Manage user groups
User groups offer a flexible way to manage permissions in your organization.
Most permissions in Zulip can be granted to any combination of
roles, groups, and
individual users.
Groups provide an easy way to refer to multiple users at once. You can:
- Mention a group of users,
notifying everyone in the group as if
they were personally mentioned.
- Compose a direct message to a user group. This
automatically puts all the users in the group into the addressee field.
- Subscribe a user group to a channel. This individually subscribes all the users
in the group.
Create a user group
You can modify the group's name, description, and other settings after it
has been created.
-
Click on the gear () icon in
the upper right corner of the web or desktop app.
-
Select Group settings.
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Click Create user group on the right, or click the plus
() icon in the upper right.
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Fill out the requested information, and click Continue to add
members.
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Under Add members, enter groups and users you want to add. You can enter
a #channel to add all subscribers to the group. Click Add.
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Click Create to create the group.
Note: You will only see the Create user group button if you have
permission to create user groups.
Change a user group's name or description
-
Click on the gear () icon in
the upper right corner of the web or desktop app.
-
Select Group settings.
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Click All groups in the upper left.
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Select a user group.
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Select the General tab on the right.
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Click the pencil () icon
to the right of the user group, and enter a new name or description.
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Click Save changes.
Guests can never administer user groups, add anyone else to a group, or remove
anyone else from a group, even if they belong to a group that has permissions
to do so.
Users who can add members to a group can always join the group.
-
Click on the gear () icon in
the upper right corner of the web or desktop app.
-
Select Group settings.
-
Click All groups in the upper left.
-
Select a user group.
-
Select the General tab on the right.
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Under Group permissions, configure Who can administer this group, Who
can mention this group, Who can add members to this group, Who can remove
members from this group, Who can join this group, and Who can leave this group.
-
Click Save changes.
Add users to a group
-
Click on the gear () icon in
the upper right corner of the web or desktop app.
-
Select Group settings.
-
Click All groups in the upper left.
-
Select a user group.
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Select the Members tab on the right.
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Under Add members, enter users you want to add. You can enter a
#channel to add all subscribers to the group.
-
Click Add. Zulip will notify everyone who is added to the group.
Add user groups to a group
You can add a group to another user group, making it easy to express your
organization's structure in Zulip's permissions system. A user who belongs to a
subgroup of a group is treated as a member of that group. For example:
- The “engineering” group could be made up of “engineering-managers” and
“engineering-staff”.
- The “managers” group could be made up of “engineering-managers”,
“design-managers”, etc.
Updating the members of a group automatically updates the members of all the
groups that contain it. In the above example, adding a new team member to
“engineering-managers” automatically adds them to “engineering” and “managers”
as well. Removing a team member who transferred automatically removes them.
-
Click on the gear () icon in
the upper right corner of the web or desktop app.
-
Select Group settings.
-
Click All groups in the upper left.
-
Select a user group.
-
Select the Members tab on the right.
-
Under Add members, enter groups you want to add.
-
Click Add.
Remove user or group from a group
- Via group settings
- Via user profile
-
Click on the gear () icon in
the upper right corner of the web or desktop app.
-
Select Group settings.
-
Click All groups in the upper left.
-
Select a user group.
-
Select the Members tab on the right.
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Under Members, find the user or group you would like to remove.
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Click the Remove button in that row. Zulip will notify everyone who is
removed from the group.
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Hover over a user's name in the right sidebar.
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Click on the ellipsis ()
to the right of their name to open their user card.
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Click View profile.
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Select the User groups tab.
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Find the group you would like to remove the user from.
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Click the Remove button in that row.
Deactivate a user group
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Click on the gear () icon in
the upper right corner of the web or desktop app.
-
Select Group settings.
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Click All groups in the upper left.
-
Select a user group.
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Click the Deactivate group () button in the
upper right corner of the user group settings panel.
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Click Confirm.
This feature is only available to organization owners and administrators.
You can configure who can create groups in your organization. Guests can never
create user groups, even if they belong to a group that has permissions to do
so.
-
Click on the gear () icon in the upper
right corner of the web or desktop app.
-
Select Organization settings.
-
On the left, click Organization permissions.
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Under Other permissions, configure Who can create user groups.
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Click Save changes.
This feature is only available to organization owners and administrators.
You can configure who can administer all user groups in your
organization. Guests can never administer user groups, even if they
belong to a group that has permissions to do so.
In addition, you can give users
permission to administer a specific
group.
-
Click on the gear () icon in the upper
right corner of the web or desktop app.
-
Select Organization settings.
-
On the left, click Organization permissions.
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Under Other permissions, configure Who can administer all user groups.
-
Click Save changes.
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