UW-Approved Email Distribution Lists
This document will help you select a service for your distribution list needs. The recommendations below are meant for (but not limited to) the following types of communication:
- ad-hoc
- forum
- internal (ex: vacation, out of office)
- community of practice
- occassional announcements
WHICH DISTRIBUTION LIST SHOULD I PICK?
DISTRIBUTION LIST SERVICES
- Office 365 Groups
- Google Groups
WHAT IS OFFICE 365 GROUPS?
Groups in Office 365 let you choose a set of people that you wish to collaborate with and easily set up a collection of resources for those people to share. Resources such as a shared Outlook inbox, shared calendar or a document library for collaborating on files.
Highlights
- Integrated Inbox, Calendar, and OneDrive cloud storage
- Integrate with Microsoft Teams chat client
WHAT IS GOOGLE GROUPS?
Google Groups makes it easy for groups of people—such as project teams, departments, or classmates—to communicate and collaborate. You can send an email to everyone in a group with one address, invite a group to an event, or share documents with a group. You can also create an online forum to discuss a popular technology or answer questions about a product.
An example Google Group would look like example@g-groups.wisc.edu.
Highlights
- Add external (non UW-Madison) email address
- Moderate messages sent to Google Groups
- Hide membership from members (ex: list of students)