Forum Discussion
Introducing groups in Outlook for Mac, iOS and Android
We are very excited to announce that we are rolling out groups experiences in Outlook for Mac, iOS and Android. When available on your device, you can -
- View your group list.
- Read and reply to group conversations.
- Add group events to your personal calendar.
- View unread messages sent to the group.
- View group details within the group card (Outlook for iOS and Android only).
We are working on quick iterations and additional functionality in the upcoming months, so stay tuned. More information here - https://blogs.office.com/2017/04/18/introducing-groups-in-outlook-for-mac-ios-and-android/.
Thanks,
Krish
49 Replies
Hi,
I already use the Nine Email client for Android. I need now mobile access to my group conversations, i.e. the shared mailbox. If I use the Outlook mobile app I fill up my phone with a second instance of all my emails (incl. calendar and notifications), which I don't need. I just need access to groups. Is there a way to use Outlook for Android just for the groups?
Thanks,
Robert
- No way to do that since retirement of the Groups app earlier this year.
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/outlook-groups-app-is-retiring-17ef4874-8b2a-4176-8c7e-998997c68334
Hey experts.
We have an office 365 subscription via a re seller,
Email accounts are setup for each user and also a group named "Site" , all users are on osx using latest Outlook
A user wants to be able to delete items from the group address but cant seem to be able to do this. Have applied owner permissions within shell but issue still persists.
cant find a way in the control panel either to edit permissions as it isn't listed as a distribution group just a group so has no exchange permissions.
Foudn some info on unified groups which seems to work in webmail but not Outlook..
reseller has said they cant really help and suggest Microsoft might resolve the bug at some point ??Is this workign as intended, should mac users not currently be able to delete ?
- Hi James,
You are right, we haven't yet built the feature to delete a conversation from the group shared space in Outlook for Mac yet. It is in our backlog. For now, delete operation is available for group owners and conversation owners from Outlook for Web.
We have a volume license and can see groups via O365 online and in the Windows 10 version of the Outlook 2016 client. I just can't understand why out Mac users are denied the functionality in the Mac client simply due to being on a different OS.
Yes, I'd like and explainer on this as well. I can see group folders in Outlook in Office 363 in the browser, I can see the same folders on my Windows 10 machine in Outlook 2016 but cannot see the folders in Outlook for Mac 2016. Makes no sense whatsoever that there would be a volume licensing issue for Mac. Poor decision.
- Hi Mohamed,
Could you file a ticket (Help > Contact Support) from Mac Outlook so we can direct it to our engineering team for investigation?
Thank you,
-Maria
Adding new functionality is pretty pointless when some users can't even get logged into the Outlook for Android/iOS app.
- Hi Cary,
Could you provide us with more details on this issue so we can look into it? Are you unable to log in using Outlook mobile app? If so, I'll send you a private message to get your account email address and we can start looking into this.
Thank youCorrect, can't setup an account in Outlook for Android or iOS.
EWSEnabled is true for the accounts that I've been trying.
Is this for Government Tenants as well? G3 specifically.
The Groups, if we share a document in Onedrive within Groups with a user, that same user logs into the OneDrive app on iPhone and does not see the shared document. do you know why this is the case?
I don't think the OneDrive app looks at group membership to build the list of shared documents. If it did, that would be quite a list. Think of all the documents that are shared with a group. Potentially thousands for just one group. Listing all those documents shared with you via group membership would obfuscate the documents shared specifically with you.
this option is available with the Groups App, i don't see why they couldn't embedded a link to those shared documents in the OneDrvie app.
- Hello! sorry to post here but this forum won't let me post anywhere else saying I have not enough rights to start a new post! I have a problem. I'm a o365 administrator with full control rights over everything. I have deleted a group I had created after testing something with it. I was the only member so I was also it's owner. When I deleted it, it went away from everywhere, but it remained in my outlook desktop application and it won't go away. Since then my outlook refreshes the groups list constantly and it's really bothersome. Can you help? Thanks
Hi Pablo,
From your message, it appears that you are seeing this issue in Outlook Desktop. Deleted groups should get synced down and be removed from the groups list. Can you submit a support request through "File>Support>Contact support." so that we can get the details of your client version and troubleshoot this better.
Thanks,
Krish
- Anyone having issues seeing the Groups option in Outlook for Mac 15.35? We are migrating from on prem to Exchange Online and trying to test that feature with migrated accounts and the Groups just don't appear.
Krish Gali wrote:We are very excited to announce that we are rolling out groups experiences in Outlook for Mac, iOS and Android. When available on your device, you can -
- View your group list.
- Read and reply to group conversations.
- Add group events to your personal calendar.
- View unread messages sent to the group.
- View group details within the group card (Outlook for iOS and Android only).
We are working on quick iterations and additional functionality in the upcoming months, so stay tuned. More information here - https://blogs.office.com/2017/04/18/introducing-groups-in-outlook-for-mac-ios-and-android/.
Thanks,
Krish
Hi, we're finally able to see the Groups icon on iOS but I'm not totally happy with the implementation. Correct me if I'm wrong or your opinion differs:
- iOS Unread Badge Count does not include unread Group Messages/Conversations
- doesn't matter if the badge count is set to focused or all
- therefore no push notifications either, right?
- cannot mark group conversation unread manually
Also, I'd like the Groups Icon either moved out of the hamburger menu, at atleast show the icon at the very top, and immediately visible when I'm in my inbox. Almost no users I know open the hamburger menu regularly when there is no indication (=unread badge counter) that they should look also somewhere else.
Hi Ivan,
Thank you for your feedback. I'm from Groups team and I'd love to better understand your scenario with iOS badge count. Currently, iOS badge count only shows the number of unread messages in Inbox. Were you expecting the badge count to show the aggregated number of unread messages from all folders including Inbox, Groups and other folders? Or are you mainly looking for push notifications/alerts specific to group conversations?
Regarding marking group conversations unread/read manually and providing easier access to groups folder in the app, we've been getting multiple feedback on these and we're working through solving these issues.
We're committed to make Groups better on all Outlook apps so please keep the feedback coming!
-Maria
Maria Kang wrote:Hi Ivan,
Thank you for your feedback. I'm from Groups team and I'd love to better understand your scenario with iOS badge count. Currently, iOS badge count only shows the number of unread messages in Inbox. Were you expecting the badge count to show the aggregated number of unread messages from all folders including Inbox, Groups and other folders? Or are you mainly looking for push notifications/alerts specific to group conversations?
Regarding marking group conversations unread/read manually and providing easier access to groups folder in the app, we've been getting multiple feedback on these and we're working through solving these issues.
We're committed to make Groups better on all Outlook apps so please keep the feedback coming!
-Maria
Hi,
yes, I've been asked by multiple of my users how they can keep with the unread group conversations, like they do with emails.
The other iOS Groups app has push notifications and shows badges, though only for notifications and not as an unread count. So as soon as they open the Groups app, the badge counter is reset.
That's why I was hoping for a way to prominently show the count of unread group conversations within the iOS Outlook app. Right now it is hidden behind the hamburger menu (drawer) and users with hundreds of folders beneath their inbox would probably never even see the Groups icon because they would have to scroll way down - which most don't.
The result is the same as before - group conversation remain unnoticed without the user having to subscribe to all groups to receive a copy in their inbox.
My suggestions would be to place the groups icon somewhere next to the "hamburger menu", "search icon" and "compose icon", possibly reshuffle them. An alternative from an UI perspective might be to simply show an additional unread badge directly ontop of the hamburger menu, then people would know that there are unread messages that are not directly in their "inbox", but possible in subfolders or within groups.
It would really be helpful to be transparent about which versions of the client apps support Groups, especially given the "you may or may not see this immediately" guidance.
"Use latest version" seems less than precise since this is ever changing. Do you mean latest if you're on "Office Insider" or for the regular release? The last Mac Outlook release I see was issued on April 9. Is that the right version??
Hi Kevin,
Yes, Mac Outlook build which got issued on April 9th for the regular release is the right version with Groups feature bits. We have currently lifted Groups feature gate for a subset of users and we’ll be expanding the audience as each day passes.
-Maria
Hi Maria,
Could you please advise how I could check to see whether I am able to use Groups in Office 365 (for Mac)? Reading the thread, it seems as though I should have the correct licence but I can't see it.
Thank you!
Rachelle
- Hi Krish, question - what is the perceived path forward for users that don't use Outlook for email on their mobile device currently (e.g. uses built-in iphone app, or gmail app on android)?
I'm assuming that the actual Outlook Groups app will eventually go away based on the wording.
Would they just disable mail sync? Would that impact the usability of Groups in Outlook app?- Hi Brent,
Outlook on iOS and Android has been continuously adding a ton of functionality for users and enterprise features that administrators need. So, I would recommend you to take a close look at it.
I don't fully understand your comment on mail sync getting disabled. Can you clarify?- I personally use it, but most of our users use the built-in email clients as it is what they are familiar with/comfortable with. So we have never forced them to move into the tool. I'm afraid Microsoft is making that decision for us.
I'm a big fan of the stand alone Groups app, and personally didn't see a need to shove it into Outlook. I view it as a lightweight competitor to Teams, and thus worthy of its own interface. If you wanted to communicate in Outlook, you could just subscribe and do it via email.
