'Invite to Join' feature launched to invite and add members to Office 365 Groups

[Vijay Nelson]

We have launched a new feature for groups 'Invite to Join', on Outlook on Web.

This feature allows group members to create an invite link for any group they are part of in order to share with others. The invite link can be emailed or copied and pasted to any other channel. The users who click on this invite link will join the public groups automatically and will join private groups on approval from group owners.

For additional information pls visit https://support.office.com/article/Join-a-group-in-Outlook-2e59e19c-b872-44c8-ae84-0acc4b79c45d

[#2]

We already had a discussion on this: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Groups/Private-Group-Request-to-Join-and-Invite-ot...

Good to see it's avaialble for Outlook too now. Did you fix the spamming issue (clicking the link generates email every time)? 🙂

In the other thread, a demand for "pending" list was expressed.

[#3]

Thanks for your feedback Vasil.

For public groups, clicking on the link automatically joins the member to the group. For private groups, we send an email to owners to approve the member.

We are exploring options on owners approving pending requests in bulk in email and within the groups experience. We will keep you posted when we start on this.

[#4]

I don't necessarily see the need for a Pending list, but if I get spammed every time (the same) user clicks the invite link, I will not be very happy. So please fix that part if you havent already 🙂

[#5]

Thanks Vasil, We are looking into this feature. We do not have a timeline for this yet. We will revert back when we do.

[#6]

Hello, is this feature general available to all users already?

As a first release user, this feature is available to me via Outlook Online (not yet Outlook desktop).

But we have a service desk call from one of our users: When he as an owner of a private group, receives and opens a request to join, he lands on the members overview page without seeing any invites to approve.

Bart

[#7]

Bart,

Yes the 'Invite to Join' feature is available to all users since earlier this year. The feature is avaible only in Outlook Web now.  We are working on building the functionality in Outlook Desktop.

Regarding the sceanrio you have mentioned below, this feature is to invite non-members to a group. Members invited can click this link and the join request will be sent to owners in case of private group. I am not sure why an existing member/owner is clicking on the invite link? Can you pls clarify?

Owners can approve the member using the join emails he receives when non-members click on this link to join.

[#8]

The scenario is as follows:

A member (not owner) of a private group wants to add a new member.

She clicks Add member (in Outlook Online). It's a private group and she is not the owner, so a message is sent to the owner for approval.

The owner sees the message in Outlook Online and clicks on the call to action.

I want to double check first with my end users what he sees after clicking that all to action (he claims the members overview pages of the group opens which is the behaviour in Outlook).

But on a side note, the title of the pane I get to see is a bit strange: "Add colleagues, Office 365 groups or distribution lists." Shouldn't that be "Add colleagues to Office 365 groups or distribution lists."?

[#9]

I understand this concept for members of the group but if an owner chooses to add someone this way it is confusing. Is there a way to recognize the owner of the group and give them an option to add a new member right away without approval (from the settings dropdown) or do we need to educate owners to navigate to the the members page and add the new member there instead of going into the group settings?

I also noticed when I added a new guest and they requested approval it only gives the option for a work or school account not personal. Is it expected behavior that guests are unable to request access?