In the Groups section of the Microsoft 365 admin center, you can create and manage these types of groups:
- Microsoft 365 Groups are used for collaboration between users, both inside and outside your company. include collaboration services such as sharepoint and planner.
- distribution groups are used to send email notifications to a group of people.
- security groups are used to grant access to resources such as sharepoint sites.
- mail-enabled security groups are used to grant access to resources such as sharepoint and post email notifications to those users.
- Shared mailboxes are used when multiple people need to access the same mailbox, such as company information or a company email address. support.
- Dynamic distribution groups are created to speed up the mass delivery of email messages and other information within an organization.
some groups allow dynamic membership or email.
all of these group types can be used with power automate.
microsoft 365 groups
Microsoft 365 groups are used for collaboration between users, both inside and outside your company. With every Microsoft 365 group, members get a group email and shared workspace for conversations, files and calendar events, streaming, and a scheduler.
You can add people outside your organization to a group as long as your administrator has enabled it. you can also allow external senders to send emails to the group email address.
Microsoft 365 Groups can be configured for dynamic membership in the Azure Active Directory, allowing group members to be automatically added or removed based on user attributes such as department, location, title, etc. etc
Microsoft 365 Groups can be accessed through mobile apps like Outlook for iOS and Outlook for Android.
Group members can send as or send on behalf of the group email address if the administrator has enabled it.
microsoft 365 groups support nesting through dynamic groups in azure active directory.
microsoft 365 groups can be added to one of three sharepoint groups (owners, members, or visitors) to give people permissions on the site.
distribution groups
Distribution groups are used to send notifications to a group of people. they can receive external email if the administrator enables it.
Distribution groups are best for situations where you need to broadcast information to a certain group of people, such as “people in a building” or “everyone in contoso”.
distribution groups can be upgraded to microsoft 365 groups.
Distribution groups can be added to a team in microsoft teams, although only the members are added and not the group itself.
microsoft 365 groups cannot be members of distribution groups.
dynamic distribution groups
Dynamic distribution groups are mail-enabled groups used to send mail to people with specific attributes, such as department or location. these attributes are defined in the exchange admin center instead of azure ad.
Unlike regular distribution groups that contain a defined set of members, a dynamic distribution group’s membership list is calculated each time a message is sent to the group, based on filters and conditions that you define. when an email message is sent to a dynamic distribution group, it is delivered to all recipients in the organization that match the criteria defined for that group.
security groups
Security groups are used to grant access to Microsoft 365 resources, such as Sharepoint. they can make management easier because you only need to manage the group instead of adding users to each resource individually.
Security groups can contain users or devices. creating a security group for devices can be used with mobile device management services, such as intune.
Security groups can be configured for dynamic membership in the Azure Active Directory, allowing you to automatically add or remove members or devices from the group based on user attributes such as department, location, or title; or device attributes, such as the operating system version.
security groups can be added to a team.
microsoft 365 groups cannot be members of security groups.
mail-enabled security groups
mail-enabled security groups work just like regular security groups, except they can’t be managed dynamically through the azure active directory and they can’t contain devices.
include the ability to send mail to all group members.
mail-enabled security groups can be added to a team.
shared mailboxes
Shared mailboxes are used when multiple people need to access the same mailbox, such as company information or support email address, front desk, or other feature that can be shared by multiple people.
Shared mailboxes can receive external email if your administrator has enabled it.
Shared mailboxes include a calendar that can be used for collaboration.
Users with permissions to the group mailbox can send as or send on behalf of the mailbox’s email address, if the administrator has given that user permissions to do so. this is especially useful for help and support mailboxes because users can send emails from “contoso support” or “build a front desk”.
It is not possible to migrate a shared mailbox to a Microsoft 365 group.
related content
learn more about microsoft 365 groups
update distribution lists to microsoft 365 groups in outlook
why you should update your distribution lists to groups in outlook