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Build and grow a community on Google with Google Groups
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This wikiHow teaches you how to create a Google Group, which is an email list or forum, on your computer. Once you set up the Google Group's name and description, you can add people to the Google Group by entering their email addresses. Keep in mind that you cannot create a Google Group on mobile. You'll first need to make a Google Account if you don't already have one.
Quick Steps
- Go to groups.google.com in your computer's web browser.
- Click + Create group .
- Enter a group name, email address, and description.
- Choose your desired privacy settings for your group.
- Invite members (optional).
- Click Create group .
Steps
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Open the Google Groups website. Go to groups.google.com/ in your computer's web browser. This will open the Google Groups creation page.
- If you're not signed in to Google, you'll be prompted to sign in when you visit the page.
-
Click + Create Group . It's in the upper-left part of the page. The plus sign on the button is red, blue, green, and yellow.Advertisement
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Enter a group name. Click the "Group name" text box near the top of the page, then type in whatever you want to name your group.
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Add an email address username. Type whatever you want your group's email username to be into the "Group email address" text box.
- For example, typing coffeepeople into this text box will set "coffeepeople@googlegroups.com" as your group email address.
- If the email address you want to use is already taken, the text box's contents will turn red and you'll be asked to set a different name.
-
Enter a description for your group. Click the "Group description" text box, then type in a brief sentence or two about the purpose of the group.
- You can type a description that is up to 4,096 characters long. Watch the character counter in the bottom-right corner of the text box to make sure you're not getting close to the limit.
- Click Next to move to the next page.
-
Choose your group's privacy settings. Once you've chosen your desired settings, click Next to move to the next page. These settings are:
- Who can search for group: If you choose Group members , only people who are already in the group can search for it. Choose Anyone on the web to make your group publicly searchable.
- Who can join group: If you choose Only invited users , only people you've directly sent an invite to can join. Otherwise, if you choose Anyone can ask , anyone online can request to join the group, and you'll have to approve them first. If you select Anyone can join , the group can be instantly joined by anyone.
- Who can view conversations, Who can post, and Who can view members:
By default, Group members
is selected. To make these options more private, move to the left and choose either Group managers
or Group owners
. To make these options more public, move to the right and choose Anyone on the web
.
- For Who can view members , you cannot choose Anyone on the web .
-
Invite members (optional). If you want to invite some members right away, you can do so during the group creation process. Click into the "Group members" field and enter the email address of each person you want to invite. Then, type a short invitation message (up to 1,000 characters).
- If you want to add people directly to the group without inviting them first, toggle on Directly add members
. You can then specify which users to add as members, which users to add as managers, and which users to add as owners.
- You can also write a short welcome message of up to 1,000 characters.
- Under subscription, choose how these members will get group emails. You can choose Each email , Digest , Abridged , or None .
- Once you are done (or if you don't want to invite anyone), click Create group
.
- You may be requested to complete a Captcha before you can make your group. Check the box to prove you're human, then click Create group .
- Click Go to group once the group has been created. [1] X Research source
- If you want to add people directly to the group without inviting them first, toggle on Directly add members
. You can then specify which users to add as members, which users to add as managers, and which users to add as owners.
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Click the Members tab. It's in the left-hand sidebar, under the "People" header.
-
Click Add members . It's at the top of the screen, next to the group name and member count.
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Enter email addresses. In the "Group members" text box, type in the email address of a person whom you want to invite to your group, type a comma, and repeat with the email address of each additional person you want to add.
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Enter an invitation message. Click the text box below the email addresses, then type in the message you want to include in the invitation.
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Choose whether to directly add members (optional). If you toggle this button, the users you specify will be immediately added to the group. If you leave this button untoggled, you'll send a group invite, and the other person can decide if they want to join or not.
- If you toggle on Directly add members , you can specify people to add as group members, group managers, or group owners. You can also type a welcome message instead of an invitation message.
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Click Add members . If you're required to complete a Captcha, click the checkbox and click Add members again.
- If you sent invites, the people you sent them to will have to click the invite link in their email before they will appear in the group.
- If you directly added people, they will immediately appear in the group.
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Click the Members tab. It's in the left-hand sidebar, under the "People" header. In this menu, you'll be able to see all of your group members, as well as their roles, join date, subscription settings, and posting settings.
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Change a member's role with the Role dropdown. You can promote a member to manager or owner, or you can demote owners and managers to lower roles as well. If you've created a custom role, they will appear here as well.
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Change a member's email settings with the Subscription dropdown. Members can set their own email subscription settings in My membership settings , but you can manually adjust this from the Members page.
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Change a member's posting permissions with the Posting dropdown. You can either restrict or moderate a member's posting permissions with this dropdown.
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Select multiple members to change their member settings in bulk. To do this, hover the profile picture of each member you want to change, then click the checkbox. Then, choose one of the settings below to change them in bulk:
- Click the tag icon to change the roles of all the users you selected.
- Click the envelope icon to change the email subscription settings of all the users you selected.
- Click the pencil icon to change the posting permissions of all the users you selected.
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Delete or ban members. First, hover the profile picture of the member you want to ban or delete, then click the checkbox to select them. You can delete or ban just one member, or multiple members.
- Click the icon that has a minus symbol in a circle to delete the member(s).
- Click the icon that looks like a no sign (a circle with a slash through it) to ban the member(s).
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Click Group settings in the left-hand sidebar. It has an icon of a gear.
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Go to the General tab. In this section, you can edit everything you chose during the group creation process, but there are a few extra options as well:
- Welcome message: You can type a welcome message for group members. This box also allows you to format your text.
- Enable additional Google Groups features: Choose if you want to enable the Collaborative Inbox for your group. This will allow group members to take and assign conversations. [2] X Research source
- Shared labels: Choose if you want to enable shared labels for the group. This will allow any user to create or delete labels. [3] X Research source
- Group content classification:
If your group is for adults only, you can switch from Everyone
to Adults only
.
- If you change your content classification to Adults only , you won't be able to switch back later.
-
Click the Member moderation tab. Here you can adjust the member moderation settings for your group.
- Member moderation: Change who can manage members and modify custom roles.
- Custom roles: Click Create custom role to make a custom role for your group.
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Click the Member privacy tab. Here you can adjust the member privacy settings for your group.
- Identification required for new members: Choose what type of identification is required for new members to join the group.
- Who can contact group owners: By default, this is set to Anyone on the web . Choose an option to the left to make this more private.
- Who can view member email addresses: By default, this is set to Group managers . Choose an option to the left to make this more private, or to the right to make it more public.
-
Click the Posting policies tab. Here you can adjust the posting policy settings for your group.
- Allow email posting: If this option is enabled, group members can reply from their email. If it's disabled, they must use the Google Groups website to reply to posts.
- Allow web posting: If this option is enabled, members can post on the web. If it is disabled, web posting will not be allowed.
- Conversation history: If the ON button is chosen, conversation history will be saved. If it's OFF , the history will not be saved. Conversation history is required for email digests.
- Who can reply privately to others and Who can attach files: By default, these options are set to Group members . Choose an option to the left to make this more private, or to the right to make it more public.
- Who can moderate content, Who can moderate metadata, and Who can post as group: By default, these options are set to Group managers . Choose an option to the left to make this more private, or to the right to make it more public.
- Default sender: Choose whether the default address in an email's by-line is the author's address or the group address.
- Message moderation: Choose whether messages are moderated or not before delivery.
- New member restrictions: If you want to moderate or restrict new members from posting, change this dropdown.
- Spam message handling: Choose an item in the dropdown to change how spam is handled.
- Rejected message notification:
Choose whether or not senders are notified if their posts are rejected.
- You can also click the checkbox to include a default rejected message response.
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Click the Email options tab. Here you can adjust the email options settings for your group.
- Subject prefix: Add a prefix surrounded by brackets ([ ]) to identify group messages.
- Email footer: Choose whether to use the standard Groups footer or to create a custom footer. The default footer is previewed under this option.
- Group email language: Choose the default language for the group. This will change what language notifications and email footers are in.
- Post replies to: Choose where group post replies go in the dropdown.
- Conversation mode: Choose whether messages are grouped into threads by subject.
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Click Delete group if you want to delete your group. In this section, the only option is a red Delete group button. If you want to delete your group, click this button.
- Deleting a group is permanent.
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Community Q&A
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QuestionIs it possible to join a Google group if I don't have a Gmail account?Community AnswerTo do anything on Google's social networks, you need a Google account. Google accounts automatically provide access to Gmail, though you're not obligated to use it. When signing up for a Google account, you can enter an email address from another provider.
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QuestionCan I send a mass email to multiple email addresses (not Gmail users necessarily) without being blocked by Gmail?Community AnswerProbably not. Google does have some spam prevention functions that limit the number of people you can send things to without a group or mailing list. It depends on what you mean by "mass."
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QuestionDo I need a Google account to use Google Group?Aaron NCommunity AnswerYes. You can view contents on Google Group without an account, but in order to use it, you need to have a Google account.
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