Privacy options for Currents communities

Use Communities to start conversations around specific projects, interests, or particular groups. For example, you might start a Community for your expanded work group, a class project, a charity drive within your organization, or a joint initiative between your company and outside contributors who have Google Workspace accounts. Learn more.

Before you create a Community, review and select the following privacy options. Think about who should be able to find and join the Community, who should be able to see the content and members, and whether people need to request to be a member. Depending on how your administrator sets up Currents and which type of Community you create, you might be able to:

• Restrict access to people at your company or school
• Allow any Google Workspace users to view and join your Community
• Require that people be invited, or require that people request access
• Hide or show your domain-restricted Community in Currents search results

Choose your privacy settings carefully because you won't be able to change most of them after you create a Community.

To create a Community, review the following information:

• Get started with Communities
• Create and edit a Community

Configure privacy options

Summary of privacy options

Privacy options—outside your organization

The following options allow Google Workspace users outside of your company or school to join a Community. You can create Communities that are open to users outside your domain only if your administrator allows it.

Privacy setting	Who can join	Who can see posts and members	Who can find Community in Currents search
Public > Ask to join Note: You can no longer create public communities as of April 24, 2019. Public communities created before April 24, 2019 will remain and become “Ask to join.”	Any Google Workspace user can request to join, but moderators must approve membership	Any Google Workspace user	Any Google Workspace user
Private	Only invited Google Workspace users	Community members see posts and members, invitees see only members	Community members*

^{Note: Public communities created before April 2, 2019 might appear in anyone's search engine results with data from April 2, 2019 or earlier.}

^{*The name and photo of a private Community that’s hidden from search remains visible to Google Workspace users who type in or follow a link to the Community’s URL.}

Privacy options—restricted access

The following options allow only people in your company or school to find or join a Community.

Privacy setting	Who can join	Who can see posts and members	Who can find Community in Currents search
Open within your domain	Anyone in your organization	Anyone in your organization	Anyone in your organization
Open within your domain > Ask to join	Anyone in your organization can request to join, but moderators must approve membership.	Anyone in your organization	Anyone in your organization
Private in your domain	Only invited people in your organization	Community members see posts and members, invitees see only members	Not shown in Currents search results*
Private > Visible on Search	Anyone in your organization’s domain can request to join, but moderators need to approve membership	Community members see posts and members, invitees see only members	Anyone in your organization

^{*The name and photo of a "private in your domain" Community remains visible to people in your organization who type in or follow a link to the Community’s URL.The name and photo is not visible outside your organization.}

Allow access outside your organization’s domain

Note: Communities outside your domain aren't visible in Currents search results unless you're a member. You can create Communities that are open to users outside your domain only if your administrator allows it.

To allow Google Workspace users outside of your company or school to join a Community:

1. Create the Community.
2. Turn off Restrict to your domain. 
3. Click or tap Done.
4. Invite users to join your Community.

Restrict access to people in your organization

To allow only people in your company or school to find and join a Community:

1. Create the Community.  
2. Turn on Restrict to your domain.
   By default, your Community is Open, meaning visible to anyone inside your company or school.
3. (Optional) Set additional restrictions:
   • To allow only invited members to join, click the Open within your domain Down arrow and select Private.
   • To allow people to find your community and request to join the community, turn on Visible on search.
4. Click or tap Done.