Microsoft Enables Guest Access to Office 365 Groups

Office 365 Groups were introduced by Microsoft last fall as a collaboration tool that would bring together team members as they work on a specific project.

Members of the group have access to a shared inbox, files and notebooks which allow any team member to be fully up to speed with the progress on the work at anytime.

Office 365 Groups are accessible in the Office 365 version of Outlook, the standalone version of Outlook 2016 and through Outlook Groups mobile apps on Windows 10, iOS and Android.

The use of Office 365 Groups for collaboration is great however, the reality of the business world today is that we work with many different organizations, contractors and individuals that are outside of our companies.

Well this week Microsoft is removing that hurdle to team collaboration by making guest access possible for Office 365 Groups in a phased roll out.

"Starting today, group owners can add guests to a group in Outlook on the web. Once added, guests receive a welcome email, are granted access to group files in SharePoint Online, begin receiving email messages and calendar invites sent to the group, and can access the group in Office on the web and the Outlook Groups mobile application. They also have automatic access to cloud-based file attachments. Guests have the option to leave the group at any time and visual indicators remind all members of guest participation in the group across all Outlook experiences."

According to Microsoft guest members of your Office 365 Groups can use any business or consumer email account but if that email address is not already tied to a Microsoft Account they will have to create one to become a guest member of your group.

You can learn more about how guest access in Office 365 Groups works and how to manage that guest access as an admin for Office 365 Groups at the Office Support portal.

This video from the Office Team gives you more information about how Office 365 Groups work in general:

But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.

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