Changes to managing & viewing members in Google Groups

Starting September 15, 2025, Google Groups is changing how you control who can manage and view group members. This means you might need to update your group settings to make sure the right people still have the right access. This change applies to custom roles, a feature in Google Groups that allows users to more granularly manage group permissions. Learn more

What's changing

Custom roles configured for Who can manage members and Who can view members will no longer be supported. Additionally, the ability to allow the Entire organization to manage members will no longer be supported.  All other custom role permissions will remain the same.

 

Timeline:

Starting September 15, 2025, you will no longer be able to:

• Add new custom roles for Who can manage members and Who can view members.
• Set Who can manage members to Entire organization. 

 

Starting January 5, 2026, the following will no longer be supported:

• If a group has custom roles configured for the Who can manage members and Who can view members, those custom roles will be removed.
• If a group has Who can manage members set to Entire organization, that setting will be updated to all members. 

What you need to do

If you use custom roles for Who can manage members or Who can view members, you can update your group settings before January 5, 2026.

Example

A group has 2 owners, 3 managers, and 5 members. It currently has Who can manage members set to owners and also has a custom role where 2 additional members can manage members. 

As of Jan 5, 2026, the custom role will no longer be available, so those 2 additional members will lose the ability to manage members.  

To ensure those users continue to have the ability to manage members, group owners can do one of the following: 

• Add the two users from the custom role as owners. 
• Give all members the ability to manage members. 
• (Recommended) Extend the ability to manage members to include both owners and managers and make the two users who were in the custom role managers.

Update your group settings

To change who can manage members:

1. Sign in to Google Groups.
2. Click the name of the group.
3. On the left, click Group settings.
4. Find the Who can manage members setting.
5. Choose the option that works best for you:
   1. To make specific users owners or managers, you'll need to add them as owners or managers directly within the Google Group.
   2. To give all members the ability to manage members, select All members of the group.
6. Click Save changes.

Repeat these steps for the Who can view members setting if necessary.