Request to Join Private Group

We are seeing the same behaviour on a bunch of new SharePoint sites created as part of new Office 365 Groups.

I understand that from SharePoint's perspective, this is behaving as designed. User is trying to access a SharePoint site they don't have permission to, SharePoint is generating an access request, when it's approved they're getting added to the SharePoint group, not the Office 365 Group. I follow the logic, but it's confusing for end users.

I don't want to have to explain to a collection of accountants and actuaries the difference between SharePoint groups and O365 Groups. The whole concept of Unified Groups/O365 Groups is that you don't grant people access to the individual components, you add them to the O365 Group and everything flows from there. If I go to the Site or Document Library there are the little circles in the top right corner showing who is a current member of the group, and if you click that and Add Member, the person gets added to the Office 365 Group. That's the sort of behaviour I expect on O365-Group-connected SharePoint Sites.

My problem is when one user wants access to some files, and another user emails or IMs them the link to the sharepoint site. If User1 is already in the Group, all works, they get the files. If User1 isn't in the group then they get a page that invites them to generate a *SharePoint* access request, which goes to the O365 Group Owner. When it's approved they get access to the SharePoint site, but not the larger O356 Group. The workflow by users is sensible. I can also understand why SharePoint currently works the way it does, but I think that behaviour should be changed on Group-connected sites.

Explaining to users that when they see that prompt they should close Edge and go to *Outlook* or OWA and search for the Group there to request access... people aren't going to do that. It's counter-intuitive. And when they do it the "wrong" way and request access via the form SharePoint puts under their noses, and the O365 Group owner approves, they *get the files they want*, so as far as they're concerned the "wrong" way works fine. It's very hard to train people to do something totally different in that situation.

Anyway, that's my take on it. Rant over =)