How to reply to an external recipient in Google Groups

Question

I am having a slight problem with Google Groups - this being sending an email to an external recipient.

Situation is as below:

1. an external party (call it EXT) sends email to provided Google group email address;
2. as Google group is set with permission to publish = Internet, an email from EXT is converted to a new topic which appears on Google Groups board;
3. when doing a reply to EXT topic as a Google group member, an email is being posted to all other group members, which is correct;
4. however EXT is not sent an email with reply and does not get any message.

I am keen to know if getting replies by EXT is possible?
Am I missing something obvious? Or is there some permission which needs to be set?

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Thanks a lot for responding Ruben,

So to re-cap:

1. if any member of a google group posts (replies) to a new topic a reply is only sent internally to its group members; EXT will not receive an update;

2. if a group member clicks (reply privately to an author) - EXT will receive a reply.

There are two downsides I see here:

• private reply is not visible in group members topic breakdown - so google group members (incl. person who sent reply privately) don't see it:

• private response is always sent (as a user) instead of (on behalf of) group name, which will quickly lead to confusion;

Moreover, if EXT replies to a reply - it gets created as a new topic instead of arranging into an existing topic and sent only to memebr of a group instead to a group email.

My aim is to create a two-way communication group between Google Group members and external party (not a google domain) and I have a feeling I am missing something obvious to make it work right or Google Groups is not designed as a "ticket" platform.

Your further help is much appreciated, unfortunately Google's Wikis does not answer my questions :)

Answer 1

The current version of Google Groups can't not be used to have both public and private messages archived in the group as there aren't privacy settings by post / topic. I suggest you to ask for a software recommendation in https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com.

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You have to use a Google Account and the Groups should be set to allow replying to post author.

1. Go to manage group settings
2. Open Posting permissions
3. In the Reply to author select who can reply privately to the author of topic
4. Click Save

Related

• Create a group & choose group settings
• Create & respond to posts