How to Use a Google Group as a Generic Email

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As mentioned in our How to Make a Google Group article, Groups can be used in place of generic delegated email accounts. This article will show you the necessary steps on how to arrange that setup.

As a reminder, if this Group will be used in place of a generic email account for more official correspondence you can request that your group be made by IT without the -group portion of the email address by filling out the following service request.

Members and Settings

When using a Google Group as a generic account, the only members that should be in the Group are those that will be reading/sending emails, not everyone you intend to email like when you use a Google Group as a mailing list.

For these members, it is best to ask them what kind of "subscription" to the group they would like. This is managed under the members list

Each email: Each message is sent individually as they’re posted to the group
Digest: Up to 25 complete messages are combined into single emails and sent daily
Abridged: Summaries of up to 150 messages are combined into single emails and sent daily
No email: Members will not receive any emails from the group and need to instead check the group directly
- This is usually the setting you will want to use for if you are going to be using the group as a generic email

You will then want to navigate to the group settings, starting in the "General" section.

Additionally, unlike with generic accounts, people without an @tcnj.edu email address can be added to the group as a member that can read/send emails. To do this, you must first enable it in the group settings.

The above is both the setting that needs to be enabled to add external members as well as the optimal settings for using the group as a generic email. Of these, the mandatory settings are "Who can see the group" and "Who can post."

Next, go to the "Posting Policies" section of the settings.

The following are the optimal settings to set for this section:

Remember to save all of these changes before leaving the settings.

Emailing as the Group

To send emails as your Group: just click "+ New Conversation" in the top-left corner of the group page.

You will notice that the "From" is already set to the Group email address; this is because of the setting changes noted earlier. Otherwise, it would default to your personal TCNJ email address.

Next, you will use the Cc line to name your recipient in place of the "To" field for a regular email.

To reply to emails: for both emails sent by the group and received by the group, they will appear in the "Conversations" section of the group.

When you go to an email, you will see two reply options:

Reply all: allows you to reply as the group, but will also send a copy to anyone with the "Each Email" subscription type, which is why it is not recommended to set someone to that unless they wish to see every email.

Reply to author: replies to only the sender, but does so in the name of the member replying to them.

Enabling and Using the Collaborative Inbox

While not a required part of this process, enabling the Collaborative Inbox feature of a Google Group can increase its efficiency. Back under the general settings is where you will find this option:

Once you save changes, it will enable the Collaborative Inbox functions. These new functions appear when you select an email in the Conversations section:

The unlocked features are as follows:

Assign to me: has you take responsibility of that email thread so others know you are working on it
Assign to someone: allows you to assign someone else to be responsible for that email thread
- They will also receive an email to their own account telling them they have been assigned the conversation
Remove assignment: takes away a previously assigned responsibility
Mark as complete: lets the other members know the conversation has been resolved and doesn't need a follow-up
Mark as duplicate: in case someone either emails twice or is a general notice you have already received
No action needed: to signify that the email does not require a response