Group & distribution lists explained

How to send one email to multiple people using a single address — and the different ways to set this up in Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.

A group or distribution list lets you email multiple people at once by sending to a single address. Instead of remembering five individual email addresses, you send to team@yourbusiness.com and everyone gets it. This guide explains how they work and when to use them.

Quick summary

A distribution list (or group) is an email address that delivers to multiple people at once. Use it for team announcements, department communications, or any situation where you regularly email the same set of people. In Google Workspace they're called Groups; in Microsoft 365 they're called Distribution Groups or Microsoft 365 Groups.

What is a distribution list?

A distribution list is a single email address that, when emailed, delivers the message to everyone on the list.

Example:

all-staff@yourbusiness.com — emails everyone in the company
marketing@yourbusiness.com — emails the marketing team
events@yourbusiness.com — emails everyone involved in events

The individual team members don't share an inbox — each person receives their own copy of the message in their own inbox. This is different from a shared mailbox, where everyone reads the same inbox.

Distribution list vs shared mailbox

	Distribution list / Group	Shared mailbox
Everyone gets their own copy	Yes	No — everyone reads one inbox
Can reply from the group address	Only if an admin grants permission to send as the group	Only if an admin grants Send as or Send on behalf — full access to the mailbox alone isn't enough
Best for	Announcements, team emails	Customer-facing inboxes (support@, orders@)
Can see if someone has replied	No	Yes, once an admin turns on saving sent mail to the shared mailbox — Microsoft's default files a reply in the sender's own Sent Items

Use a distribution list when you want to broadcast a message to multiple people. Use a shared mailbox when you need a team to collaboratively manage an inbox.

Google Workspace: Groups

In Google Workspace, distribution lists are called Groups. A group created in the Admin console is the one to use, because only those can also be used to configure services and features for a set of users; a group created by a user at groups.google.com can't.

A plain group already works as an email list — send to its address and every member gets a copy. Beyond that, a group owner or manager can turn a group into a Collaborative Inbox at groups.google.com, which makes it behave much more like a shared mailbox, with conversations the team can assign and answer together. That option needs the Groups for Business service turned on.

How to create a Google Group:

Go to the Google Admin console at admin.google.com.

Go to Menu → Directory → Groups and click Create group at the top.

Enter the group name and group email address (e.g., marketing@yourbusiness.com), plus an optional description and owner, then continue.

Choose an access type — Public, Team, Announcement only, or Restricted. Each comes with a set of permissions covering who can post, who can view conversations, who can view members and who can join. You can adjust any of them individually, and choose whether people outside your organization can be members.

Click Create group, then add members — people in your organization, other groups, or external addresses.

Give it a few minutes before you use it. Google warns that a message sent to a brand-new group may bounce, and it can take up to 24 hours for the group to show up in your organization's Groups directory.

Microsoft 365: Distribution Groups

In Microsoft 365, you have two main options:

Distribution Group (classic)

Simple: one email address delivers to multiple people
Each person receives their own copy
Managed in the Microsoft 365 admin center

Microsoft 365 Group

More powerful: members get a group email address plus a shared workspace for conversations, files and calendar events, along with collaboration services such as SharePoint and Planner
Can also be connected to Microsoft Teams — Teams uses Microsoft 365 Groups for its membership
Good for ongoing teams that need to collaborate, not just receive announcements

For a simple mailing list, use a Distribution Group.

How to create a Distribution Group in Microsoft 365:

Open the Microsoft 365 admin center at admin.microsoft.com.

In the left navigation, select ... Show all, then Teams and groups → Active teams and groups.

Select Distribution list, then + Add a distribution list.

On "Set up the basics," enter a name and description and continue.

Assign owners, who can manage the group and its members, then add members and continue.

On "Edit settings," enter the group's email address. This is also where you tick Allow people outside of my organization to send email to this Distribution group if you need that.

Review the details and select Create group.

Adding external addresses to a group

You can include external email addresses in a distribution list — for example, a supplier or contractor who should receive team announcements. In Microsoft 365 these are added as contacts; in Google Workspace, external addresses can be added as group members directly, if the group allows external members. Note that Google automatically adds an unsubscribe message to the footer of mail sent to external group members while that setting is on.

Control who can send to the group

Check who is allowed to email the group, and don't assume the default is what you want. In Microsoft 365, a distribution group can only receive email from outside your organization if an admin enables it — that's the Allow people outside of my organization to send email to this Distribution group option. In Google Workspace it depends on the access type you picked and on the Who can post setting. Opening a group address up to the whole internet means any spam sent to it lands in every member's inbox.

Common questions

Can I reply to a group email and have everyone see my reply?

Only if you reply-all and include the group address. A standard reply just goes to the original sender. To send to the whole group, use reply-all.

What's the difference between a group and a shared mailbox?

A group sends a copy to each member's personal inbox — each person receives their own copy and manages their own reply. A shared mailbox is one inbox that all authorized members read together. See Shared mailboxes explained.

Can I nest one group inside another?

In Google Workspace, yes — adding another group as a member of a group is one of the documented ways to add a lot of members at once, and email to the outer group reaches everyone in the inner one.

In Microsoft 365 it depends on the group types involved. Microsoft 365 Groups can't be members of distribution groups, and they support nesting only through dynamic groups in Microsoft Entra ID. Ask us or your admin before you build a structure that depends on it.

How do I know if someone has replied to a group email?

You'll see the reply in your own inbox if it was sent to you. But if someone replied only to the original sender (not reply-all), you may not see it. Distribution lists give you no visibility into replies you weren't copied on — that's what a shared mailbox is for, and on Microsoft 365 an admin has to switch on saving sent mail to the shared mailbox before the team can see each other's replies there.

Need a hand?

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