. On the left, click Group settings.
  4. Enter information and choose settings for the group.
  5. Click Save changes.

Settings reference

General | Member privacy | Posting policies | Email options | Member moderation

General

Setting Description
Group name
Enter a name that identifies the group in lists and messages. Use these guidelines:
  • Use up to 73 characters for the names.
  • Use names that make it easy to identify the group’s purpose.
Group email

Enter an email address for the group. If more than one domain is displayed, select the appropriate domain from the list. Follow these guidelines:

  • Email addresses can be up to 63 characters long. This limit doesn't include the domain portion of the address, such as @gmail.com.
  • Some words are reserved and can't be used as email addresses. View reserved words.

If you're creating your group in a work or school account, your email address might include a suffix, such as -user-created. For example, if your group name is training, the actual email address might be training-user-created@your_domain.

Group description

(Optional) To add information to the group’s About page, enter the purpose of the group or how it's used. You could include information about group members, group content, an FAQ, links to related groups, and so on.

Welcome message Enter, edit, or delete a welcome message for your group. See Add or change a group's welcome message.
Enable additional Google Groups features Select the option to make the group a Collaborative Inbox. See Make a group a Collaborative Inbox.
Shared labels Check the box to turn on the ability to label conversations for easier organization and search. See Turn on shared labels.
Who can see group

Choose an option for who can find the group by searching for the group’s name, email address, or conversations:

  • Group members—If you’re signed in to a work or school account, this option appears only if your administrator has selected the option to allow group owners to hide groups from the directory. For details about the admin setting, see Hiding groups from non-members.
  • Organization members—This option appears only if you’re signed in to a work or school account.
  • Anyone on the web—If you’re signed in to a work or school account, this option appears only if your administrator has selected the option to make groups public.
Who can join group

Choose an option:

  • Invited users only—People have to be invited to join the group. They can’t add themselves directly or ask to join.
  • Organization users only—People in your organization can add themselves to the group. This option appears only if you’re signed in to a work or school account.
  • Organization users can ask—People in your organization can ask to be added to the group. This option appears only if you’re signed in to a work or school account. 
  • Organization users can join, anyone on the web can ask—People in your organization can add themselves to the group, and anyone on the web can ask to be added to the group. This option appears only if you’re signed in to a work or school account and your administrator has set the option to let group owners allow external members.
  • Anyone on the web can ask—Anyone on the web can ask to be added to the group. If you’re signed in to a work or school account, this option appears only if your administrator has set the option to let group owners allow external members.
  • Anyone on the web can join—Anyone on the web can add themselves to the group. If you’re signed in to a work or school account, this option appears only if your administrator has set the option to let group owners allow external members.
Allow external members

Choose whether to allow people outside of your organization to become group members.

This option appears only for groups you create from a work or school account, and only if your administrator enables the option to let group owners allow external members.

Who can view conversations Choose who can see conversations posted to the group.
Who can post Choose who can send messages to the group email address.
Who can view members Choose who can view the group's member list. 
Group content classification

Choose whether the group content is suitable for everyone or adults only. If you choose adults only, you can’t change this setting later.

This option appears only for groups you create in the public googlegroups.com domain.

Member privacy

Setting Description
Identification required for new members

Choose the form of identity required for new members. 

Who can contact group owners Choose which users can contact members with the owner role in the group.
Who can view member email addresses Choose which users can view member email addresses in the Groups UI. Email addresses might still be visible in other Workspace apps.

Posting policies

Setting Description
Allow Email Posting
Check this box to let people post messages to the group. If you uncheck this box, people can't send messages to the group using the group's email address.
Allow web posting Check this box to let people send messages to the group using the Google Groups interface (groups.google.com).
Conversation history
Turn on conversation history so that members can view posts in Google Groups anytime. 

Group owners and managers can turn the feature on or off for each of their groups.

  • On—Members who choose to get email updates can read and respond to posts using Google Groups online, email, or both. If they opt out of email updates, they can access posts online.
  • Off—Group members can access old posts (those added to the history before the feature was turned off) online. New posts aren’t included in the history. Group members who get email updates can read and reply to them through email. Users who opt out of email updates can access existing posts but can’t see new posts.

Who can reply privately to authors Choose which users can privately reply to authors, as opposed to the whole group.
Who can attach files Choose which users can attach files, such as documents or photos.
Who can moderate content Choose which users can approve, block, and delete messages in the group.
Who can moderate metadata Choose which users can use Collaborative Inbox features.
Who can post as group Choose which users can post messages from the group's email address instead of their own email address.

Default sender

Choose the default address for messages sent from the group:

  • Author's address—Best for discussion groups.
  • Group address—Best for groups where many people are responding on behalf of the group, such as product support groups.
Message moderation

Choose whether to review and approve messages before sending them to the group:

  • No moderation—Post messages as they are received without reviewing them.
  • Moderate messages from non-members—Review and approve messages from non-members before sending them to the group.
  • Moderate all messages—Review and approve all messages before sending them to the group.

To learn how to moderate messages, see Approve or block new messages.

New member restrictions

Choose the initial posting privileges for members when you add them to the group:

  • No posting restriction for new members—Let new members send messages to the group without requiring moderation.
  • New member posts are moderated—Review and approve messages sent by new members before posting them to the group.
  • New members cannot post—Prevent new members from sending messages to the group.

You can change these settings at any time for a given member.

Spam message handling

Choose how to handle messages sent to the group when the system marks them as spam:

  • Reject all messages marked as spam—Don't deliver any messages marked as spam to the group. This option is the tightest level control for spam. Some legitimate messages might be marked as spam and rejected.
  • Moderate and notify content moderators—Send messages marked as spam for review and notify any members with the Who can moderate content permission.
  • Moderate without notifying content moderators—Send messages marked as spam for review without notifying content moderators.
  • Post suspicious messages to the group—Deliver messages marked as spam to the group. This option appears only if you’re signed in to a work or school account.
Rejected message notification Choose whether to notify senders when messages are rejected instead of being delivered to the group.

Email options

Setting Description
Subject prefix
Automatically add a prefix to the subject line of group messages. A prefix helps identify email from the group.
Email footer

Choose what appears in the footer of group email messages:

  • Include the standard Groups footer—Includes a link to the message on groups.google.com and subscription settings, if applicable. You must have access to Google Groups on the web to view the message from the link.
  • Include a custom footer—Includes text you specify, such as legal notices and information about your organization. There is a 1,000-character limit, and you can add text only.
Group email language Enter the language to be used for system-generated information such as notifications and email footers.
Auto replies

Check the boxes to send automatic replies to incoming messages from group members or non-members inside or outside your organization.

This option appears only if you’re signed in to a work or school account.

Post replies to

Choose where replies to group posts are sent:

  • All group members
  • Group managers only
  • Group owners only
  • The author of the original message only
  • A recipient that the sender chooses
  • A custom address you specify
Conversation mode

Turn conversation mode on or off. Conversation mode determines what happens to new messages that share the exact same subject as an existing thread that has recent activity but aren’t sent as replies to that thread.

When conversation mode is on, these types of messages are added to the thread as a reply. When this mode is off, these messages generate a new thread.

If you turn conversation mode off, any messages already in a thread remain unchanged. Only new messages are affected.

Member moderation

Setting Description
Who can manage members Choose who can add or remove members.
Who can modify custom roles Choose who can change permissions for group roles.
Custom roles Create and edit custom roles for your group. See Create or edit a custom role.


Google, Google Workspace, and related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. All other company and product names are trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.

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