What's the difference between a Microsoft 365 Group and a contact list in Outlook?

Tools for sharing and communicating that come with Microsoft 365 Groups

When you set up a Microsoft 365 Group in Outlook, you can choose a set of people that you wish to collaborate with and easily set up a collection of resources for those people to share. You don’t have to worry about manually assigning permissions to all those resources because adding members to the group automatically gives them the permissions they need to the tools your group provides.

Here are a few of the features that make groups a more powerful solution than email distribution lists:

• Shared inbox - Where the conversations you traditionally have in your distribution lists take place. This shared inbox is fully searchable so it creates a living archive of the group's messages. Newcomers to the group can search or scroll back through the history to get up to speed quickly on what's been posted in the group previously. See: Have a group conversation in Outlook.

  Tip: If your users still want the group messages to appear in their personal inbox, as they did with the distribution list, all they need to do is subscribe to the group by clicking the Membership button on the ribbon in Outlook.

• Shared files library - Your group has a SharePoint files library where your users can store, share and collaborate on documents, workbooks, presentations, images or any other kind of file they need to work on. See: Share files with a Group in Outlook.

• Shared calendar - Your group gets a shared calendar to post events related to the group. Each member who has subscribed to the group is automatically invited to events posted to the calendar so those events can also appear on their personal calendars if they wish. See: Use a Group calendar in Outlook to schedule and edit events.

• Shared OneNote notebook - The group automatically has a shared OneNote notebook where group members can collect and collaborate on information. Many groups use the notebook to create a living wiki with frequently asked questions and other resources. See: OneNote: Getting Started.

• Guest access - You could add external contacts to distribution groups before, but all they got was email. With groups you can offer guests access to email conversations, files and even the shared OneNote notebook. See: Adding guests to Groups in Outlook.

• Content is discoverable - Groups in Outlook are public by default which means that they are easy for other people in your organization to discover and join or review the materials in the group. If the content of the group is more sensitive, you can switch the group to private, which hides the contents from non-members and requires the group owner to approve any requests to join.

• Self-service creation - IT doesn't have to get bogged down by requests from users to create groups. Users can create their own groups as needed. If you want to control which users in your organization can create groups see: Manage who can create Microsoft 365 Groups.

Administration of your groups

Microsoft 365 offers a number of useful tools and capabilities for more easily managing and administering your groups. Learn more at Administrator guide to Microsoft 365 Groups in Outlook.

See also

The new Microsoft 365 Groups experience in Outlook

Create a Group in Outlook

Administrator guide to Microsoft 365 Groups in Outlook

Add, edit, or remove Group members in Outlook

Adding guests to Microsoft 365 Groups

Join, leave, or follow Groups in Outlook​​​​​​​

Send an email to a Group in Outlook

Schedule an event on a Group calendar in Outlook

Use shared files with your Microsoft 365 Group in Outlook

Edit or delete a Group in Outlook

Use Microsoft 365 Groups as a guest

Guests doesn't receive Microsoft 365 Group emails