Allowing non-domain members to view domain-based Google group

Question

We have a domain registered with Google, and I've created a google group within the domain. We have added several non-domain members to the group.

Now, these folks can receive emails from the group with no problem.

But I notice that only folks who have domain email addresses can view the web-group page - everyone else gets a login page. When they try to access the group, they receive a page like this (it's blank, except for that!):

How can I give access to the web-group page to non-domain members?

later... Well, it's been awhile; I suppose nobody knows the answer.

Answer 1

Ah, here is how to do it:

In Administration, go to Manage this domain > Google Apps > Setting for Groups for Business > Advanced Setting > Sharing Options

The setting was set to:

Private – No one outside this domain can access groups. Existing external members can only send email to groups.

There is a setting to allow outsiders to see the group.

However, this is global for the domain—there isn't any way (as of this post) to specify this for each group individually. That means that when you enable this setting, outsiders can discover that the group exists even if they can't visit the group. With the setting set to off, no one outside the domain knows that the group exists.

Answer 2

The solution is similar to bgmCoder's answer.

As of August 2019, you can now specify this per group.

1. In Google Admin (admin.google.com): Apps > G Suite > Groups for Business > Advanced settings

2. Set Outside this domain - access to groups to Public on the Internet

   Note that this is the highest setting people are allowed to enable and doesn't mean everyone can now suddenly see every group in your domain.

3. Save changes.
4. In Groups (groups.google.com): Manage Group > Information > Directory.

5. Set Group directory to Anyone on the web.

   Note: if you didn't make the change properly on Google Admin, you will only have the All organization members option (which is also the default). Follow the beginning steps and then try again.

Now whenever someone navigates to https://groups.google.com/a/example.com/forum/#!forumsearch/, they will see this group listed. Note that it can take a few minutes before that page starts showing the group properly.

Answer 3

Here is the documentation about this. https://support.google.com/a/answer/167097?hl=en

Set sharing options

This feature requires turning on Google Groups for Business. When using Google Groups for Business, you can set sharing options that determine:

Whether people outside your domain can access your groups service What users can do with the service, such as whether they can create their own groups, allow their groups to receive external messages, or add external members Note: Users can always manage their own group memberships. They can remove themselves from any groups they are a member of, and depending on the group's settings, add themselves to a group. To set sharing options for Groups for Business:

Sign in to the Google Admin console. From the dashboard, go to Google Apps > Groups for Business. Click Sharing settings or Advanced settings. Select your preferences in the Sharing Options section. The following sharing options are available:

Outside this domain - access to groups This sets the highest level of access to your groups for users outside your domain:

Public on the Internet: Anyone inside or outside your domain can access your Groups service and view the list of groups in your Groups directory. They may also be able to do the following, depending on a group's access settings: View the group's information page, including its discussion archive Manage their subscriptions to the group Post messages to the group If you select this option, a new access setting called Also grant this access to anyone on the Internet becomes available on the "Create a new group" page in the Admin console and the Groups for Business service for administrators. For users, this option becomes available in the Groups for Business service only if you also select the following additional sharing options:

Group owners can allow members outside this domain Group owners can allow incoming email from outside this domain

Private: Access to your Groups service is restricted to users in your domain. However, if any groups already have external members, those members can still send email to their groups.