Create a group & choose group settings

If you're signed in to a work or school account, the options you see might be different. To learn more, contact your administrator.

Organizations, classes, teams, and other groups can use Google Groups to do things like:

Find people with similar hobbies or interests and take part in online conversations
Email each other using a group email address
Work on projects together
Organize meetings and events

Create a group

Sign in to Google Groups.
In the upper left corner, click Create group.
Enter information and choose settings for the group.
Settings reference.
Click Create group.
Wait a few minutes for your new group to become active before sending a message to it. Otherwise, you might get a notification that your message couldn't be delivered.
(Optional) Next steps: Choose advanced settings for your group.

Settings reference

Group info

Option	Description
Group name	Name that identifies the group in lists and messages. Use these guidelines: Names can be up to 73 characters long. Use names that make it easy to identify the group’s purpose.
Group email	Email address used for the group. If more than one domain is displayed, select the appropriate domain from the list. 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	Purpose of the group or how it's used. The information appears on the group’s About page. You could include information about group members, group content, an FAQ, links to related groups, and so on.

Privacy settings

Option	Description
Who can search for 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. 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: Only invited users—People have to be invited to join the group. They can't add themselves directly or ask to join. Anyone in the organization 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. Anyone in the organization can join—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. Anyone 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 allow group owners to allow external members. Anyone 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 allow group owners to allow external members.
Who can view conversations	Select who can see conversations posted to the group.
Who can post	Select who can send messages to the group email address.
Who can view members	Select who can view the group's member list.

Adding members

Option	Description
Group members	The names or email addresses of people you want to add and assign the member role. 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.
Group managers	The names or email addresses of people you want to add and assign the manager role. 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.
Group owners	The names or email addresses of people you want to add and assign the owner role. 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. 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.
Welcome message	A message emailed to people when they're added to the group without being invited. This option is available only if Directly add members is on.
Invitation message	A message sent to people in their email invitation to join the group. Invitees click a link in the invitation to join. This is available only if Directly add members is off.
Subscription	Preferences for receiving email from the group. Options include: Each email. Digest. Abridged. None. To receive abridged summaries or digests of a group’s messages, you must turn on conversation history for the group.
Directly add members	Whether to add members to the group directly, or invite members to join. If you turn Directly add members on—Specified users are added to the group with the subscription settings you select. Members can change their subscription settings later. If you turn Directly add members off—Specified users receive an email invitation to join the group. They're added to the group only after they accept the invitation.

Advanced settings reference

After you create your group, you can choose additional settings such as message moderation and email footers.

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

General

Setting	Description
Group name	Name that identifies the group in lists and messages. Use these guidelines: Names can be up to 73 characters long. Use names that make it easy to identify the group’s purpose.
Group email	Email address used for the group. If more than one domain is displayed, select the appropriate domain from the list. 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	Purpose of the group or how it's used. The information appears on the group’s About page. 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 Create and use 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. 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 allow group owners to 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 allow group owners to 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 allow group owners to 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 that group owners can allow external members.
Who can view conversations	Select who can see conversations posted to the group.
Who can post	Select who can send messages to the group email address.
Who can view members	Select who can view the group's member list.
Group content classification	Select whether the group content is suitable for everyone or adults only. If you choose adults only, you can’t change this later. This option appears only for groups you create in the public googlegroups.com domain.

Member privacy

Setting	Description
Identification required for new members	Form of identity required for new members. If you select the display name option, check the Display names must be unique box to prevent multiple members from using the same identity.
Who can contact group owners	Select which users can contact members with the owner role in the group.
Who can view member email addresses	Select which users can view the email addresses of group members.

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 Groups interface (groups.google.com).
Conversation history	Group owners and managers can turn on conversation history so that members can view posts in Google Groups anytime. You can turn the feature on or off for each group. 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. If you have the legacy free edition of G Suite, upgrade to Google Workspace to get this feature.
Who can reply privately to authors	Select which users can privately reply to authors instead of the whole group.
Who can attach files	Select which users can attach files, such as documents or photos.
Who can moderate content	Select which users can approve, block, and delete messages in the group.
Who can moderate metadata	Select which users can use Collaborative Inbox features.
Who can post as group	Select which users can post messages from the group's email address instead of their own email address.
Default sender	Select 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—Choose this if you don't want any messages marked as spam to be delivered to the group. This is the tightest level control for spam. Some legitimate messages might be marked as spam and rejected. Moderate and notify content moderators—Choose this to send messages marked as spam for review and notify content moderators. Moderate without notifying content moderators—Choose this to send messages marked as spam for review without notifying content moderators. Post suspicious messages to the group—Choose this if you want messages marked as spam to be delivered to the group.
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	To identify email from a group, you can automatically add a prefix to the subject line of group messages.
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 Groups on the web to view the message from the link. Include a custom footer—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	Select 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	Select whether to 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	Select who can add or remove members.
Who can modify custom roles	Select who can change permissions for group roles.
Custom roles	Create and edit custom roles for your group. See Create or edit a custom role.

Make your group a Collaborative Inbox

To enable Collaborative Inbox features, you must turn on conversation history. For details, see Turn conversation history on or off.

Note: If you’re signed in from a work or school account, this feature requires Google Groups for Business.

Sign in to Google Groups.
Click the name of a group.
On the left, click Group settings.
Under Enable additional Google Groups features, select Collaborative Inbox.

Change your group’s name, description, and email settings

Sign in to Google Groups.
Click the name of a group.
On the left, click Group settings.
Under General, make your changes.
Click Save changes.

Set email options for your group

Sign in to Google Groups.
Click the name of a group.
On the left, go to Group settingsEmail options.
At the top right, next to Advanced, click Turn on .
Set your email options:
- Subject prefix—Identifies email as messages from the group.
- Email footer—This helps users access subscription settings and find the post on Google Groups.
- Conversation mode—Shows messages in threads by subject instead of displaying each message separately as it's posted.
- Post replies to—Where replies to group messages are sent by default when replying by email. The option you select here automatically populates the "To" field when you reply to a message. You can manually change the recipients in the message itself.
Click Save changes.

Set how members display their identity

You can allow members to post with a display name or require that each member be linked to their Google profile.

Sign in to Google Groups.
Click the name of a group.
On the left, click Group settingsMember privacy.
At the top right, next to Advanced, click Turn on .
Select one of the required forms of identification.
Click Save changes.

Set who can post, view conversations, and join the group

Sign in to Google Groups.
Click the name of a group.
On the left, click Group settingsPosting policies.
At the top right, next to Advanced, click Turn on .
Select the permissions that you want for your group.
Click Save changes.

Set who can manage members and roles

Sign in to Google Groups.
Click the name of a group.
On the left, click Group settingsMember moderation.
Select the permissions that you want for your group.
Click Save changes.

Change your own subscription settings

Sign in to Google Groups.
Click the name of a group.
On the left, click My membership settings.
Under Subscription, choose an option:
- Each email—Messages sent individually as they’re posted to the group.
- Digest—Up to 25 complete messages combined into single emails and sent daily.
- Abridged—Summaries of up to 150 messages combined into single emails and sent daily.
- No email—Messages from the group are not sent.
To receive abridged summaries or digests of a group’s messages, you must turn on conversation history for the group.
Click Save changes.

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