As a Groups administrator, you can assign roles to members of any group in your organization, whether or not you created the group. Within a group, each role has certain permissions that determine who can view, post, and moderate content and manage members in that group.
Default roles
Each group has 3 default roles that can be assigned to members.
OwnerBy default, members with the owner role have all permissions for a group. Many of these permissions can be assigned to other sets of users. Review all member and content management permissions.
Only an owner can:
- Delete a group.
- Make another group member an owner.
- Change another owner’s settings.
- Export group messages using Google Takeout.
Only group owners and managers can change a group’s settings.
If you’re signed into a work or school account, for a given group, an administrator can remove some owner permissions, but not others:
- Can remove—Post messages or add, invite, or approve new members.
- Cannot remove—View members or conversations or contact other owners.
A group can’t be the owner of another group.
Administrators are automatically assigned the owner role for all groups in an organization, including groups that users create.
Recommended
Assigning someone the owner role gives them the greatest control over the group, so we recommend keeping the number of owners low.
By default, managers can do everything that owners can do except:
- Delete the group.
- Make another member an owner.
- Change an owner’s role or subscription settings.
Group owners can set any permission to owner-only, further limiting what managers can do. However, managers always have the ability to adjust permissions to include managers.
A group can’t be a manager of another group.
By default, group members have basic permissions. Depending on the organization and group settings, these permissions might include viewing and posting to conversations and viewing members. Group owners and managers can add to or limit members’ permissions. Any permissions that are set for the member role are automatically given to managers and owners.
Assign a default role to a member
Using the Admin console
-
Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
-
In the Admin console, go to Menu
Directory
Groups.
- Click the name of a group
- (Optional) To filter the list of members, at the top, click Add a filter and select a filter. Enter text to search and click Apply to filter further.
- To assign a role to a single member:
- Under Role for the user you want to change, click the Down arrow
- Click Save.
- Under Role for the user you want to change, click the Down arrow
- To assign a role to multiple members:
- Check the box next to each member whose role you want to change.
- At the top, click Bulk Change
- Select a role and click Apply.
Using Google Groups
Requires turning on Groups for Business
- Sign in to Google Groups.
- Click the name of a group.
- On the left, click Members.
- To assign a role to a single member—Point to a member and in the Role column, select a role.
- To assign a role to multiple members:
- Point to each member whose settings you want to change and check the box next to their name.
- Above the list on the right, click Change role
.
- Select the new role.
Tip: Get more help using Google Groups to manage your organization's groups at the Learning Center.
Create and assign custom roles
Using Google Groups
Requires turning on Groups for Business
If you want a role that’s different from the default roles, you can create a custom role. Members who have the Who can modify custom roles permission can also create and delete custom roles. Some permissions can only be given to owners, managers, and members and not to custom roles.
Get steps at the Learning Center: Create custom roles
View or change permissions for roles
Using the Admin console
You can change basic group membership settings in the Admin console. For example, you can set who can view and post to conversations, who can view members, and who can add, invite, and approve new members.
For details, visit Change access settings.
Using Google Groups
Requires turning on Groups for Business
You can change what owners, managers, and members can do in your group, such as approve messages, view members, or delete posts. Depending on your organization’s group settings, you can allow everyone in your organization or everyone on the web to perform certain tasks. Also set permissions for any custom roles you create.
Get steps at the Learning Center: Assign permissions to a set of users
Understand dynamic group roles
Admins, group owners, and group managers can assign roles in dynamic groups. Admins and owners can assign any role (owner, manager, or member), while managers can assign the manager or member role.
Group owners and managers in dynamic groups have the following restrictions:
- A manager or owner cannot manually add or remove users. Membership is based on the dynamic group query only.
- A manager or owner cannot change the dynamic group query. Only an administrator can change the query using the Google Admin console or the Cloud Identity Groups API.
- If a manager or owner gets removed from and then readmitted to the group (because of changes to the dynamic group query or their user attributes), they rejoin with the member role, not their previously assigned role.
- If a group is deleted and re-created, any previous managers or owners join with the member role, not their previously assigned owner or manager role.
For the steps to assign roles in a dynamic group, go to Assign a default role to a member above on this page.