Create and manage groups in the Exchange admin center in Exchange Online

  • Article

Use the Exchange admin center (EAC) to create, modify, export, or remove groups in your Exchange Online organization.

There are four types of groups that can be used to distribute messages:

  • Microsoft 365 group (formerly known as Office 365 groups), is used for collaboration between teams, both inside and outside your company; by giving them a group email and a shared workspace for conversations, files, and calendars.

    Note

    Microsoft 365 group is the recommended group as it provides the teams a shared workspace to communicate, share files, appointments, emails, contacts and other mailbox items.

  • Distribution list group is used for sending emails/notifications to a group of people.

  • Dynamic distribution list group is used to expedite the mass sending of email messages and other information within a Microsoft Exchange organization.

  • Mail-enabled security group is used for granting access to resources such as OneDrive, SharePoint, and emailing notifications to those users.

For more information see, groups.

Create a group

  1. In the Exchange admin center click Recipients > Groups.

    The Groups page is displayed.

  2. Click Add a group and follow the instructions in the details pane.

    For more information see, Create a group.

    • On the Finish tab, in the Review and finish adding group details pane, verify all the details, and then click Create group.

  3. Click Close.

For more information see, Use groups to collaborate effectively.

Edit a group

  1. From the list view, select the group name that you want to edit.

  2. In the details pane, do the following:

    • In the General section, you can edit the Basic information and the Email address of the group.

    • In the Members section, you can view, manage, and add Owners and Members to the group.

    • In the Settings section, you can do the following:

      a. For Microsoft 365 group, you can edit/check the confirmation boxes in the General settings, change the status in Privacy settings, and then click Save to save the changes.

      b. For Distribution list group and Mail-enabled security group, you can edit/check the confirmation box to allow external senders to email this group and then click Advanced Settings to edit/manage more settings in the Exchange admin center.

    • In the Microsoft Teams section, you can manage your Teams settings in Microsoft Teams admin center.

    Note

    Microsoft Teams can be added to only a Microsoft 365 group. This option is not available for the other groups. To create a team, all group owners must have a license that includes Teams.

Export a group

You can export group details in a .csv file format.

  1. Select the group from the list view that you want to export and click Export groups.

    The dialog box to confirm the export is displayed.

  2. Click Continue.

    The .csv format of the group details file is downloaded.

Naming policy

You can add prefixes and suffixes to your group names.

  1. Click Add naming policy.

  2. In the Edit group naming policy details pane, do the following:

    • In the Policy section, provide the details.

    • In the Blocked words section, add the specific words that you want to block from being used in group names and aliases.

  3. Click Save.

Upgrade the Distribution list group

You can upgrade a Distribution list group to Microsoft 365 group.

  1. Select the group from the list view that you want to upgrade and click Upgrade distribution group.

    The dialog box to confirm the upgrade is displayed.

  2. Click Upgrade.

    Note

    The upgrade is a permanent change and can not be reversed.

Other actions

  1. Click Refresh to update the list of groups page after adding a group or editing the details of a group.

  2. Click ... to perform the following actions:

    • Click Edit name and description to edit the group information.

    • Click Delete group to delete the selected group.

  3. Select a group, click ... > Edit email address to edit Primary and Aliases email address.

  4. Click Filter to filter the groups based on the displayed options in the drop-down list.

  5. Enter information in the Search box to search a group, group email id, or other details.