Getting things done at work means sharing information and collaborating across ad hoc groups and project teams. But, often times the tools we use to bring people together are different in each app—distribution groups in Outlook, buddy lists in Lync, groups in Yammer. That’s why we’re introducing Groups in Office 365, so you can easily connect with the colleagues, information and applications you need to do more.
To support a project, you can easily create a new Group and invite colleagues. You can also search for and join existing Groups, which are open by default, to see all discussions, milestones and files and get up to speed quickly. Of course, you can create private Groups as well for sensitive projects and content.
Introduction
In some ways, Office 365 Groups behave like traditional email distribution groups in that you can send a message to a group and have it delivered to all the group members.
But the problem with distribution groups is that if you’re not a member, you don’t get the information. And when you join, you don’t gain access to previous discussions.
However, with all their acknowledged and well-known flaws, distribution groups remain the preeminent method used to share information inside many corporations.
An Office 365 group is a more persistent entity than an email distribution group because while you can use a group like a regular distribution group, it also stores discussions for new members to discover when they join. It’s kind of like an Office 365 Group is a cross between a distribution group and a public folder, a mechanism that has been used to host group discussions for many years. And like a distribution group, an Office 365 Group is instantiated as a group object in the directory - in this case, within Azure Active Directory.
Perhaps a more accurate comparison is to a combination of a distribution group and asite mailbox (or even a traditional shared mailbox) because when we look under the hood, we find elements of Exchange and SharePoint mixed together to deliver the collaborative potential that Microsoft envisages for Office 365 Groups.
Groups are preferred to site mailboxes if you need a collaboration platform for a new project, probably because site mailboxes have been less than successful since their debut.
Office 365 Groups are only available to specific plans
if your tenant has access to Groups, you should find a "Groups" entry in the left-hand resource tree displayed by OWA.
- E1-E4
- A1-A4
- G1-G4
- Business Essentials and Business Premium plans, Business, Small Business Premium and Midsize Business plans
- Kiosk plan
Frequently asked questions
Q. When will Groups be rolled out to Office 365 customers?
A. Groups will roll out to Office 365 customers in phases, first to customers that have elected to receive significant Office 365 service updates at first release, an opt-in program. Following that, Groups will roll out to all Office 365 customers over several months in standard release, the default option for Office 365 customers. We expect Groups to roll out to all eligible Office 365 customers by the end of this year.
Q. Which Office 365 plans include Groups?
A. Groups is a feature that is available in Outlook Web App email and calendar and OneDrive for Business, and will be rolled out to all customers that have an Exchange Online or Office 365 commercial subscription, both new and existing. Eligible Office 365 plans include the Office 365 Enterprise E1–E4 subscription plans (including the corresponding A2–A4 and G1–G4 plans for Academic and Government customers, respectively), Office 365 Business Essentials and Business Premium plans, Office 365 Small Business, Small Business Premium and Midsize Business plans and Office 365 Kiosk plan.
Q. Is there a limit on the number of groups?
A. Each user can be a member of 1,024 Groups and each Group has an unlimited number of members, though only 300 can subscribe (this might change in next updates).
Q. Where are the documents stored?
A. A special form of Exchange mailbox provides the physical embodiment of a group. The mailbox is used to store group content up to a maximum of 50GB, including posts, messages, and calendar entries. The mailbox is linked with a document library that is apparently created within OneDrive for Business but really is a document library in a SharePoint site with some special UI to make it seem like it's OneDrive.
Max storage is 1TB. The storage for Groups is not based on OneDrive for Business, but rather it is an associated SharePoint Online document library, which has the following characteristics:
- Up to 1TB storage capacity
- Ability to upload files up to 2GB in size
- Uses the new usage-based storage model (space allocated as needed)
- Groups storage WILL count to the used space in the tenant. Please check also the Recycle Bin of groups
The document library is intended to provide storage for any other type of content shared within the group.
The properties of the group mailbox indicate to Exchange that its membership can be used for routing purposes.
Mail sent to the group will be delivered to all members. As such, you can think of a Group as being like an Exchange distribution group with storage (the mailbox).
Q. Are groups public or private?
A. Groups are either public or private.You select the group type when the group is first create and cannot (for now at least) change a group from public to private or vice versa afterwards. As the type implies, anyone can join a public group, so this is the best type of group for topics such as company-wide information, best restaurants in an area, and so on.
- Users don’t have to join a group or be added by an administrator before they can contribute or view group contents as they can always email the group to start a new conversation or contribute to an existing debate.
- Access to the content held in a private group is restricted to its membership.
- The user who creates a group is automatically added as a group administrator.
- Users who wish to join a private group can send a request to the administrators to join and the request must be approved before they can access the group.
- Even though you might assume that someone who is not a member of a private group cannot post to it, that's not actually the case.
- Anyone who belongs to a tenant can send email to a private group and that email will show up as a post in the conversations view.
This is not a bug!
There are two scenarios when it is desirable for non-members to be able to post to a private group.First, it might be a good thing for non-members to make a contribution to a group that's used for problem reporting. In this scenario, the actual members of the group are responsible for processing problems but anyone should be able to contribute.
Second, it might be a good thing for a group member to invite external parties to contribute to a conversation, perhaps to provide feedback to a project plan or a similar discussion. They can do this by asking the non-member to send email to the group.
More information
- http://blogs.office.com/2014/09/25/delivering-first-chapter-groups-office-365/
- http://blogs.office.com/2014/04/16/the-garage-series-for-office-365-work-like-a-network-a-first-look-at-enterprise-social-updates-with-yammer/
- https://www.yammer.com/microsoft.com/#/threads/inGroup?type=in_group&feedId=4334128
- https://www.yammer.com/itpronetwork/notes/1542507 - Groups YamJam Summary (Oct 15, 2014)
Hope it helps
-Tom