Guest access is released 100% WW in service

Microsoft

As announced on 09/08 Guest Access is now 100% WW. Guest access let users collaborate with external users outside their organization in Office 365 Groups. 

 

We released first release to FR customers on 09/08, 5% WW on 10/10 & 10% WW on 10/24. The response and reception of Guest access has been good & encouraging.

 

Here is the link to End user documentation: https://support.office.com/article/Guest-access-in-Office-365-Groups-bfc7a840-868f-4fd6-a390-f347bf5...

 

Here is the link to Admin help documentation: https://support.office.com/article/Guest-access-to-Office-365-groups-Admin-Help-7c713d74-a144-4eab-9...

 

Here is the link to Quick help FAQs for tenant admin: https://support.office.com/article/Quick-help-Guest-access-in-Office-365-group-0b8d98ad-7bce-4080-a2...

 

Last but not the least, big thanks to the folks that made this feature possible!

 

Feel free to reach-out for any question and query!

23 Replies
not enough LIKE for this milestone! #AWESOME
Awesome!
It is still appearing as Rolling out in the Roadmap: http://fasttrack.microsoft.com/roadmap#R-35213
And in fact it is not avaiable in my tenant, using a group link in the Outllook mail app.
Someone forgot to update the roadmap :)
Good catch, just made the change and it will take a few days for the public roadmap to be updated!

Just to add: group owners can also add external guests through your groups via our apps available for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

 

Billions of email users are now available to you to add into your groups to share emails, calendars, SharePoint document libraries, and more.

 

iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/outlook-groups/id1027125154

 

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.outlookgroups

 

Windows Phone: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/outlook-groups/9nblggh1pbr5

 

Instructions for adding guests in the Outlook Groups apps can be found here under the section, Add guests to a group using the Outlook Groups mobile app — group owners only at https://support.office.com/article/3b650f4a-5c9b-4f94-a1bb-0cca4b1091de

I was not aware that you could also add guests to groups using the groups app...thanks for the heads up!

good news, but still unable to add external users.

Followed all steps, but nothing.

i'm the admin and thw owner of a test group , but when I try to adda a Gmail address OWA respond with a red pop up (center page) that say that only people in the organization can be added.

 

Help !!

 

1. It's really annoying that I as a group owner only can add a guest user with the group android app if I write the complete guest e-mail without searching directory and there is no way to do it in O365 portal with OWA.
2. Then the guest already has a personal Microsoft Account but it was asked to create a new one (Work or School account)!
3. And why guest cannot has access to group calendar? It was in the roadmap item that include the access to group calendar. The guest only receive a notification when a event was added to group calendar but he doesn't has any action avaiable or event details like the date in the notification email.

Thanks Stefano for reaching out!  Can you check the portal settings whether the guest access is enabled for your organization & group? Steps to check that is in Admin documentation.

 

If settings are ON both at org & at group level. Can you please send me your tenant name through Private Message?

Thanks Pedro for reaching out!

 

1. Adding a new guest user through new O365 Admin portal is in our backlog. However we will be soon rolling out the feature to add existing guest users in directory to O365 groups via O365 portal.

2. I'm not sure I got your scenario, can you elaborate on this one? If the invited guest's email address already exists in the tenant directory(as guest user), then wouldn't need to sign-up for that.

3. Accessing group calendar is in the road-map, however the guest email notification should contain the relevant information. Can you tell me over Private message, what is the domain & client app your guest is using for their account?

 

Good morning Sahil,

thanks for quick reply, appreciated !

Well both settings seems to be ok at admin level:

 

app > office 365 groups

 

Cattura.PNG

 

 security and privacy > sharing

 

 Cattura.PNG

 

 Also at sharepoint global settings everything seems ok (screenshot in ITA language):

 

Cattura.PNG

 

 

i'm sending now a PM with our domain tenant.

TKS !
Stefano

 

Hello Sahil Arora,

Today we continue not to have Guest Access avaiable in our tenant.
All admin center options related with Guest Access are turned ON.
We don't see any Guest tab in members of the groups (navigating the groups in Outlook on Web).
This is an important feature and well expected by O365 customers and from his business partners. When you announces the rolling out was completed our partners that are waiting for this feature start to asking why don't we make this avaiable today!
Please could you clarify why the rolling out fase is complete and this feature is not avaiable to all?
The O365 support reply to a ticket request saying that in roadmap it's still in rolling out... (and it's true... but this is not the expected answer!)

Thank you for your support.
At this moment it's not yet released to the Standard Release channel.
In our tenant and for testing we selected only some users to the First Release channel and they are the only users that can manage the Guest Access.
I confirm that in my tenant, where almost all user are in the Standard Release cycle, this feature is not avaiable yet!
Marked as Launched: http://fasttrack.microsoft.com/roadmap#L-35213
But still not available at the moment to users with Standard Release channel in our tenant.
Besides some gaps with calendar invitations to guests and skype meetings organized by the group calendar, this is now avaiable in our tenant!
We are using this right now, this is one of the most expected features in the last months.
Thank you for make this possible!

also available to us !! finally, thanks a lot.

Confirm Pedro's bug with skype meeting options.

In the next few days we'll proceed with some tests

Stefano

Hi Sahil, I have a question:
after successfully adding an external user ("EXT") to my test group, he receive in his inbox (gmail in the case) the invitation to join.
Clicking, it he is prompted to MS account page to create (or use) a MS account.
After logging into the group he sees on the left only links to:
1) files
2) one note

Why even CONVERSATIONS are not listed ?
I can't understand....EXT can see conversations in his gmail inbox and not here ?! why ??

Also CALENDAR and PLANNER are not accessible (we knew it, see FAQ https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Guest-access-in-Office-365-Groups-bfc7a840-868f-4fd6-a390-f...), but what a pity, in particular for calendar !
Is this expected, or my tenant is getting crazy ?

Is there a way to guarantee to EXT user a complete experience with groups like tenant users ? WIN 10 desktop/android APPs , or an ONLINE plan is foresee ?
In Sharepoint the procedure to add EXT was a little bit complex, but at the end they got same interface and services like tenant users.

Kindest regards.
Stefano

Thanks Stefano! Glad to know Guest access is working on your tenant. 

For the items conversations, Calendar, Mobile App & Planner all of these items are in road-map.

 

But I would love to hear your use-case & scenarios that you have with guests so that we can incorporate in our planning. Lets sync-up offline to take this discussion ahead.