Seeking to understand when to use Distribution Lists or O365 groups

Brass Contributor

Hello,

 

All I read suggests that O365 groups are the future while distribution lists are the past.  I understand the value of groups as they relate to shared mailboxes and Teams, both of which we use.

 

However, distribution lists are much easier to manage centrally especially when it comes to adding external users, and insofar as we can tell, distribution lists send the email to the recipient's inbox, whereas as group emails and team emails go to the shared group inbox unless defined differently when the group is first created (we know of no way to change this behaviour after the fact).  Groups would be fine if all users were always on the rich Outlook client, but most of our shop workers are on smart devices and are not inclined to look for messages anywhere other than their personal inbox.  Training attempts have not been successful so it would be easiest to ensure that for these distributions everything goes straight to the user's personal inbox.

 

Is there a best practices document for when to use groups versus when to use distribution lists, as well as an FAQ of the gotchas that each offering brings that one should be aware of?

 

Thanks kindly.

 

Ross

1 Reply

DGs aren't going anywhere, if you believe a DG better suits your needs, just go for it. That said, each member of a Group can "subscribe" to it and have messages delivered in his Inbox.