With guest accounts, you can securely collaborate, coordinate and communicate with external non-Workspace users and individuals outside your organisation in Google Chat.
Tip: If you've received an invitation to Chat as a non-Workspace user, learn how to create a guest account.
Learn how to invite guests
When you invite an external, non-Workspace user through a direct message (DM) or space, a guest account is provided for that external user within your Workspace domain.
A guest account is denoted by teal 'External' label . This is similar to the yellow 'External' label that indicates external Workspace users
.
To invite a guest to a direct message:
- In Google Chat, click New chat.
- In the search or recipient field, enter the guest's email address.
- To start the conversation and invitation process, click Start chat.
- After the invitation, the DM displays a teal 'External' label
.
- After the invitation, the DM displays a teal 'External' label
- Send your first message.
To invite a guest to a space:
- In Google Chat, open the space that you want to invite the guest to.
- At the top, click the space name
Manage members
- Enter the guest's email address.
- To send the invitation, follow the prompts.
Manage members Tips:
You can invite external, non-Workspace users to Google Chat as guests in a DM or space if:
- The external user doesn't have a Workspace or Gmail account.
- Your admin has allowlisted the invitee's domain (if your organisation uses a trusted domain to restrict external chatting).
- Your admin has allowlisted you to invite guests.
- External members are allowed in the space.
Collaborate with external users
- Google Meet: Guest users can join huddles and Meet calls or access Google Meet sessions that are shared through links within a space.
- Google Drive: Guest users can open and edit Google Drive files like Docs, Sheets or Slides shared within the space. External users with a Drive visitors account can still receive guest pass invitations.
Review guest invitation failures
Error type 1: External chat failure
The external user displays a yellow 'External' label . This error occurs with email addresses linked to existing Workspace accounts. These users aren't eligible for guest invitations.
| Error message | Error reason |
| This user doesn't have Google Chat enabled. | Chat is disabled for this Workspace account. To allow this user to use Google Chat, the invitee's administrator must enable Chat for the user. |
| You've blocked this user. Unblock them to send a message. | The invitee is blocked by the inviter. |
| This user's account is still being set up. Please try again later. | New account restriction. There may be a short waiting time before Chat activates. |
| Can't start a direct message at the moment. Please try again later. | A transient error has occurred. Retry later. |
| This conversation can't be created due to conflicting history retention or data location policies. | History retention or data location policies are in conflict between the inviter and invitee accounts. To permit messaging, one or both administrators must resolve these conflicts. |
|
Your domain isn't amoung the invitee organisation's allowlisted domains. Contact the invitee's administrator for help. |
|
The invitee's domain is not on your organisation's allowlist. |
Error type 2: Guest invitation failure
|
Error message |
Error reason |
|
The invitee's domain is not on your organisation's allowlist. |
| Can't invite user. Org limit to add non-Workspace users met. Contact admin. | Your organisation has exceeded the limit for the number of guests. |
| Can't invite user. This type of external invitation isn't enabled by your administrator. | You aren't allowed to invite guests. An administrator must enable the guest invitation privilege for you. |