Understanding Microsoft 365 Groups

• Microsoft 365 groups simplify definition of which users can collaborate with each other and the services they can use for collaboration.
• Administrators should be prepared to rein in group creation to improve manageability.
• Controlling groups can require paid Azure Active Directory licensing for users.

Microsoft 365 Groups enables creation of a special type of group in Azure Active Directory (AAD) that resembles a traditional distribution group with additional characteristics. Microsoft 365 groups are used by Microsoft 365 services to automatically provision services for users added to the group. Microsoft 365 groups can introduce new licensing concerns and ironically cannot be used for group-based licensing of Microsoft 365 services.

What Are Microsoft 365 Groups?

Microsoft sometimes refers to Microsoft 365 groups as “unified groups.” Internally, Microsoft 365 groups (previously known as Office 365 groups) are just a special type of AAD group that expands the scope of an AAD distribution group. (Distribution groups are sometimes referred to as distribution lists, and Microsoft frequently uses the two terms interchangeably.)