#Manage Groups

When you click the Groups tile, you can view and manage groups in the table. You can also create new groups as required.

By default, Microsoft 365 Group, Distribution group, Mail-enabled security group, and Security group can be created. If a tenant has connected to Hybrid Agent Management, you can also create Distribution groups and Security groups in your on-premises environment.

#Create a Microsoft 365 Group

To create a Microsoft 365 Group, complete the following steps:

1. Click Create above the table.

2. In the Select a Group type panel, Microsoft 365 Group (recommended) is selected by default. For more information about group types, refer to . Click Continue to proceed.

3. Complete the basics for the Microsoft 365 Group, including

   • Name – Enter the name of the Group.

   • Group email address – Enter the email address for the Group.

   • Description – Enter an optional description for the Group.

   Click Continue to proceed or click Back to go back to the Group type selection.

4. Manage membership, including:

   • Microsoft Entra ID roles can be assigned to the Group – If this is turned on, you can assign roles defined in your Microsoft Entra ID to this Group. Click the Manage roles link under Roles, select Admin center access and desired roles to assign to the Group, and click Save. For more information, refer to .

   • Membership type – Select from Assigned and Dynamic user.

     For Assigned Groups, you need to manually manage the Owners and Members for this Group. Click Continue to proceed or click Back to go back to the Basics.

     For Dynamic user Groups, you can configure rules to automatically manage membership for this Group. To manage the membership, complete the following steps:

     1. Configure owners for this Group.

     2. Click Customize rules for membership under Members.

     3. To add a rule for the user membership management, select a condition and enter a value for the rule. If you want to add more than one rule, click Add rule to add more rules.

     4. Click Save to save the rules and go back to the Manage membership panel.

     Click Continue to proceed or click Back to go back to the Basics.

     *Note: For both Assigned and Dynamic Groups, if you plan to add ‎Microsoft Teams‎ to this Group, all owners must have a license that includes ‎Teams‎.‎ For more information, refer to . Application groups cannot be added as owners or members.

5. Edit settings for the Group, including:

   • Sensitivity label – Select the sensitivity label you would like to apply to the Group.

   • Privacy – Select from Public or Private.

     • Content in a public group can be seen by anybody in your organization, and anybody in your organization is able to join the group.

     • Content in a private group can only be seen by the members of the group, and people who want to join a private group have to be approved by a group owner.

   • Allow external senders to email this Group – Select to enable or disable.

   • Send copies of Group conversations and events to Group members – Select to enable or disable.

   • Hide from my organization’s global address list – Select to enable or disable.

   • Add Microsoft Teams to this Group – Select to enable or disable.

6. Click Save.

#Create a Distribution Group

To create a distribution group, complete the following steps:

1. Click Create above the table.

2. In the Select a Group type panel, select Distribution group. For more information about group types, refer to . Click Continue to proceed.

3. Complete the basics for the distribution group, including:

   • Name – Enter the name of the group.

   • Group email address – Enter the email address for the group.

     Mark this group as room list – Click the toggle to mark this group as room list. *Note: Once enabled, this setting cannot be disabled.

   • Description – Enter an optional description for the group.

4. Click Continue to proceed or click Back to go back to the Group type selection.

5. Manage membership, including:

   • Membership type – Select from Assigned or Dynamic user.

     For Assigned groups, you need to manually assign owners and members for this group.

     Click Continue to proceed or click Back to go back to the Basics.

     For Dynamic user groups, you can configure rules to automatically manage membership for this group. To manage the membership, complete the following steps:

     1. In the Owners field, select the users you want to assign as owners.

     2. Click Customize rules for membership. The Customize rules for membership window appears.

     3. Select the recipient type.

     4. To add a rule for the user membership management, select a condition and enter a value for the rule. If you want to add more than one rule, click Add rule to add more rules.

     5. Click Save to save the rules and go back to the Manage membership panel.

     Click Continue to proceed or click Back to go back to the Basics.

6. Edit settings for the group, including:

   • Allow external senders to email this Group – Select to enable or disable.

   • Joining the group – Select from Open, Closed, and Owner approval.

     • Open – Anyone can join this group without owner approval.

     • Closed – Only group owners can add members. All requests to join will be automatically declined.

     • Owner approval – Anyone can request to join this group, and owners must approve the request.

   • Leaving the group – Select from Open and Closed.

     • Open – Anyone can leave this group without group owner approval.

     • Closed – Only group owners can remove members. All requests to leave will be automatically declined.

7. Click Save.

#Create a Mail-enabled Security Group

To create a mail-enabled security group, complete the following steps:

1. Click Create above the table.

2. In the Select a Group type panel, select Mail-enabled security group. For more information about group types, refer to . Click Continue to proceed.

3. Complete the basics for the distribution group, including

   • Name – Enter the name of the group.

   • Group email address – Enter the email address for the group.

   • Description – Enter an optional description for the group.

4. Click Continue to proceed or click Back to go back to the Group type selection.

5. Manage membership. The membership type can only be Assigned for a mail-enabled security group. Assign the owners and members manually.

   Click Continue to proceed or click Back to go back to the Basics.

   *Note: You must have at least one owner. We recommend adding two to have coverage in the event one owner changes roles.

6. Edit settings for the group, including:

   • Allow external senders to email this Group – Select to enable or disable.

   • Require owner approval to join the group – Select to enable or disable.

7. Click Save.

#Create a Security Group

To create a security group, complete the following steps:

1. Click Create above the table.

2. In the Select a Group type panel, select Security group. For more information about group types, refer to . Click Continue to proceed.

3. Complete the basics for the security group, including:

   • Name – Enter the name of the group. Click Check name availability to check if the entered name is available.

   • Description – Enter an optional description for the group.

   Click Continue to proceed or click Back to go back to the Group type selection.

4. Manage membership, including:

   • Microsoft Entra roles can be assigned to the Group – If this is turned on, you can assign roles defined in your Microsoft Entra ID to this Group. Click the Manage roles link under Roles, select Admin center access and desired roles to assign to the Group, and click Save. For more information, refer to .

   • Membership type – Select from Assigned or Dynamic user.

     For Assigned groups, you need to manually assign owners and members for the group.

     Click Continue to proceed or click Back to go back to the Basics.

     For Dynamic user groups, you can configure rules to automatically manage membership for this Group. To manage the membership, complete the following steps:

     1. In the Owners field, select the users you want to assign as owners.

     2. Click Customize rules for membership. The Customize rules for membership window appears.

     3. To add a rule for the user membership management, select a condition and enter a value for the rule. If you want to add more than one rule, click Add rule to add more rules.

     4. Click Save to save the rules and go back to the Manage membership panel.

5. Click Save.

#Create a Local Distribution Group

To create a distribution group in your on-premises environment, complete the following steps:

1. Click Create above the table.

2. In the Select a Group type panel, select to create the group in On-premises environment.

3. Select Distribution group as the group type.

4. Click Continue to proceed.

5. Complete the basics for the distribution group, including:

   • Name – Enter the name of the group.

   • Group name (pre-Windows 2000) – Enter the pre-Windows 2000 group name.

   • Domain – Select a domain for the group.

   • Group email address – Enter the email address for the group.

   • Created in – Select an organizational unit to create the group in.

   • Group scope – Select the group scope, Domain local, Global, or Universal.

6. Click Continue to proceed or click Back to go back to the Group type selection.

7. Manage membership, including:

   • Managed by – Select the user you want to assign as the manager, and then choose whether the manager can update the membership list.

   • Members – Select the users that you want to assign as members.

8. Click Save.

#Create a Local Security Group

To create a security group, complete the following steps:

1. Click Create above the table.

2. In the Select a Group type panel, select to create the group in On-premises environment.

3. Select Security group as the group type.

4. Click Continue to proceed.

5. Complete the basics for the security group, including:

   • Name – Enter the name of the group.

   • Group name (pre-Windows 2000) – Enter the pre-Windows 2000 group name.

   • Domain – Select a domain for the group.

   • Group email address – Enter the email address for the group.

   • Created in – Select an organizational unit to create the group in.

   • Group scope – Select the group scope, Domain local, Global, or Universal.

6. Click Continue to proceed or click Back to go back to the Group type selection.

7. Manage membership, including:

   • Managed by – Select the user you want to assign as the manager.

   • Members – Select the users that you want to assign as members.

8. Click Save.

#View and Manage Groups

To view the details of a group, click the group name to go the Group details page. Information and manageable settings are displayed in tabs:

Refer to the following sections for the available management operations and the steps to manage them.

#Update group basic information

1. Click the group name to enter the Group details page.

2. To edit the basics for the Group, stay at the Basic information tab and click the Edit () button to the right of each editable field after hovering over it. The following fields are editable:

   • Name

   • Group email address

   • Description

   • Aliases

   *Note: Group email address and Aliases are not available for security groups.

3. Click Apply changes in the upper-right corner of the page after you make changes to save and apply the changes.

#Manage group owners and members

To add owners or members, complete the following steps:

1. Click the display name of a group to navigate to the Group details page.

2. Switch to the Members tab.

3. Click Add in the ribbon.

4. In the Add users panel, search users by display name or email address and select users to add. You can only add a maximum of 20 users at a time. The selected users appear below the Users.

5. Select from Member and Owner for the users to add them as members or owners of the Group.

6. Click Save.

To remove owners or members, complete the following steps:

1. Select the owners or members to remove.

2. Click Remove on the ribbon,

3. In the Remove users confirmation window, click Remove.

*Note: There must be at least one owner in a group, therefore you cannot remove all owners or remove the last owner in the group.

#Update group settings

To update settings of a group, complete the following steps:

1. Click the display name of a group to navigate to the Group details page.

2. Switch to the Settings tab.

3. Edit the group settings as required.

4. Click Apply changes in the upper-right corner of the page after you make changes to save and apply the changes.

#Update license assignment

To update license assignments for a security group, complete the following steps:

1. Click the display name of a security group to navigate to the Group details page.

2. Switch to the Licenses tab.

3. Edit the license assignment as required.

4. Click Apply changes in the upper-right corner of the page after you make changes to save and apply the changes.

#Edit Membership

To perform bulk operations to edit membership for groups, complete the following steps:

1. Select the groups for which you want to edit membership. Make sure the selected groups are in the same group type.

2. Click Edit membership.

3. In the Edit membership window, select the role for which you want to edit the membership, Owners, Members, or Guest.

4. Select the bulk operation you want to perform:

   • Add users – Specify the users you want to add as owners or members.

   • Replace user – Configure the original user and new user to replace the original user with the new user as owner or member.

   • Remove users – Specify the users you want to remove from the Owners or Members group.

   • Remove all users – This option is only available when the Members role is selected. Select it to remove all members from the Members group for the workspaces.

   • Remove all guests – This option is only available when the Guest role is selected. Select it to remove all guests from the workspaces.

5. Click Save to save the membership changes.

#Apply a Compliance Policy

*Note: This is only available for Microsoft 365 Groups.

To apply a compliance policy to Groups, complete the following steps:

1. Select the Groups to which you would like to apply the compliance policy.

2. Click Apply compliance policy on the ribbon.

3. In the Apply compliance policy panel, select the compliance policy you would like to apply.

4. Click Apply to update the changes.

Alternatively, you can follow the steps below to apply a compliance policy to a Group:

1. Click the Group name to enter the Group details page.

2. Switch to the Compliance details tab, and click the edit () button in the Compliance policy field.

3. In the Apply compliance policy panel, select the compliance policy you would like to apply.

4. Click Apply to save and apply the compliance policy.

#Delete Groups

To delete groups, complete the following steps:

1. Select the groups you want to delete.

2. Click Delete.

3. In the Delete Groups window, click Delete. The process will start to delete the groups. To view the process status, you can go to the Process center.

#Include or Exclude Groups for Copilot Search

For the tenant that restricts both organization-wide search and Copilot experiences to a curated set of workspaces, you can define the allowed list.

1. Select the Microsoft 365 Groups you want to add to the allowed list.

2. Click Include in Copilot search.

3. In the confirmation message, you can view the number of workspaces that are already in the allowed list. Click Include in Copilot search to add the Groups to the allowed list.

4. To exclude Groups from the allowed list, select them and click Exclude from Copilot search.

5. Click Exclude from Copilot search in the confirmation message to exclude the Groups from the allowed list.