Start here to boost your communication and teamwork by getting the most out of Google Groups.
What are Google Groups?
Google Groups allow groups of people to communicate and collaborate within Google Workspace, e.g., Gmail, Drive, and Calendar.
What types of Google Groups exist?
- College Lists: These are email lists made from official school information. They are used to send announcements to specific groups at the College. For example, campus@lafayette.edu goes to everyone, while students@lafayette.edu goes only to students. To prevent spam, only approved accounts can send messages to these College lists.
- Course Lists: These are email lists based on who is signed up for a specific Moodle class, and they are used by the people in that class. The email addresses look just like the names of the Moodle courses (i.e., fys101-01-fall2020@lafayette.edu). Anyone who is a member of the class list can send an email to it. Check out “Google Groups for Courses” to learn more. See Google Groups for Courses for more information.
- Customized Lists: These are custom email lists created by an individual for personal or group use. All of these custom list names end with .group (i.e., applefans.group@lafayette.edu). The person who creates and owns the list gets to decide who is allowed to send messages to it.
What can Google Groups do?
- Function as an email list that distributes messages to members of the group
- Be used to invite members to a Google Calendar event, Google Chat Space, or to share documents or folders in Google Drive
- Function as a web forum where members can communicate with each other by posting in topic threads
- Be used for Q & A sessions where questions are posed, and members respond
How do Google Groups differ from Contact lists?
- A contact list is a personal collection of email addresses you create in Google Contacts, and it is only used for sending emails. You cannot share your contact lists with anyone else, and they do not work outside of Gmail.
- Google Groups can be shared with others. They include helpful tools like a saved history of your conversations and message approval options. Plus, you can use Google Groups in other Google apps like Google Drive, Calendar, and Chat.